I was at my favorite somewhat local shop yesterday admiring the new Kato F2's. Since I model the mid 70's there is absolutely no way to justify these, but man are they pretty. It took everything I had to not walk out the door with a set. I told myself when I got back into N Scale to not fall into the "gotta have it" mentatlity , but it sure is hard. Bob
The CB&Q greybacks have got my attention since my other set which were Bmann died of sudden gear failure and for folks looking for the Rock pay attention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBKdFhIKohE
Dual headlights on all. I think the Rock Island units were delivered with single headlights. Later photos of them show they added the lower light. Don't know when that happened or what paint scheme they were in at the time. Basically the car body carried over into the early F3 and the only differences were internal. Kind of like telling the difference between an E8 and an E9.
I'm surprised they're in hobby shops already. I haven't seen them show up at any of my favorite etailers yet. Cheers, -Mark
Mark, I was surprised to see them too. This shop is only a few miles from Katos headquarters and I think they have a direct contact with them so they got a few in early. They are superb though. Bob
Is this a hobby shop? Looks to me more like it was done by Kato themselves. I doubt They'd allow anyone outside of the company to represent themselves as "KatoUSAinc". What I heard was the fellow saying they'd be shipping soon.
Didn't the "as-built" configuration for the RI units have the headlight installed in the door and just a blank plate in the upper position? http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,86754
I guess I remembered this image but it appears to be a illustration and not an actual photo. The Rock F2s were numbered 38-49.
They were delivered with two lights. Here's another Birthday pic This one's an Eastbound out of Council Bluffs, IA
Are you sure there's a lamp installed in the upper position? Neither a bulb nor reflector are apparent.
Looks like a red lens in the upper housing probably over a Mars or Gyralite. That is what the SP usually did.
Could be just a blank steel plate painted red. When talking about the RI, nothing is too weird to consider. And what's with the numberboards? As built EMD photos show small side boxes, the railfan photos have big front ones.
Love that Atlantic Coastline paint scheme. Does anyone know how far north on the east coast these units may have travelled? I need an excuse to own them!
From an earlier railroad map it appears that Richmond, and at Norfolk, VA were the terminating points. Norfolk indicates the use of car ferries to cross the Chesapeake. Whether they had trackage rights and the power went on to DC or were forwarded behind RF&P power to Washington DC I don't know. Most everything came out of DC and over the RF&P to go South and while a lot went behind RF&P power to Richmond some trains were forwarded straight through. The road did operate several trains out of New York but whether they were behind their own power I can't say.
The Rock's F2's were all retrofit with large numberboards in the early 50's. The upper (mars) headlights were blanked out as the Rock did not use oscillating lights on their freight locomotives (this all according to Louis Marre). Cheers, -Mark
