by Tony Cook/photos by the author except as noted
There was a time when the list of diesel locomotive types yet to be addressed by manufacturers with a plastic model release in HO scale was a lengthy roster. In recent years, many examples that might have once been quickly labeled as “You’ll never see that made!” are now common offerings. A great example is Electro-Motive Division’s (EMD) rare SDL39 built for The Milwaukee Road. This interesting six-axle is a “Museum Quality” branded effort from ScaleTrains produced in plastic, and no longer restricted to the world of expensive hand-crafted brass replicas. The coming ScaleTrains’ SD45X is another great example of an odd duck diesel available soon in HO. Rapido Trains’ FL9 dual electric-diesel locomotive is another solid example, produced only for New Haven and spending the majority of its career in New York-area commuter service until the last examples were retired in the early 21st century. Canada’s own GMD-1 switchers are another example from Rapido once relegated to the wish lists for those modeling the lightly used branch lines of Canadian National and Northern Alberta Railways. Broadway Limited Imports’ sleek EA is another from the General Motors family that I recall drooling over in my youth, when Hallmark Models imported this in HO brass, but would surely never be mass-produced in plastic? Today, my collection includes an Alton Railroad; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio; and Santa Fe early E-units in plastic from Broadway Limited; a pair of ScaleTrains Milwaukee Road SDL39s; and FL9s in Amtrak and New Haven “McGinnis” schemes from Rapido Trains.
Given today’s plethora of plastic diesel locomotive model options, there are still some untouchables among this popular builder’s catalog. With focus remaining on General Motors’ (GM) EMD output, what would you name as the top three examples that might be candidates for impossible selections as fully assembled, decorated, plastic models in HO scale?
Having recently completed a look at Nickel Plate Products’ Rock Island Rocket set for the new 2024 HO Collector Annual, I was eyeing the little four-axle TA diesel locomotive included in this release and began thinking about this elusive group and shrinking club of never-released locomotives, and share three GM examples produced as handcrafted brass imports that I would rate as long shots for a plastic model release.
ABOVE: This early 1970s brass import by Nickel Plate Products is a simple rendition, but faithful to the dramatic streamlined styling of the prototype. It remains one of the few TA models available.
I’ll begin with the oldest prototype, and that’s the Rock Island-only TA diesel locomotive. Built in 1937, only six of these 60’10” units existed. They were the product of EMD forerunner Electro-Motive Corp. and pulled Rock Island’s original three- and four-car stainless steel Budd-built trainsets. Rock Island’s fleet (601-606) enjoyed about two decades of service before retirement in the late 1950s.
The Nickel Plate Products effort, produced by Kumata in Japan, was to my knowledge the first TA diesel locomotive in HO. This brass replica came assembled and decorated in Rock Island Rocket livery. The rendering is rather basic, but the striking look of the prototype comes through well in this mid-1970s offering. In the 1990s, another brass Rocket set arrived in HO, and is, I believe, the second and only other occasion for this four-axle passenger puller to appear in 1:87.
The early passenger diesel locomotives in the E-series begin with the EA and E1 that arrived at the same time as the TA. Like the little TA, there were also only six EAs built — all for Baltimore & Ohio — while GM sold eight E1s to Santa Fe. Both roads bought booster B-units to go with them. While the TA had similar numbers to those Es, and Rock Island is a well-loved railroad, I would speculate the trucks and chassis might be the most prohibitive aspect of this four-axle streamlined beauty coming to ready-to-run HO plastic release. Broadway Limited was able to borrow from its existing and more common E7 and E8 toolings to aid in creating its sleek EA/E1 offerings, but this situation may not hold true for compatible elements from another locomotive to help move the TA to release. In addition to Nickel Plate Products, Railway Classics imported Rock Island’s TA and matching cars in the 1990s in several versions.
ABOVE: The only two examples of EMD’s RS-1325 were built for coal-hauler Chicago & Illinois Midland. Brass importer Trains, Inc., produced the only HO scale model of this unit in the late 1960s.
Selections two and three in my survey are EMDs from the early 1960s. This era saw the change from first-generation to second-generation diesel locomotives, and certainly has been visited many times by numerous manufacturers; and there are a wide range of HO plastic models depicting these prototypes going back to when the real locomotives were new and just hitting the rails (think TYCO’s GP20 or Athearn’s GP30). Though EMD models are common, there are a few that have slipped by plastic model manufacturers.
I was speaking recently with Dennis Bartholow of The Division Point, and he noted the solid response to his company’s brass import runs for obscure NW3 and NW5 prototypes. There were seven NW3s built for Great Northern (GN) and this 12-cylinder road switcher possessed the end-cab look of later EMD switchers, but was longer and rode on Blomberg four-axle trucks. The NW5 saw a baker’s dozen built with 10 to GN, two for Union Belt of Detroit, and one to Southern Railway. The NW5 included its steam generator placed outside of the cab (the NW3 has an elongated cab that housed crew and water-boiling equipment) with a switcher hood opposite the steam generator end.
But those NW offerings are not my pick here. In the style of EMD’s NW3 and NW5 came the RS-1325. This 52-foot four-axle road switcher looks like a typical end-cab switcher with a GP20 nose added on a longer frame. The concept was an updated entry in the modest passenger switcher category. EMD’s RS-1325 rode on four-axle Flexicoil trucks versus the Blombergs under the NW3/NW5. Though EMD’s aim may have been to see its RS-1325 replace the likes of Santa Fe’s Alco switchers or Fairbanks-Morse H16-44s, or similar aging power handling passenger shuffling assignments in Chicago, the only two RS-1325s built ended up on passenger-free Chicago & Illinois Midland (C&IM) in central Illinois…