Norfolk Southern OCS on a "smaller" scale.

[blue flag]

I am new to modeling trains/sets and know next to nothing about them, but I am very interested in starting the NS OCS ABBA set of locos and then work on the office car consist, i see that Athearn offers 4270,71,75 & 76.  How much trouble will I have in getting or detailing the office cars themselves? And will I be able to make the set travel in the same direction w/ the locos pointing in different directions, can I turn a cab around on its trucks, is that something I can do?

[Jim]

First welcome to railroad Modeling!  Let me see if I can help you out a bit. 
First the ABA set offered by Athearn I believe is ready to run with the B unit not being powered.

To my knowledge you will have to make your own set of passenger cars as these Norfolk Southerns
have not been produced.   

[blue flag]

thanks for the welcome! Jim,
I have looked at the Athearn website and in thinking about it, I may decide to scale back alittle bit from my first ideas and just get 1 set of the A-B units.  ~~ Is there any quality differences between the model train manufactors?  Is it a bad idea to use 2 locomotives together made by different manufactors?

[Jim]

To be honest if you are not going to run any steep grades or pull any huge trains you could purchase an AB set with only the A being powered.    I believe you can pickup the NS OCS AB for $48.95
This is not DCC equiped of course but it would still be ok even if your tracl was dcc.

I have not heard of any issues running engines of different manufactorers, most of us do it all the time.

Most of these manufactors make different product lines for all types of budgets.   Athearn's ready to run or RTR product line is like their introductory line.  When you go to their website you will see what I mean.   The more you pay, the more you get .  Its all what you want. 

[stillbre]

The only issues I've ever had with running locomotives from different brands together is with Proto 2000 models.  The earlier runs of GP units all had "Athearn clone" drives.  They should run fine with most stuff.  Same with the E-units and SD7/9s which have "Kato-clone" drives.  Starting with the SD50/60s, Proto 2000 started what some people call the gear-ratio-of-the-month club.  If I remember right, the SD50/60s run way too fast, the SD45s run way too slow, and the U28/30Bs run even slower.  I forget what they used on the GP38-2s but I don't think they run with anything either, I never bought any so I'm not sure.
Athearn has been using the same drive since the 1960s or 70s without any problems.  They aren't as smooth running as other drives but that can be fixed with a few basic tricks.  All Atlas, Kato, and Stewart products use the same basic Kato design for their drives and run silky smooth.  Athearn and Kato drives have similar gear ratios so their isn't any issue runing them together.
If you're running DCC though you can mess with the speed tables and get everything to run together but I don't mess with that stuff since I have nothing but Athearn and Kato drives anyway.
For shell quality, Proto 2000 has issues again.  They by far have the most add-on details but the only shells they've gotten reasonably accurate are the EMD switchers, E7s, GP30s, GP60s, and SD45s but even they have issues.  The GP38-2s and SD50/60s are the worst culprits for FUBARed shells.  Kato shells have some crude details but overall decent.  Atlas shells have no major issues other than the Alco switchers.  No issues with Athearn shells either.  The RTR line is pretty good but not as nice as the Genesis line.  The RTR F7s are the same shells Athearn has been producing since the 1960s with a little updating.  The Genesis F7s are Highliner shells on Genesis drives.  They are hands down the nicest F-units on the market.  Unfortunately Athearn doesn't do the NS scheme on the Genesis F-units yet.  It all just depends on how much money you want to sink into the project and how much detail you want.

[blue flag]

Thank you for the information!! Im sure ill have many more questions, but I wanted to tell you that I walked into a model train hobby shop yesterday and bought the athearn 4271&76 AB units, they didnt have the 70&75.  so i've officially started!!
~~For the OCS cars, I noticed the PRR coach cars are ruffly the same color, could I decal over (shell scale) the pennsy writing and come up w/ something that would look decent?? or do you think athearn will produce the cars and I would be better off waiting for the cars??

[Jim]

Thats your call but to be honest I dont think you would be happy with that approach a year from now.   
If you have any modeling skills at all I would recommend painting up your own.  Mr Walker in this forum shows you his which were done by hacking up Rivarossi cars, and look very good.  I have also begun building a set using mostly Walthers cars.

You could pick up some PRR Rivarossi cars off of ebay, strip them down, repaint them and then decal them. 
It comes down to how close to you want to get to the real thing and how much are you willing to spend to get there.   for more ideas visit my site at www.southernexchange.net   

[NW_611]

If I was still into MSTS I could skin those coaches and boxcars for you and we'd have a good NS executive train, all we would need is the F units and a decent passenger car shape file.

Get back into it, would you? There's already a set of NSR F-units running around that're decent. There's at least one or two reasonably modern passenger car model sets available, and there's probably an easily available full-length dome shape out there as well. The trick will be the theater car, but it might be do-able with FreightAnim wizardry.

[ns_7011]

I always thought the P2K SD50/60's ran very slow. The new Atlas C40-8's run too fast, I have 4, 2 new and 2 old, and the new ones run way faster than the old ones.

[stillbre]

I always thought the P2K SD50/60's ran very slow. The new Atlas C40-8's run too fast, I have 4, 2 new and 2 old, and the new ones run way faster than the old ones.

Possibly.  I never purchased any P2K SD60s since I knew Athearn had them on the way.  If indeed the 50/60 run slow then its the SD45 that runs too fast.  Both drives have some sort of funky compound gearing that makes it difficult to fix.  I do have four P2K SD45s that I plan on running as a matched set.
I haven't noticed any issues with my Atlas C40-8s.  The only time I've ever run my two NS units was in a solid set by themselves so I don't have anything to compare them with.  Next time the modular group gets together I'll have to remember to take them along and run them with some other Athearn and Kato power.