@Alec_6460 posted:I know it's a pipe dream, but another run of their awesome Santa Fe 3700-class 2-8-4s and 3800-class 2-10-2s. I wasn't really in the hobby then, and buying 3rd Rail products on eBay is a very hit or miss proposition. Would buy two road numbers of each, at least.
I assume the 3700-class re-run you seek is for a 4-8-2 wheel arrangement (Mountain).
OTOH, It would be my preference to have a first run of the 4101-class 2-8-4's (Berkshire), one of only two classes of that wheel arrangement on the Santa Fe. The other class, 4193, of which there were only 7 engines, were obtained from the Boston & Maine during wartime with those unusual visor-like Coffin feedwater heaters. FWIW, the 4101-class engines built by Baldwin were rather ho-hum in performance compared with the red-headed stepchildren, all built by Lima. However, it was too late to breathe second life into steam-thinking...diesels were the fast becoming the favorite sons and recipients of huge orders postwar.
Sunset 3rd Rail has already made a run of the Santa Fe 4193 class locomotive...as well as the B&M and SP versions. As lackluster as the 4101-class was in the greater scheme of power on the AT&SF, something different in an 8-drivered Whyte arrangement gets my vote. Not holding my breath, however. Scott tried to get enough reservations for an AT&SF 2-6-2, several classes and 238 engines of which roamed nearly every corner of that railroad throughout the first part of the last century. Sadlly, not enough interest, the reservations were terminated. Too bad, too.....would've been a great engine size for smaller layouts, sharper radii curves, etc., etc.. If a wheel arrangement used on 238 engines of a major railroad can't foster enough 1:48 interest, I doubt there's any future in modeling the 4101-class 2-8-4, of which there were a total of 15 engines. PFM, OTOH, made several runs of that engine in HO back in the 50's-60's.
Second runs on steam engines from 3rd Rail??? Has that ever been done? Can't recall any time it happened.
Keep watching the auctions.
KD
