8:55 that's what I have been looking for to replace my broken handrails for my Santa Fe GP-20. Thank you for talking about this, so I have a better understanding.

During World War II EMD as well as Fairbanks Morse provided engines for use in Navy submarines the demand was so heavy that EMD was reduced to building one locomotive per month.

Santa Fe gp7 that were dispersed to various Branch line railroads are known for the quality of the rebuildings that they have undergone making them extra super reliable.

I first rubbed elbows with the BL2 in 1952 on the Bangor and Aroostook in Presque Isle Maine while stationed at the airbase there.

When you had an engine with long nose forward originally the rear nose was chopped to make visibility to the rear better.

Great history

Delrin is a very durable plastic. Us xho guys are very familiar with this because it was used in the better grades of freight trucks on the better grade of freight cars. Very slippery very free rolling. I would prefer a metal gear but the Delran seems to hold up.

I wish Lionel had kept the metal handrails that Williams replicated I have some of my MPC gp7 with those style handrails and I find them so flimsy in comparison to the sturdy ones on the Williams. I do love the smell of ozone when you have eight of them running on four tracks. It would be nice if they had two Motors in each engine but it is what it is they had to be affordable but Lionel put one motor in the gg1 and it could barely pull a train so they had to put two Motors in them from then on. It's ironic that the one motor gg1 is more collectible because they only made so many before they discovered that it was a failure and they had to put two Motors in it for it to pull properly. I wish they had made an O scale full size gg1 diecast with twin Motors and 042 radius it could output everything I bet you if they had made it

Hey, Ohio Central! Me and my other half(she`s no longer with this world) went on an excursion from around Dover (I think) Ohio to Pittsburgh for an overnight. Costly but worth it.

I also refurbish vintage sewing machines. Many companies started using plastic gears by the mid 60s. They are terrible. No strength. I would certainly look for all metal gears. Nice video.

Norfolk and Western when they finally visualized put dual controls on every locomotive in order to save on union labor involving turnarounds and stuff like that. It was more expensive but they saved money in the long run. Nowadays with diesels one engineer does the work of 20 people in the old days. And they get paid almost nothing I would not never be an engineer nowadays not on a big line at least.

Don"t forget the GP 18

Great video. What do you use to strip the plastic shells?

They also added 6 axle trucks and designated it as an SD9.

EMD originated the road switcher with its models NW3 and NW4 prior to the Alco RS1. EMD was only allowed to produce FT's, no passenger E units (WPB would approve no builder's passenger locos) and no switchers. The first 13 RS1's were requisitioned for the Army from civilian railroads and wartime production was entirely for the Army. The BL2 was too expensive to produce and therefore too costly to buy.

The BL2 was designed by General Motors therefore it looked like a car. All of the working room inside the body of an F unit they took away. It was still functional but the frame was lightweight and you had to have it at the front of a train not in the middle of the power. Because of its failure they created the gp7

Most of the gp7s were repurposed for switchers and for short lines. They were very inexpensive. The train they used for the remake of The Fugitive the whole train locomotive included only cost $30,000. Imagine for the price of a big Harley with all the bells and whistles you could have your own train. It is a shame the railroads are not run like the interstate highway where an owner operator can buy a truck and being business why can't I buy a couple of locomotives and be in business on my own and pay a toll just like you do on a commercial Tollway. Imagine as a shipper you could have someone pick up your load and take it all the way to its final destination without having to stop at various railroads and swapping Crews and everything like that just have the locomotive stopped to refuel switch the crew then and just keep on going until it hits the destination.

The old locomotives models are rebuildable forever and there are parts available forever. With the new models cran full of expensive Electronics that won't be the case. As the electronics go out eventually you will end up with just the motors running probably forward only I would rather not pay for electronics that have a limited lifespan I find that they're a gimmick some people like them fine and dandy I just don't care for them.

How stupid to put out a locomotive without a fuel tank cheapening at its worst. I am so glad Williams copied the one with the metal handrails attached to the frame they are so much sturdier than the wire ones which you just touch and they fall off. I had to Super Glue them all together at the top and bottoms just to keep them together from not rattling off going down the train track.

Alco invented the road switcher with the rs one. The first one were requisition by the government with the start of World War and sent to Iraq to take supplies to Russia. It was cold to diesel that saved Russia. Dilworth claimed that he wanted to make an engine so ugly no railroad would have it on the main line it would be kept out in the yard where it could do useful work but it was so useful you could use it for anything I believe they made 7 or 8000 copies of it. It hard to believe the locomotive company that drove steam locomotive companies out of business is no longer in business making locomotive. They unit reduced themselves to nothing.

EMD being a division of General Motors had a huge industrial Giant backing it. They could give railroad sweetheart deals and changing from Steam to diesel where is the steam manufacturers were paid when the locomotive was bought they did not Finance railroads making purchases the way General Electric and General Motors could. There was a Salesman from Fairbanks Morse who wrote an article in trains magazine and he found that General Motors would pay twice the price for a locomotive than what Fairbanks more would pay because they wanted to sell no matter what and they figured they could put the other diesel manufacturers out of business. That happened but it was because of the Contracting railroad system we had there was less and less call for new locomotives. Penn Central mired and bankruptcy and having miles of deferred maintenance track was given government loans to buy brand new locomotives and cars that were useless on the system where everything was falling apart. But it succeeded in getting rid of all of the first generation diesels that the Penn Central had. The Penn Central should have been given money to refurbish the Diesels it had instead of being mired and further debt buying new ones it could not afford. Many older locomotives as soon as they at least was up the leashes were not renewed. I hate to see locomotives in scrap lines when they could be in useful service. The only reason a locomotive should be scrapped is if it gets wrecked and the frame is damaged then it should be stripped apart and then the frame should be scrapped and the rest of it reused. It's like throwing away a car because it needs a valve job and buying a new car it doesn't make sense at least to me it doesn't.

Yeah it's still in the catalog but now it's made in China. They can keep it. The Chinese Lionel has expensive prices and very poor quality from what I understand. $2,500 for four unit set of f units diesels and parts fall off right out of the box totally pathetic Unworthy of the name Lionel