Life-Like legacy PA - it must be love....

[randgust]

As a Santa Fe fan, I've always loved Alco PA's but they were out of my 1972 era, retired in 69. 
 
But now that I have TWO ATSF brass steam locomotives (albeit the 3415 and the 3751, both still in running excursion condition today) it isn't much more of a stretch to pick up a PA just because.

So I came across an Undec on the auction site for the absurdly low price of $25 right before Christmas and bit, never actually thinking I'd get it.   And yes, I checked Spookshow first.   I got faked out, however, by the fact that I 'thought' this was the newer one as it had a knuckle coupler on the back end....not a Rapido

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/llpa.html

When it arrived.... surprise!  That was a short-shank Red Caboose coupler substituted for the Rapido and it was a first run (plastic frame).   Sigh.  I got faked out.   Not the first time.

Then I put it on the track....  After I about lifted it out of the box with a block and tackle.   That's one of the heaviest N scale locomotives I've ever seen.  And tested it..... wow, quiet and smooth.   Excellent detail on the shell.    I haven't put it on the dynamometer flatcar test yet, but I can hardly wait.   If nothing else, this one gets track-cleaning duty!   I suspect I have a record-holder even above the Kato GP38.

After years of getting new, and very light, and very wimpy locomotives....it was a shock to beam back and see what a 'chock full of lead' locomotive, with flywheels, end-axles, etc. was like again.   No DCC, no sound, pure pull-cars without track cleaning excuses goodness.    I enjoy painting and decaling so this should be fun for what little I spent here.   Maybe not as much fun as the Junker Jamco, but this is the sweet spot between the 'grinder' Con-Cor's and the 'bells and whistles' BLI that you have to push around with your fingers, or the wallet-emptying Katos.    May make this into a thread or not, we'll see, but I usually wouldn't ever call Mark's reviews underrated, this one gets a lot more from me that a "B" just because of the coupler.    Lo-pri project, but let the fun begin....

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Those old school LL engines weren't bad. They might not have been AS good as a split frame engine, but they sure were good enough for me back when they came out.

I still have a handful floating around. They're in various states of disassembly, but they remind me of fond memories.

[pdx1955]

I enjoyed mine along with my SD7's, BL2's , etc - overall good runners and great value for the price paid. One thing to say about the LL PA , is that it does represent the early air-cooled version (note that the exhaust stack is oriented 90 degrees from the Kato/BLI water cooled version.

[randgust]

Thanks for that detailing tip, as this will be one of those labor of love things where I can take the extra time.

The hard part is that for a late-era PA, these things got rode hard and put away wet.   Maybe they got TLC in the 40's, but by the 60's....

December '69 after trade-in:  https://www.railpictures.net/photo/599550/

1967 on a mail train:  https://www.railpictures.net/photo/524499/

Not complete grime, but not the 'showroom finish' either.    I'll be after that 60's look.

[Chris333]

I have a few old LL PAs with the plastic frames, all in Erie    Think they were all around $20. When I dug them out to finally use them I noticed the lower Erie yellow strip curved up at the pilot and that the whole pilot itself seemed high. I slapped on a Kato pilot, fixed the strip with a decal and touched up the paint.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uCE25uzpTovwRWU89
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sb1wsg8AqYV6Y2jD6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/c57uo7t6Cb5L67E18

The first PA1's bought buy the Erie where used to get into the Cleveland Union Terminal where no steam was allowed.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3DhRCWY1nKGXr4z78

Oh btw I bought a set of BLI PA's with DCC and sound. The grills were installed horribly and without a DCC unit I couldn't set the speed. So I sold them.

[Sharky_McSharknose]

My first decoder install was a LokSound V4.0 in a Life-Like plastic frame Alco PA, D&H #18. I had to cut through a lot of lead, but the engine is still plenty heavy and powerful. I need to replace the speaker (I accidentally got paint in it. D'oh!) but once that's done it can go back to hauling MBTA coaches like it did in '78.

[jdcolombo]

I think this says it all:

I own the ConCor/Kato PA's, the LifeLike first generation PA's, the Kato PA's, and the BLI PA's.  The Kato is probably the best running, but I'd put the LifeLike a close second, and I still run mine on the layout, because . . . they are excellent engines in all respects.  Sometimes, the good 'ol days really were good.

John C.

[Jim Starbuck]

The Milwaukee Road didn’t have any PAs but I turned a pair of these into Erie builts using modified V-Line shells. Sold one and the other is still running well.

[altohorn25]

Most of my E unit passenger power are Life-Like E6's, E7's, and E8's.  They pull a ton and are really smooth.  The plastic frame doesn't bother me; it firms right up when you snap it into the body shell.  These are very easy to add DCC to as well; 5 wires and you're done (4 if you don't have a headlight in the B units).  I remove the rear weight and build a little shelf over the rear truck gear tower to put the decoder on.  Even with half the weight removed from the loco, it will still outpull kato F units (the DCC ready ones).  I have 2 Life-Like E7's pulling my 14 car Texas Special with no problems (I added two more cars since I shot this video).

[basementcalling]

How did I miss the plastic frame version? My LL PA is split frame. Thought they all were.

My plastic frame LL F unit set, with Con Cor F3 B s by ells swapped on top of two of the 4, could pull the paint off anything when it ran pulling my 110 car stock express back in my early 20s.

[u18b]

I have a few old LL PAs with the plastic frames, all in Erie    Think they were all around $20. When I dug them out to finally use them I noticed the lower Erie yellow strip curved up at the pilot and that the whole pilot itself seemed high. I slapped on a Kato pilot, fixed the strip with a decal and touched up the paint.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uCE25uzpTovwRWU89
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sb1wsg8AqYV6Y2jD6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/c57uo7t6Cb5L67E18

The first PA1's bought buy the Erie where used to get into the Cleveland Union Terminal where no steam was allowed.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3DhRCWY1nKGXr4z78

Oh btw I bought a set of BLI PA's with DCC and sound. The grills were installed horribly and without a DCC unit I couldn't set the speed. So I sold them.

Chris,
You can really see the difference the way you displayed them.
Thanks for sharing.
Yours looks better.

[altohorn25]

How did I miss the plastic frame version? My LL PA is split frame. Thought they all were.

My plastic frame LL F unit set, with Con Cor F3 B s by ells swapped on top of two of the 4, could pull the paint off anything when it ran pulling my 110 car stock express back in my early 20s.

The second run of LL PA's were split frame - check out Spookshow's review.

[mmagliaro]

I was trailing along to a kitschy "everything" store called Uncle Joe's Woodshed in Altoona, PA, many years ago with my family.  There was an Olive Garden near it, as I recall, and sometimes, when the line was long, we would take the light-up beeper thing from the restaurant and kill the wait time at Uncle Joe's.  They actually had a section of trains.  Most of it was overpriced junk.  But one of the those early-generation LL FA-2's caught my eye.  It was about $25.  I figured "what the heck".  It had that big lead weight, only one driven truck, but heck... it actually ran really good!

Memory lane...

[OldEastRR]

If that FA had only one powered truck, it wasn't LL. All their FA versions had both trucks driven.

[peteski]

If that FA had only one powered truck, it wasn't LL. All their FA versions had both trucks driven.

Sounds like maybe Rivarossi or Rowa?  Does Spookshow have it described on his website?