BLI Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad (GM&O) E7s and Erie E8s

[Sokramiketes]

I get the sense that Mr Amling is into the great streamliner era of the mid 1950's into the 1960's.  Similar to Lowell Smith's interests, but more Chicago focused.

Which is awesome.  Hope he fills many gaps in passenger rosters over time.

What else is awesome?  Radio Equipped lightning bolts.  Glad to hear they may make it to production. 

[Sokramiketes]

Oh, and make sure they come with Freight pilots too.  Looks like a flat passenger pilot on the renderings.

Isn't making trains fun?

[Sokramiketes]

And on the GM&O side, eventually we need these later ones... large numberboards and later lettering. 

 

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-DeRouin-Collection/GMO/i-5NrR3kX/A

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-DeRouin-Collection/GMO/i-9Vhk8rX/A

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-DeRouin-Collection/GMO/i-nLRCFMQ/A

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-DeRouin-Collection/GMO/i-Rbsz6nL/A


GM&O is a tough railroad to model, at least on the passenger front.  Lots of weird equipment. 

[Mark5]

Oh, and make sure they come with Freight pilots too.  Looks like a flat passenger pilot on the renderings.

Good call. Recently Kato really missed the boat and did a "Kobo" Wabash E8 1009 with the wrong pilot: https://store.katousa.com/product/n-emd-e8a-wabash-1009-with-esu-lok-sound (Kato has a shell with the correct pilot - don't know how they missed that!  )

The real 1009 https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeross/49376351778

[Sokramiketes]

Good call. Recently Kato really missed the boat and did a "Kobo" Wabash E8 1009 with the wrong pilot: https://store.katousa.com/product/n-emd-e8a-wabash-1009-with-esu-lok-sound (Kato has a shell with the correct pilot - don't know how they missed that!  )

The real 1009 https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeross/49376351778

Yeah, I need to swap pilots and respray the blue (darker) on mine. 

[CBQ Fan]

It' should be there when you add it to your cart.

I refreshed my browser and it was there!  Order placed for GM&O!

[Peter Amling]

Oh, and make sure they come with Freight pilots too.  Looks like a flat passenger pilot on the renderings.

Isn't making trains fun?

Hahaha. It sure is. I appreciate everyone on this forum trying to correct mistakes before they happen. I'll contact BLI about having the Erie use freight pilots.

[Peter Amling]

I get the sense that Mr Amling is into the great streamliner era of the mid 1950's into the 1960's.  Similar to Lowell Smith's interests, but more Chicago focused.

Which is awesome.  Hope he fills many gaps in passenger rosters over time.

What else is awesome?  Radio Equipped lightning bolts.  Glad to hear they may make it to production.

You nailed it. Chicago focused passenger equipment of the 1940s and beyond. There are numerous gaps. If anyone has suggestions for future models, please post them here or PM me. I may put out a poll at some point. I have a roadmap but knowing where other folks interest lies will help steer future announcements.

Lowell definitely inspired me to start this process. And I appreciate all he's done to further the cause, especially tooling new models.

[kscessandriver]

Purely on a selfish level, I’d love to see more NKP and Wabash stuff. I do like what you’re doing so far, here’s to many successful ventures.

[CBQ Fan]

This is a pre-order situation. However they are not conditional. They are being delivered along with all the other BLI E7s and E8s in the spring. The tentative date is May 2025.

BLI’s website is saying 2026 for the E units and several other models. It looks like a typo to me! 

[R L Smith]

So this is a case where trying to focus on a specific time and place just saved me several hundred dollars. Lightning bolts and freight pilots put the Erie units beyond the May 1952 cutoff date for my layout. 


<Avoids looking in the box containing 1972-era EL locos, cars and caboose...>   

Ron

[thomasjmdavis]

So this is a case where trying to focus on a specific time and place just saved me several hundred dollars. Lightning bolts and freight pilots put the Erie units beyond the May 1952 cutoff date for my layout. 


<Avoids looking in the box containing 1972-era EL locos, cars and caboose...>   

Ron

Ron, are the freight pilots a mid-50s alteration? If so, do you know when they were installed?

EDIT- I found the answer to the first part with a 1951 photo of 825- https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~tubbs/history/ErieLackawanna/173-07.JPG where the unit clearly has a passenger pilot.  All the photos I found dated 1957 or later show freight pilots.  But would be good to know (modeling 1955-56) the date(s) of the changeover. Thanks in advance.

[Mark5]

Tom,

Interesting. All the photos I can find have freight pilots - maybe 825 had a road crossing incident and had it replaced with the passenger pilot? (Erie experts chime in!).

Counter to that theory, there is a photo below of 825 from 1960 with freight pilot. 

828 April 1960 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4766858
821 Nov 1960 https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/loco/erie0821lbC.jpg
825 Nov 1960 https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/loco/erie0825bbb.jpg
823 Feb 1957 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4664718
820 fairly fresh paint: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3098991

Looks like all Erie E8s were built between Jan'50 and Mar'51. So, were they all built with passenger pilots, then converted in mass to freight pilots?

[Sokramiketes]

Interesting, mostly pilots stayed the same over the life of the unit... but Erie must have felt the need to change?

One possible solution... the two pilots seem to be molded at the same time on a sprue.  Undec units used to come with both variants.  And they snap right onto the Broadway units.

If BLI included both and color matched them?  *chef kiss*

[Peter Amling]

So this is a case where trying to focus on a specific time and place just saved me several hundred dollars. Lightning bolts and freight pilots put the Erie units beyond the May 1952 cutoff date for my layout. 


<Avoids looking in the box containing 1972-era EL locos, cars and caboose...>   

Ron

It looks like they were all delivered with passenger pilots. So in the box they will have passenger pilots and no lightning bolt. TheLightning bolts will be a decal and we will include a freight pilot in the box. It looks like they were switched out in the late 1950s.