N scale "little" challengers

[PiperguyUMD]

So I just found this on the Athearn site

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH22932

 I'm a little out of the loop so I'm not sure how recent these where announced but it has me wondering... How far are these from the challengers that Baldwin build for the WM, Clinchfield and the D&RGW?  Is it close enough that fans of those roads should start hounding Athearn to do a run of those roads?

Thanks!

[wm3798]

The WM Challengers had a significantly different front, with a steel "rock knocker" pilot, air reservoirs and radiators up there.  And the tender was more of an eastern type.  I modified an old Rivarossi Challenger for the WMRHS, fixing some of these discrepancies.  Note, I didn't mess with the steam or sand domes, I was going for a reasonably close appearance with a reasonable amount of work...


Not exactly museum quality, but certainly looked less UP when I was done with it.

A better look, perhaps...



Here's a broad side, which also shows the etched brass All Weather Cab sides that Chris333 did for the project.  The tender was actually stock ConCor/Rivarossi, and is (I believe) the same one they used on their Nickel Plate Berkshire.  It looked close enough to me to keep as is, although their paint was a little thick on the lettering.


The more or less finished project.

I suppose if you did away with the UP tender and applied a reasonable amount of paint, you could call it satisfactory, but without that plow pilot, it wouldn't look right to me.

Lee

[Cajonpassfan]

This is exciting, to see Athearn developing a new model on an existing (and proven) mechanism! Maybe more versions are possible? I'm still hoping for the early UP versions.

I minor note: I wouldn't call theese the "little" Challenger; these were the later versions built during WWII and the locomotive was a virtual duplicate of the Northern Pacific Z-8 class, and there is nothing little about it. (The pre-war locos were sometimes called "little challengers" to differentiate them from the more modern and slightly heavier designs).
In any case, if this is real, I am thrilled!
Otto K.

[wcfn100]

These were announce a year ago.  D&RGW is one of the roads.

Jason

[sd45elect2000]

I always thought it would be neat to see the D&H challengers, I don't think they are that far off from the UP engines.

Randy

[Joetrain59]

Randy, I'd like to see D&H too. But their Challengers were very unique looking. Try looking at The Fallen Flags site for pix, and you will see.
 Joe D

[ncbqguy]

Looking at the Athearn announcement they are not doing "Little" Challengers in N, but have confirmed that the previously announced NP and SP&S will not be just UP tooling with those road names
In HO they are doing the early UP 4-6-6-4s  but so far haven't announced them in N.
Charlie Vlk

[PiperguyUMD]

I guess my thinking is this:

It has been confirmed these shells are from new tooling.

The basic boiler profile and cab of the SP&S version is very similar to the locomotives on the WM, one class on the D&RGW, and one class on the Clinchfield. Granted these would need different tenders and details.  What do you think the chances are that Athearn might produce a run of some more easternly roads?