I started to 'ride my horse' in my earlier post regarding the EP-5 - but restrained myself. Since you've poked at it...
, here's a short version of that rant:
If you google EP-5, you will find a bunch of photos, many of which are toy train versions at various scales of model RRs and indeed, not only will you see the legitimate NH painted versions, but Great Northern and Milwaukee Road and even in one case, Amtrak, in addition to Pennsy. You will also see that some of them are labeled "Little Joe", which is where I think some of the deliberate (?) confusion starts. The EP-5 is NOT a Little Joe (Stalin), of course. The LJ was built originally for the Soviet Union but when the cold war started, the deal was cancelled and GE had 20 (of which 14 were completed and built for the 5 ft. Soviet gauge) to try to get rid of. 12 went to Milwaukee Road, 3 to Chicago, South Shore and South Bend and 5 to Brazil. Other than being double ended, its hard to see how the EP-5 and the EP/EF-4 (Milwaukee's designation) could be confused. Vastly different carbody - the EP/EF-4 looks like it came out of a Baldwin design shop and had massive trucks in a 2-D+D-2 arrangement that pivoted with the whole frame - the EP-5 "jet" was a C+C arrangement, so six pairs of driven wheels vs eight for the Little Joe. The LJ took DC straight off the 'wire' while the EP-5 was fed by 11 kV AC and used mercury ignitron rectifiers to convert to DC. If you squint a little, the front of the EP-5 looks a bit like an Alco PA/FA.
So I dunno why Lionel - or the others - offer the EP-5 in anything other than NH colors. Rex may be right - sales and marketing. But seems to me one doesn't have to be even a once-in-a-while rivet counter to call BS on the wrong railroad and especially any confusion with the EP/EF-4 Little Joe -- a little like selling a NYC J3 hudson as a UP FEF...
- Rich
ps apparently one of the EP-5's got as far as being part of Conrail's loco inventory, but it never got repainted/relettered.
