For those of us that have painted and decaled our own Frisco engines, or intend to again, IMHO, one of the greatest needs in HO (as well as the other scales) right now is a decal set for the original and simplified black and yellow scheme WITH the stripes included. Aka: The defunct Oddballs set. Oddballs is dead. No way around that, so need to beat that dead horse anymore. (Besides, the Oddballs set was too "lemon" yellow.) At this point, I have several HO hood unit/switcher projects on the shelf slated to become Frisco units, but there are NO DECALS for them. This sucks, mightily. My hope/plea is for SOMEONE with the know-how and wherewithal to PLEASE step up and help out us "roll yer own" modelers. Such a set in HO would be worth many $$ to me, and I will need many sets. Help us Obi-Wan (where ever you are), for you're our only hope.
I'm an N scaler but both HO and N Frisco modelers need some believable passenger cars, especially head end and RPO cars without having to scratch-bash every single type of Frisco car from Athearn and Rivarossi-IHC etc. body shells. That goes for both HW and LW cars. To make even a small "pike size" Frisco passenger train like a Firefly or Sunnyland you have to custom-bash nearly everything! Which I've done and probably most of you have too! Tom G.
I'll speak for the steam guys. Steam loco's that are plastic (instead of the outrageous brass) that are accurate. There has been a couple of models made by bachmann and BLI, and several by IHC, but none of them are accurate to the frisco as far as I can tell. Ethan
My mistake, I should have specified "diesel". Steam will always be in the minority, modeling wise. Just the way it is. I've modeled steam at times and this has always proven to be the case. My original post was about an inexpensive (compared to models/etc) "staple" item that almost all Frisco diesel modeler's need: A decal set(s) that contains a variety of lettering, numbers, and striping, for black and yellow hood/switcher units. Without those, we're pretty much screwed in regards to turning out a reasonably accurate representation of a unit using available models. As for "dream mode" (i.e. completely new models), we all have them... but I was talking about a relatively inexpensive obstacle that is a PITA for those of us that want to create specific diesel engines that were among the most common schemes to the Frisco. Schemes that spanned the greatest amount of time: Black w/yellow striping.
I'm with Tom. We need passenger cars and passenger car decals. Microscale makes a nice set for E7 and E8 units, but nothing for pass cars. GS
Older thread, though I too am still interested in heavyweight passenger car decals (gold). So... "bump"...
That would be nice, Bill. Personally, I'd like to see a run of streamlined passenger cars. Every month when the Walthers Flyer arrives, I half expect to see a model of ol' No. 1 on the cover. But I don't think it's ever going to happen, and I'm not sure why. The '50's streamliner era seems to do well for them. They've done a number of releases over the past few years, but never anything Frisco. Why? It seems that there would be sufficient interest in a Texas Special set, more so than say the Pere Marquette. Instead, it the same old thing over and over again....Empire Builder, C&O, B&O, Pennsy (just sounds cute), Hiawatha, El Capitan, Super Chief, San Francisco Chief, Pittsburg Chief, Empire Chief, Broadway Chief, Local Chief.... Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
I recall talking with a Walters guy over the phone right after they bought the Lifelike P2K business. He said they would be concerned about adding the fluting to the early E7's on a mass production basis. The later Racehorse E7's would be even worse - custom sides required. Ken
I would like to see more arch roof heavyweight passenger cars. I had to bash a Walthers Modernized paired window coach with an arch roofed coach to come up with what I wanted. Or if nothing else, sell us the arch roofs.
Branchline (now under Atlas) has a nice paired-window coach that will easily pass for Frisco. Two or three of these with minor details done differently would help to build a small roster for those "Pike-Size" passenger trains. Tom G.
If you have the time to wade through the Bethlehem Car Works website, there are several HO craftsman kits that can be detailed into Frisco "look" passenger cars. Tom G.
I recently bought a Rivarossi 60' baggage car with clerestory roof lettered for ATSF which I am relettering for Frisco. The car is close to the Frisco 60' baggage cars I have pictures of with the only obvious issues of both doors being the same width, narrow letter board, and the steps being on the inside rather than outside of the doors. I may have to live with these inaccuracies because the trucks will impact the steps if I move them to the correct outside position of the doors, and I haven't figured out how to narrow one of the doors without messing up the car side. Also, Walthers has announced a new ACF baggage car with arch roof which I think would also make a good Frisco car with some slight modifications and repainting. I will probably buy two or three of them to modify as they look pretty good. I will check out at the Bethlehem Car Works website to see if I can find something else I could use. Terry
