I received an e-mail from Intermountain Railway yesterday announcing AC-8, AC-10, AC-11 and another couple of AC-12 scheduled for August/September release. The photos were not very clear on the IMRC website... and I really can't tell how much of a difference there is between the three new models. Frankly... they all look alike in the photos. Southern Pacific is my second favorite railway [close behind D&RGW]... but I know virtually nothing about their AC steamers. I have a couple of the first run AC-12 and they are really nice. At this point... just buying more of the same steamers isn't a priority... so even if these AC-8, AC-10 & AC-11 are 'different' from the AC-12... there would have to be some noticable differences to get me interested. Those of you familiar with all of the different AC steamers could help me decide whether I should consider getting any more Cab-Forward units by giving some details about the differences between the new items and the already released AC-12. I'm sure there are others lilke myself interested in the variations of AC steamers... but just haven't asked yet.
the differences between the round faced AC's were not that great. All of the Cab Forwards in AC7, 8, 10, 11, 12 had boxpox drivers, the same wheel base, weight, HP....
For some details see Steamlocomotive dot Com and references therein. Generally, the cabforwards are divided into general groups AC1-3 AC4-6 AC7-12. You can also go to N Scale Locomotive Encyclopedia to see what is available from Key. My AC3 is one of my favorite locos.... Dave
Remember AC-9 is not a cab forward type although in the same (similar?) class. IMHO, AC-9 is a beautiful engine. Only about 10-12 made for SP.
The AC9 is nothing like the other AC's, other than the fact that it is an articulated loco with 16 driving wheels. The AC9 was coal fired and built by Lima, all of the other AC's/MC's were origionally built by Baldwin and burned oil.
It will be interesting to see how this new batch of AC8, 10, 11 and 12's sell for Intermountain assuming non-SP modelers, including myself, who had only bought the AC12 for the novelty value of having something different may be thinking as Calzephyr suggested in the first post that, "just buying more of the same steamers isn't a priority". I think Kato discovered the same phenomenon with the later runs of the GS4. It is good to see them rerunning them though rather than doing a couple of runs and consigning the tooling to a dusty warehouse somewhere.
I model the Southern Pacific in the 90's (supposedly) and I intend to get 3 from this run. The first run must have sold very well for them to have rerun the same roadnumbers a second time, and now we're seeing two more AC12 numbers on this third run. That's 10 different AC12 numbers? I'm of the opinion that most modelers just love big steam locos, and don't care too much about the roadname on the side.
The AC-7 was the first of the streamlined cab forwards, it had small vents in the front with small windows similar to the flat faced AC-4/5/6's and boxpox drivers, no air horn. The AC-8 was built with large windows (most previous AC's were converted to AC-8 windows during rebuilds) larger vents and slightly different lights, it was also the first with the air horn in front. The AC-10/11/12 were pretty much clones of each other with slight differences from the AC-8. Also, SP didn't paint the front of the AC's silver until 1946, prior to this they were all black. A few AC-6's were fitted with streamlined cabs following wrecks and rebuilds. These had spoked drivers but the same size boilers as the AC-8 thru 12. I'm glad that IM is making the the AC-8/10/11 models, and they'll be offered with factory sound (awesome). That means I'll have to save some cash. I just wish I would have won an auction on an AC-5 the other day, it went relativly cheap, I could have had the entire AC lineup.
Like I said on another thread, why do I always get sucked into buying the first run.:tb-wacky: I wonder if the decoder will be a custom board or a standard Tsunami?
