Lionel Santa Fe E-6 diesel units info requested

Hi Steve,

We just acquired a pair of these nice diesels and are very pleased with them. I don't know what the drive system is on them but they are easily pulling about 6 passenger cars. The sounds are great and both smoke.

c.sam,

Thanks for this information.  Has a B unit been offered?  And has Lionel reissued these in Legacy?  I know that Lionel has Santa Fe PA's in Legacy.

Steve

No B unit for this one from Lionel as yet which is probably good. These beauties are 17"+ long and the two units take up quite a bit of track. We also have MTH Southern E6s in the ABA configuration but I usually run them as an AA pair.

Not in Legacy yet either...

I have a set of these in Milwaukee Road, which I believe came out at the same time as the Santa Fe. They run well enough and pull strongly. The details are fragile and require careful handling. In particular, the latch for the hatch on top, which covers the smoke filler and some switches, has a habit of coming off. There was a thread on the Milwaukee version of these engines a few weeks ago, you might want to run a search and find it. 

Has anyone converted a set of these to fixed pilots..?

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all for providing me with all this information.  I will do some searching for the Milw Rd units as mentioned by Southwest Hiawatha.

Now to track down as to who has these for sale.

Steve

VizKidz - I have fixed the pilot on the lead A unit and this is the only picture I have.

There are some issues in doing so.  I use Kadee's so for me here are the issues.  The E6's are long engines with overhang that needs a wide radius to enable the body mounted Kadee's to work. 

The good part is the pilot on the lead unit doesn't have a coupler so there is no issue to giving it a fixed pilot.  You just have to trim the pilot with a Dremel drill some holes and tap them to secure it to the frame.  I started the project before I had any track down and never went back to it, but will some day.  My project was somewhat more involved because I wanted to install an interior and some additional interior lighting.  Also, because Santa Fe usually ran these as A or A-B combos, I am breaking the A-A from Lionel to be a A-B and either an A or A-B using MTH E6 B units. 

I may fill the crack which is exaggerated a bit by the photo.  That line is not that noticeable when looking at it with the naked eye.