Features:
Rapido Trains Inc. is proud to be able to add the much requested freight FB-2 and dual-service FPB-2 locomotives to its range of museum quality Alco/MLW cab units. Now you can partner your first run A-units with matching Bs to the same high standard. Yes, what manufacturer is crazy enough to bring out not one B-unit on its own, but two? Rapido, that's who! And technically there are four! (GMD F7B and F9B, Alco/MLW FB-2 and FPB-2). And we're not just making paint schemes to match our first run locomotives, we're offering those to match our second run too!
Alco/MLW built around 230 B-units which were mostly ordered with A-units in matched sets, usually in fours (A+B+B+A) or in threes (A+B+A). However there were a few notable examples of FB-2s that were constructed to supplement existing fleets of FA-1 cabs. The New Haven was the most famous railroad to only buy FB-2s, and we've added the whole fleet of five units to our range, in two paint schemes! The fortunes of the FB-2 and FPB-2s mostly mirrored the lives of the A-units and most lasted well into the 1960s, with a few notable examples keeping theirs right to the end of Alco/MLW cab unit operation. This included a sizable fleet of New York Central and New Haven Bs that were still operational into the first years of the Penn Central. One FB-2 was even repainted PC black, which we're offering as a special PC 50th anniversary release. In Canada the Bs lasted even longer with Canadian Pacific's fleet eventually being retired in 1977.
Rapido’s model will include:
- Correct water/fuel tank combination for the FPB-2 available in two styles
- Alco or MLW small fuel tank for FB-2
- With or without dynamic brakes
- Vertical or horizontal battery box louvers
- Etched metal wire mesh or Farr side grilles
- With or without back-up light
- Accurate underbody piping and conduit
- Canadian or American cast Type B trucks
- DC/Silent (21-pin DCC Ready)
- Factory-installed Macdonald-Cartier couplers mounted at the correct height
