Saturday, August 29, 2009

Model Power N scale FA-2 "dummy" in Santa Fe colors, circa 1977...


...only it ain't no dummy. Found at a thrift store today for $1, the box is indeed marked as an unpowered locomotive, but it was very clearly a powered unit if one only looked at it from underneath.

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I will loose no sleep tonight though...anyone familiar with Model Power knows that they are the Tyco of N scale modeling---and that would be an insult to Tyco. Their mechanisms were horrendously cheesy with their pathetic open frame motors, mounted on flexible sub-frames that are hooked up to gear drives with mechanical tolerances rivaling those of stone age tools. The fingernails to chalkboard sound as it's running would send the lead singer for Metallica screaming out of the room.

---But---it is, after all, painted in the classic Santa Fe "War bonnet" scheme and a model of one of the classier F units of the day---an Alco to boot---...and again...it was only a buck, which is like twelve cents in 1977 money.

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