Atlas released a pair of "red" and white U25Bs in the early 1990s. This was the first or second run of U25Bs, and are Kato built units. The correct color for these units (and all Frisco units in the Orange and White scheme) is much more orange than red, and the U25's are really pretty bad. I've actually been trying to convince Atlas to produce a few units in black and yellow scheme. They are doing black and yellow GP7s in HO, so there is hope for us N-scalers as well. Paul
Just an update, since I've been made aware of a few items of interest... From Atlas, we're getting locomotives in June and July. In June, MP15DCs. Road numbers 362 and 364, plus an unnumbered unit. In July U25Bs. Road numbers 808 and 815. From Intermountain, there are a couple of freight car releases. There was a release of drop bottom gondolas that arrived in November or December (I missed the announcement for these) road numbers 50182,50194,50238 ,50276,50305 and 50339. These are listed as out of stock at Intermountain, but dealers like Rio Grand Hobbies list them as available. There is a release of 4750 Cubic foot hoppers due out in March. I don't have the road number list on these From Athearn there have been a few freight cars announced and/or released within the last year. 4 road numbers of 60 foot auto parts cars - 2 with roofwaks 2 without. Some or all of these have already been released (I have 2 with roofwalks). Road numbers are 9003,9008,9016, and 9024. The new gondolas were already mentioned - road numbers on these are 65159 and 65170 53' bulkhead flatcars, road numbers 5658 and 5674. Speaking of flatcars, I noticed there was something missing from my earlier list of releases - Atlas had released it's pulpwood flatcars in Frisco paint. They ave released a total of 3 road numbers. From Red Caboose, there has been an announcement of Evans Coil cars in Frisco paint, road numbers: 69050, 69053, 69056, 69059, 69061, 69067, 69070, 69072, 69074 Since I mentioned the upcomming intermountain covered hoppers, There's an older release of Red Caboose covered hoppers that are still available from Red Caboose. These have road numbers 79632, 79643, 79654, 79660, 79677, 79685. Paul
On the what's new front since the last update... Atlas has 2 more numbers coming out on the 90/100 ton hoppers. MTL released a 100 ton hopper in Frisco Paint. Same paint job as the Atlas cars, with the later sans-serif reporting marks, road number 88470. Intermountain has announced FMC rib sided boxcars in 6 numbers. These are due January 2007. Athearn has also releaed 3-bay PS-2 covered hoppers with 3 road numbers. Paul
Ok, I'm really excited now. Atlas Announced on October 5,2006 N-scale VO-1000s in Frisco paint. Road numbers 218 and 219. see http://www.atlasrr.com/NLoco/nvo10003.htm Estimated delivery on these is April 2007. Paul
Atlas just made another Frisco announcment today... For August 2007 delivery... Frisco (AT&N) RS-1s in two road numbers see: http://www.atlasrr.com/NLoco/nrs1c.htm Paul
How can we get the manufacturers to consider making some F3 and F7 black and yellow units? Thanks, Jim
By writing lots of letters and sending lots and lotsof emails expressing desire for black & yellow Frisco F-units in N. Matter of fact, some GP35s with "torpedo-boat" air tanks would look nice, too.........they were first delivered in yellow & black, and later repainted. Geez, this thread looks like a Trainboard moderator's meeting.....
I think we will eventually see F3s and/or F7s from intermountain. They released them in HO scale, so they have all the artwork. BTW, some other new items are due before too long... LifeLike announced RS-2s in two numbers, which are due any day now. Athearn announced 50' plug door boxcars in two numbers, which are due in November Walthers announced GSC 54' flatcars which are due in October. I believe 3 numbers ( a single and a two pack ) will be available. Paul
Hello everyone; I received my Walthers/Life-like Proto RS-2s a couple of days ago. What a difference a year or so makes. These engines are as good as my Kato's and this I kid you not. I took the shell off and low and behold is a frame that is a replica of the Kato RS-2 frame except for the Life-like logo cast onto it. The biggest suprise is it takes the Digitrax decoder DN163K2 that the Kato uses! Must be a copyright infringement here somewhere. They run superb on DC and on DCC, with a good noise level without the Kato whine. I was impressed with the way these are made. The body details are great and the paint is in line with Atlas and Kato and Intermountain. I was a bit peaved that the handrails are black, but then I looked at the schematic and discovered they are seperate from the walkway sans HO. If Walthers would just mix a batch of yellow paint and mold a few this engine would be an almost exact replica as delivered Frisco RS-2. The side numberboards have engine numbers in them and the Frisco covered these over after delivery and went to the 45 degree ones mounted on the end, but in N-scale beggers can't be tooo choosy. I hope a lot of my fellow n-scalers will buy these units just so Walthers will get the message that Frisco n-scalers are out here and want things to spend our money on. Dale
Has anyone tried to ever come up with a listing of all n scale frisco cars and engines manufactured with car numbers included and the years they were made if available? This thread is a good starting point along with the catalogs of manufacturers and distributors. If it has not been done it would be a worthy project for forum members.
It'd be a BIG job! Over the years there have been some good true-to-prototype N scale Frisco models produced, but you'd have to sort out the silly, fictitious paint schemes from the various maufacturers--The Con-Cor "Frisco" passenger cars (in the all siver scheme) and their Texas Special "dome" car come to mind. But don't get me started... Tom
The compilation would be a good place to point those errors out but still account for them. I would like to see someone do this like Tom McComas and James Tuohy did for the Lionel Collectors Guide and History. The good thing is N scale hasn't been around that long speaking relatively. The early years didn't have much variety either. I have an Atlas catalog from 1980. It is just a few pages thick. A database here would be a good idea.
The NTrak organization has a "tune-up tips" and repair book for N scale steam locomotives covering engines from the early days of "N" (and all their shortcomings). That might be a place to start for someone interested in compiling a list. Tom
I wrote just such an article for the Museum newsletter 4/1998 and have purchased everything done in Frisco since then, (as far as I know) not counting bogus items like the Concor all silver cars. Give me a little time and I should be able to come up with a list
Tim, I started in N scale in 1975 and began concentrating on the SLSF in 1986. Getting some of the items that came and went before 1986 was a real chore. I have about 250 different factory produced SLSF items. Is there any specific format that members would prefer? text, spreadsheet etc?
Here's the MoPac list. Would be nice to know the number series that cars fit in, as I have a lot of box cars and gons to renumber. http://www.mopac.org/models_n.asp
