Texas Special E units

Discussion in 'Electo-Motive Division (EMD)' started by skyraider, Dec 11, 2022.

  1. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Were Texas Special units made in plastic or are the Hallmark brass ones the only ones? Proto 2000 did a boat load of E units 25ish years ago, but they weren't plated, I don't think.

    Did the Hallmark units run well? How much do the cost on average? It would be nice to have a pair (A-B or A-A--either is fine with me) and they would look good on our west Texas layout.

    Thanks in advance.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  2. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    The Texas Special units were only made in brass as far as I know. Typical of brass, they did run very well or quietly out of the box, and the motors draw too much current for DCC decoders in general, so re-motoring is a necessity.
     
    friscomike, Sirfoldalot and skyraider like this.
  3. gstout

    gstout Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Yeah, I have the old Hallmark units. The do not run well, and they're noisy, so their permanent home is on a shelf. Conversely, you could use a Proto 2000 E7 and apply corrugated sides from Union Station Products (https://unionstationproducts.com/fluting/) and have a reasonably convincing model.

    GS
     
  4. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks to both of you. Maybe I'll start looking for a couple of Proto 2000 (with good gears, hopefully) and think about that corrugated siding.
     
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  5. RK24

    RK24 Member

    Short of the pickups falling off on one of my Hallmark/KMT E7s, they actually run decently. Needs a bit of grease, but they already had can motors.

    But yeah, otherwise you're stuck with Proto E8s or modified E7s. I do have a Model Power E8, but it's its own bucket of problems.
     
    mountaincreekar and skyraider like this.

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