Model Railroading > Modeling an older era today....or the lack there of.

Having been away from Ho scale modeling for years, I find it rather confusing as to what exactly is available and whats not. I got a few of my Santa Fe F units out and blew the dust off and am in the process of fixing them up. After that I thought about adding to what I have.....that is until I saw what little is available. The only one I could find is the Athearn Genisis model like the one shown.That's a great looking model and have already ordered one. I like the yellow and silver Fs but it lookslike MTH has LONG since sold out and Athearns is over a year away! Does anyone know of any GOOD quality models that are actually availabe now? And please don't mention E-bay......I've already looked.

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There is a F-7  #304 in warbonnet paint for sale on ebay right now.  Just bide your time as there have been many of them on Ebay this year.  There is also another blue watbonnet listed as well.

Now there isa another F-7 a  #42 and a seperate listing for a B unit.   So that makes 3 on ebay today.

Have it custom painted

Buy the Highliner shell kit, and find a Stewart/Bowser/Kato F-unit drive (or model and scrap the shell, although it isn't too awful).

I'm doing this to build my SP F-unit fleet. Although Athearn has released the F7 in SP Black Widow, they've only done the early phase F7. The order I need to model (those assigned to the Coast Division in 1953 were all class DF6) were slightly later, and had the rounded corner cab doors.

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

Broadway Limited has red and silver Fs. They would be about equal to the MTH, but not up to Genesis, Walthers Proto, or Intermountain.

If you are returning to the hobby I hope you have done some study on the electrics which have changed all but totally in the last ten years. Straight DC which I'm guessing you have with your former equipment, is still available, but rapidly disappearing from the market. A new locomotive from anyone no matter how it is equipped electrically will not play well with vintage equipment on DC.

Arved Wrote:
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> Buy the Highliner shell kit, and find a
> Stewart/Bowser/Kato F-unit drive (or model and
> scrap the shell, although it isn't too awful).
>
> I'm doing this to build my SP F-unit fleet.
> Although Athearn has released the F7 in SP Black
> Widow, they've only done the early phase F7. The
> order I need to model (those assigned to the Coast
> Division in 1953 were all class DF6) were slightly
> later, and had the rounded corner cab doors.

Highly reccomend the Highliner shell kit. You can build anything from an F2 to an F9 with it.
Real handy when you're modelling a road like the Santa Fe who had a habit of mixing and matching things like radiator and dynamic brake fans.

Handy Santa Fe F7/9 phase chart: http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/CF7frames/F7Phases/F7phase.html
 

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

Arved Wrote:
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> Handy Santa Fe F7/9 phase chart:
> http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/CF7frames/F7Phases/
> F7phase.html
>  

The only safe way is to have photos of the unit you're modelling for the year you're modelling it.
Things could change drastically over a period as short as a year.