El Capitan with ALCO PA-1?

[Oenckie]

Hi all,

At the moment I have an ALCO PA-1/PB-1 set from Kato, in the livery of Santa Fe.
I can get the El Capitan set from Kato for a really good price.
I would like to combine these two sets, as I really like the looks of both.

Now I'm wondering if the El Capitan has ever used this combination.
Anyone that knows this?

Regards and thanks,

Marco

[Missaberoad]

I stand to be corrected but as a rule no...

However, the PA1s were used on the San Fransico Chief which used the same hi level cars (among a mix of other "hand me down" equipment) so you can definitely run them together and look correct...



https://www.american-rails.com/san-fran.html

[Oenckie]

Cool thanks!

All I need now is two more PB-1s 

[thomasjmdavis]

Thanks for hunting up that great photo, Missaberoad.

Marco- On the question of use of PAs on an El Capitan with hi level cars-

The combination you suggest, while rare in real life - is certainly plausible, and a great start on future passenger train modeling.  A lot of us who were modeling in N scale in earlier days powered our passenger trains with the Con-Cor PA (made by Kato), simply because it was the best running N scale passenger engine available at the time.  And the PA is such a handsome locomotive, I rather suspect it powers many more trains in N scale than it did in real life.

As a sidebar, I am trying to model (more or less- at this point a lot of stand ins) plausible consists for a day of operations at Dearborn station, in Chicago.  I gave up on my original intent to model a day in 1949, partly because of the lack of steam locos in N scale, but mostly because Kato released their 1953 Super Chief. So I moved my "target" date to 1953.  A few years later, they released the El Capitan Hi Level cars.  Well, riding those cars to California and back for vacations as a teenager are fond memories for me, and the 1953 date jumped to 1956, because I just could not pass up owning and operating those cars. 

If you want to model "typical consists" at a later date, you can acquire some F7s for your El Capitan, and a collection of head end and a couple heavyweights and some other odds and ends and build up a Grand Canyon to power with the PAs.

[jagged ben]

I stand to be corrected but as a rule no...

However, the PA1s were used on the San Fransico Chief which used the same hi level cars (among a mix of other "hand me down" equipment) so you can definitely run them together and look correct...



https://www.american-rails.com/san-fran.html

Thanks for that link. I collect photos of the SF Chief because it's a train I model, and I somehow didn't have that one yet.

For a proper 1960s SF Chief consist you'd use two Hi-Level step down coaches with up to two hi-Level coaches in between.   You'd also have the big dome (Bachmann if you can't do better), a single-level diner, some single-level sleepers on the tail end, and assorted baggage cars up front.     Of what's available in N scale, Kato 'Regal' and 'Pine' would be most accurate for the sleepers.   Kato made diner #1481 which is also accurate for this train.  The train often also had additional single level coaches up front, and Con-Cor has made some in the 2800 series which are accurate.   (A myriad of other cars were used on the SF Chief but have not been made in N scale.)

Note that the fifth higher-level car in the photo is the Budd Big Dome, a la the Bachmann model.

It seems possible that the El Capitan ran with PAs on rare occasions, I found one online reference with someone claiming to have seen it in 1959.  No photos I could find though.  My guess is that it only would have happened because they somehow got caught out without F7s.

[C855B]

... it only would have happened because they somehow got caught out without F7s.

Yep. Too many Chiefs, not enough engines.

[jagged ben]

Yep. Too many Chiefs, not enough engines.

Grooaan.   

[MK]

Hiss, boooo!   

[Steveruger45]

Yep. Too many Chiefs, not enough engines.

Ha ha, I love it.