Looking for WW2 era locomotive


P

Perry

New Member
Hi All,

I have been looking for a WW2 era locomotive for my new layout and not having much luck. The Big Boy and Challenger steam loco's that I have found are out of my price range. Could someone suggest a diesel loco that I could use. $100 to $125 would be nice. I have seen pewter tanks and such on ebay that I can paint for flat cars and that is what I would like to do. As always any suggestions would be appreciated.

Perry
 
Are you looking for locomotives being used on American railroads, or some of the Military Transportation Command's locos used overseas in the European Theator? The former would be as photoman475 said. But, also any number of steam locomotives were being used. You might try to look on e-bay at some Mantua steamers, which can be had fairly reasonably. You also might look for some of the old Athearn blue box diesels, although they are F7's. But they run well, and probably can be found realatively inexpensively. As for the military locomotives, the U.S. Army used a bunch of 2-8-0. You can look up photos of these, as the headlight arrangement was a bit different.
 
Rather than Pewter vehicles look into Roco Minitanks available on eBay and elsewhere, much more appropriate and a giant selection from all nations.
 
Is this to be in N Scale like the Kato setup you're getting? And are you planning multiple eras? I ask because the Kato set is a lot newer than WW2. Not being critical, just trying to clarify.
 
DairyStateDad said:
Is this to be in N Scale like the Kato setup you're getting? And are you planning multiple eras? I ask because the Kato set is a lot newer than WW2. Not being critical, just trying to clarify.
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No it's not. I was having second thoughts about the Kato but I'm not finding what I want in WW2 so I may stay with the kato. Being new I don't want to buy used from Ebay and not know how to make things work.
 
Perry said:
I have been looking for a WW2 era locomotive for my new layout .... Could someone suggest a diesel loco that I could use.
Click to expand...
There were many more one-off and unique units on the rails that I've not included, plus ignoring the Zephyr and other articulated type equipment, production units that were on the rails in 1941 are:
Alco: Any of the box cab and HH series, S1 and S2, RS1, and the DL109 but it was considered a passenger unit
EMD: NW through NW4, SC, SW, SW1, T, TR through TR2, E series through E6 once again passenger units, and the FT.
Baldwin: VO-660 & VO1000, DS4-4-660
GE: much harder to enumerate. Basically early box cabs, and 23-ton, 25-ton and 45-ton switchers.

Someone indicated you were in N-scale. Bachmann makes a nice Mountain and Consolidated steam engine. Kato makes a 2-8-2. Any reason you aren't considering these instead of the 4-6-6-4 beasts? For a bit more $ Bachmann makes a 2-10-2.

Here is an NW2....
http://factorydirecttrains.com/Bachmann61653NewYorkCentral8769-NW-2Switcher-DCCNScale.aspx
 
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How about this: Kato #176-2125 EMD F7A Santa Fe "Yellow Bonnet". I could repaint olive drab and make it look military with decals?
 
Iron Horseman said:
There were many more one-off and unique units on the rails that I've not included, plus ignoring the Zephyr and other articulated type equipment, production units that were on the rails in 1941 are:
Alco: Any of the box cab and HH series, S1 and S2, RS1, and the DL109 but it was considered a passenger unit
EMD: NW through NW4, SC, SW, SW1, T, TR through TR2, E series through E6 once again passenger units, and the FT.
Baldwin: VO-660 & VO1000, DS4-4-660
GE: much harder to enumerate. Basically early box cabs, and 23-ton, 25-ton and 45-ton switchers.

Someone indicated you were in N-scale. Bachmann makes a nice Mountain and Consolidated steam engine. Kato makes a 2-8-2. Any reason you aren't considering these instead of the 4-6-6-4 beasts? For a bit more $ Bachmann makes a 2-10-2.

Here is an NW2....
http://factorydirecttrains.com/Bachmann61653NewYorkCentral8769-NW-2Switcher-DCCNScale.aspx
Click to expand...

I like that Kato 2-8-2. I was hoping to do all Kato. From what I've read that's the good stuff.
 
Thank you everybody. This is driving me crazy. It would be so easy to just get that Kato set I was looking at but then I can't model ww2 and that's my interest.
 
From everything I've heard complimenting Kato stuff, I've wished they would do steam in HO!

Perry said:
Thank you everybody. This is driving me crazy. It would be so easy to just get that Kato set I was looking at but then I can't model ww2 and that's my interest.
Click to expand...
 
The Kato M1 track I'm looking at has a 12 3/8 radius. Of the locomotives we've talked about here what will make that radius?
 
Noticed your comment about painting a loco olive drab ...........generally army locos only operated on military bases. When the military trains moved, they were pulled by locos from whatever RR owned the tracks. I have a WW2 freight with vehicles and also a troop train. I pull the freight with an ABBA set of FTs and the passenger with either a 4-6-4 or a 4-8-4 steamer.
 
Well, I can tell you that on some railroads during that time, they were using all types of steamers. The town I grew up in was on a route to a port. This was the Gulf Division of the Southern Railway in Al. During the war, military trains would come in from Birmingham, Al pulled by the largest locos on the property, the 2-8-8-2's. While they could come in to town, they couldn't go any further south, due to severe loading restrictions on several major bridges. So, the big locos would come in, pulling these 100-120 car trains, and to get these trains further south, they were broken up into trains of 15-20 cars, pulled by small 2-8-0's, 4-6-0's and even 4-4-0's, not relegated to passenger service. Most of these smaller engines were built in the 1870 to 1900 time period.

So steam wise, you could run almost any type of steamer. IH gave you a great run down on diesels appropriate for that time. So the Bachmann steamers would be more than appropriate for that period.
 
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