Scale Trains HO UP U50C

[Mark5]

Announced at Amherst:

https://www.scaletrains.com/ho-scale/ho-scale-locomotives/museum-quality-ho-scale-ge-u50c.html?availability=40

[C855B]

Clearly, Shane is taunting me. When this is ported to N, my wallet will go up in flames.

(Vivid memories of watching braces of three running through Cajon Pass. These were very short-lived due to their aluminum wiring.)

[James Costello]

Clearly, Shane is taunting me. When this is ported to N, my wallet will go up in flames.

(Vivid memories of watching braces of three running through Cajon Pass. These were very short-lived due to their aluminum wiring.)

That must have been something @C855B - the full sensory experience I imagine.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/693745/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/71202/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/70847/

They always looked like prime candidates for awesome weathering jobs.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/70849/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/729331/

[C855B]

That must have been something @C855B - the full sensory experience I imagine.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/693745/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/71202/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/70847/

They always looked like prime candidates for awesome weathering jobs.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/70849/
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/729331/

You certainly know how to sweet-talk a guy, James! 

"Sensory experience" is exactly right.

Most vivid is a buddy and I left home early for an NMRA meet at a live-steamer park, with plans to stop for a camping breakfast at Cajon Summit. It was the summer of 1970, so the U50Cs were brand-new. He pulled out his Coleman stove and fried-up scrambled eggs and Jimmy Dean sausage just as the sun was coming up. We were sitting on the tailgate of his pickup soaking up the ambiance, and were able to set down our plates just in time for a westbound with three on the point.

I had Dad's 8mm movie camera, and tried my best... from the wrong side... to film the passing train. All I got were silhouettes, but, still, what an experience.

[C855B]

ST's presentation video is full of lineside clips. The first one is where I frequently railfanned, the split between the eastbound and westbound tracks at Cajon (siding). Several clips have them as trailing units only, which was their fate relatively early in their short running lives.

I got a chuckle from the clips at the end showing the model running green class lights. The U50Cs ran long after UP abandoned timetable operations, so there was never any use for the "section following" indication. No mention of anything other than white in the 1972 rule book, Rule 21.

[C855B]

 I pre-ordered #5000 - yes, HO - just because it is simply too cool of a model to not have one, even if it's going to be a shelf queen.

Sent a note begging for them to do it in N, promising my first born if they do. Don't know if he's gonna go along with that idea considering he's nearly 40 years old now. 

[kiwi_al]

I pre-ordered #5000 - yes, HO - just because it is simply too cool of a model to not have one, even if it's going to be a shelf queen.

Sent a note begging for them to do it in N, promising my first born if they do. Don't know if he's gonna go along with that idea considering he's nearly 40 years old now. 

They will do it in N because I'm kitbashing one and I don't even model the UP but they are just too cool. I'll taunt Shane when I'm further along.

[Olivani]

I'm kitbashing one - they are just too cool.

Not as cool as a Fiat 124 thou   

[up1950s]

Ha , I had an unpainted brass one of these when I was in HO .

[C855B]

Ha , I had an unpainted brass one of these when I was in HO .

I have one of those. Alco Models. I was on an eBay binge well over a decade ago scrounging for their models of UP double diesels. By some miracle I managed to acquire one of each: DD35, DDA35, DDA40X, U50, U50C, C855, and the nearly-impossible-to-find C855B. Pretty certain I didn't pay more than $200 for any of 'em. They'll make for a nifty museum-style display case, once I get the roundtuit. Currently on a bookshelf in our living room.

As models, they are what they are, reflecting the state of "inexpensive" HO brass diesels in the '70s and '80s. It's why I ordered the ST version, which leaves the old Alco Models versions in the dust, even as just a shelf queen.

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[lock4244]

I pre-ordered #5000 - yes, HO - just because it is simply too cool of a model to not have one, even if it's going to be a shelf queen.

Sent a note begging for them to do it in N, promising my first born if they do. Don't know if he's gonna go along with that idea considering he's nearly 40 years old now. 

Oh, how many times have I considered doing the same, but never able to pull the trigger? More than I can recall. I tip my hat to you. The Bowser HO MLW C-630M/M-630/M-636 line was about as close as I've come to actually buying something HO. The Aurora HR-616 is still a possibility, but I resist. Thing is, I know if the old man had decided in 1984 that we were going to be HO scaler's instead of N scaler's, I'd be a lot further along in representing (equipment-wise at the least) my memories of being a 13 year-old at trackside. I'm a little annoyed at his decision. I'm not getting any younger, and it's been 25 years since I started to seriously collect N scale equipment for the late 1980's in southern Ontario, and the gaps are many. Freight car wise it's not too bad (maybe 50% there), but locomotives are another story... 5% maybe. Sigh.

[kiwi_al]

Not as cool as a Fiat 124 thou   

Oh man what did you have to say that for. I have Italian car withdrawal symptoms after having to sell my 2 old Fiats when I moved house!!!

[wmcbride]

Oh man what did you have to say that for. I have Italian car withdrawal symptoms after having to sell my 2 old Fiats when I moved house!!!

I had a 1973 Fiat 124 Spyder in dark red with beige leather interior. That car was so smooth that I could set a glass of water on the hood while the engine was running and there were no ripples. I got it up to 125 mph one evening on a deserted,flat, wide-open road out in the country. I probably could have gone faster but that was enough for me.

That said, weird UP engines like the U50s are so ugly they are cool.

[Olivani]

Oh man what did you have to say that for. I have Italian car withdrawal symptoms after having to sell my 2 old Fiats when I moved house!!!

I did not know that 

[C855B]

 

Pshaw! You Italian car guys haven't railfanned until you've chased steam in an X-1/9. And then a 308*. There is a 100% possibility that the X-1/9 - my only car at the time - was trackside when U50Cs were on the point on something in Cajon Pass.

Between my wife and I, we've owned five: two 850s, the aforementioned Bertone, likewise the Ferrari, and the very rare 850-based Lombardi Grand Prix.

* - Still beating the bushes for photographs of my fiancée and and I chasing the N&W 611 in the 308 on an Atlanta to Chattanooga excursion in 1988.