I finally got my first locomotive that has frisco paint! It's a athearn RTR GP40-2. I bought it at trainland hobbies and he literally had an overstock of them, he had to have had at least 50+. What was your first frisco locomotive?
Howdy, My first Frisco loco was an Athearn F unit in black and yellow. I recall that Doug Hughes came for a visit to my new layout while he was in Dallas and I couldn't get it to run. I had worked on the layout for so long that I had neglected maintenance of my equipment. Have fun, mike
In the "good old days", if one wanted a Frisco locomotive, you had to buy a kit and decorate it Frisco yourself. There was some brass steam available - Toby 1500's, PFM 1600's, USRA 4000's, but little else then (mid-1960's). My very first Frisco locomotive, in 1962 as I recall, was a Mantua 0-6-0 kit built and decorated as SLSF 36-hundred something. It wasn't real true to the prototype, but it ran well and had Frisco on the cab sides and a coonskin on the smoke box. I used either Walthers or Champ decals. In the early 1970's, in a moment of weakness and poverty, I sold it to a friend at work, along with most of the rest of my HO stuff. Had to buy baby formula you know! I tried to buy the stuff back a couple of times a few years later for sentimental reasons when I got back into the hobby, but to no avail. The man's son apparently loved the stuff, so I guess I should feel good about that. As far as I know, he still has it. Like Mike, my first Frisco diesel was an Athearn F7A-F7B set, painted by hand in SLSF black & yellow, with Walthers decals for the side grills. I detailed them with the Walthers detail kit, and they turned out pretty well. Still have them - they sit now as a couple of dummies - the original Athearn drive (rubber band!) was long ago discarded as worthless. The units look fine until you put them up alongside a Genesis F3, or the IRC or Stewart F's! One compromise I made was to not remove the d/b - that would have been beyond my skills at the time. Ken
I bought an Proto 2000 E8 from Trainworld, solely because my wife saw the flyer and said it was pretty. That's what got me into modeling the Frisco--chance and coincidences.
My first locomotive was the Aristo-Craft Frisco 4013 a 2-8-2 steam locomotive. Still runs strong today. You will come to love and hate DCC wiring is simple, mostly the hardest part was putting in all the decoders in my older engines. Best of luck and always remember Ship it on the Frisco!!! Murphy Millican
My first locomotive was my dad's, but now that he's into N-Scale it's mine. It's a Model Power Santa Fe FA-2. As far as the Frisco goes, it was the first run of the N-Scale Atlas B30-7 (#864). Since then I've accumulated more. Currently I am trying to gather Frisco passenger equipment for HO-Scale.
My first Frisco Loco was an un-deco Athearn GP-7 that I painted using Testors Spray Can. It was deep reddish-orange that closely matched the Frisco color. I wish that I could remember what the color was. That was 40 years ago. I used dry transfer for the lettering. I still have the loco. It's still a good runner, and puller.
C'mon guys, fess up. How many of you were like me, and were ecstatic to get your first Frisco diesel, an AHM GP18
My first SLSF loco was a Toby 1500. I had just gone to work for the CB&Q in Chicago and I bought it at the wonderful old All-Nations Hobby Shop that was located just inside the Loop in downtown. It was back in the days before we understood that you just put things on a credit card, and since it was a lot of money (for then) I bought it on lay-away. I've long ago forgotten what I paid for it, and how much I was paying down each week, but remember that it sure seemed like a long time before I finally walked out of the shop with it in my hands. You'll see a photo of it in Gordon's Album, now numbered 1518 and the recipient of some of Don Wirth's magic. Gordon
I just had a sobering thought -- my Toby 1500 model is now almost as old as the prototype was when I bought the model in 1968! Think about it. Ouch. Gordon
My first Frisco engine was a PFM Russian Decapod, which came out while I was in the Army in Germany. A friend back home got it for me at dealer's cost and held it until I came home. I guess the next "bought" engine was a Toby 1500 that I think I paid $58 for. They listed for $74.50 when they came out. I'm like Gordon, I can't believe how long ago that was.
My first was an Athearn SW1500 custom-painted by someone in Springfield, Mo. My second was a Proto 2000 E8 Big Red #2020.
John, If I remember the printing on the box, Pacific Fast Mail (PFM) and Toby (whoever that was) imported an HO version of the 1500 series mountains. Probably the most beautiful steam engine ever created in model or prototype. I think only 100 were imported and Don Wirth probably has 70 of them. Here is the website link to the 1500 page to you can see these locomotives and see just how great they really are. http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?t=464 Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
Two Frisco 1500 Toby's on the roster here - obtained early on in my second life as a model railroader (1979 on). The first I got a real good deal on, the second I paid through the nose for, but it was worth it. Don applied his magic to each of them, and SLSF 1522 and SLSF 1519 live on and are beautiful. Plus they run well to boot! Love the wide smokebox door on 1519. Later on, I had a third, from the late Bud Garner, SLSF 1526 (or 27?), but I sold it. It didn't look right along side the other two. I wonder how many of us in Frisco.org have Toby's done as SLSF 1522? The standard bearer, certainly, is Don's own 1522. Ken
I have two that I bought from Jester several years ago each with a beautiful Don Wirth paint job. I have 1522 (but then so does everyone else) and 1525 (I think). Steve Campbell of Tulsa has two as well. So if Ken has two, where are the other 94? Frisco Faster Freight! Rick
PFM made 500 of the 1500s so there are quite a few running around still. Right now I have the 1502, 1518 and of course 1522. I have another one put aside to make the 1508 some day. Schwink has one of them, also 1522 and I think Gordon has a couple. Years ago I cut up one of them to make the 4146. It lives in Australia now with Jeff. Hope it's giving him good service.
