Yikes, I'm a little late to the party. However, if anyone else is considering those awesome looking Great Northern Green and Orange F7s, here's some inspiration.

Great Northern had a decent fleet of F7s (not ATSF levels, but more than D&RGW); 63 a Units and 49 B units. For our Marklin model, we have no B unit; but the odds are in our favour. A little more inspiration from the prototype:

A-A unit pulling a (6?) car passenger train, Tacoma, Washington, July 1957. Note the UP car at the end.


Source: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=172921&nseq=15

Slight cheat, if you ignore the GP unit sitting just off frame, two A units waiting assignment in Portland, April 1969.


Source: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=498235&nseq=1

In terms of power of 2 units, here's 2 older FT units pulling a freight in 1946:



https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Northern_freight_1946.JPG

-Brandon

Prototypical excuse to mix Maerklin WP, GN, UP et al. offered by the venerable Model Railroader in special issue "Great Model Railroads 2009":

Context is the WP "Highline" which connected the WP Oakland – Salt Lake City main line at the Keddie Wye with the GN at Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Trying badly to match the F7 A-A combination offered by M*. Either the color is "wrong", or it is an A-B consist, or once the paint scheme is matching, one A unit is actually an E-type...

One more, not quiet as good due to the GP9 (?) unit on the left, but still close:


Minneapolis, MN 1970.

Source: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=383694

M* CZ

Looks like the Cascadian that ran until 1959.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadian_(train)



Here is a typical consist:

And here a shortened version:

It is about time to order a palet full of Frateschi Pullman cars and re-paint them for specific needs.
;o)

Also interesting, at least to me, the variety of flags from which the rolling stock in this film orginiates; easily seen on a few occasionas; ATSF, B&O, CB&Q, Pacifc Northwest and others. Furthermore, all of the Marklin 50" tin-plate cars have the "automatic" handbrake. Much safer for Preiserlings :)

-Brandon

One thing I always found interesting about the Pacific fruit express, made it's return trip empty. It makes sense, but surprised someone didn't think they could double their economy by loading these cars with something!

-Brandon

Yet easier, a couple of F7A in Minturn, CO. Four stripe paintjob instead of the later single stripe prospector used by Marklin, but close enough ;) Most likely waiting or having finished helper service for a run up or down Tennessee Pass.



Source: http://www.drgw.net/gallery/v/DRGWDieselContainer/F7s/DRGW5681/drgw_5681_minturn_co_unknown_000.jpg.html

Two F7A (I think, hard to see the rear unit) near Blue Mountain crossing in Colorado, March 30, 1957.



Source: http://www.drgw.net/gallery/v/DRGWDieselContainer/F7s/DRGW5704/drgw_5704_bluemountain_co_30_mar_1957_000.jpg.html

-Brandon

Almost only black and white, but no color photos of F-units with Prospector paint scheme? Here you go, have a Maerklin-compatible color photo complete with Moffat tunnel portal (never mind the B units...).

In that spirit, sometimes I find it hard to find photos of F3s in the single strip prospector livery. However, fear not, a perfect MTH 3e+and Marklin 26600 coach combo:



-Brandon

And matching caboose:

More thoughts on B units;

When looking for alternatives from other manufacturers to couple with your A units, see a few examples of Rio Grande mix and match help make a lash up that Don't have perfect matching paint jobs.

F7A+B, A has black grills, B has silver:



Another version of mixed grill colours, ABBBA:



And now, looking at the photos posted via link in the Quiz section movie guessing contest; we have a few more from this link:

"Bumblebee" F unit with gold on black leading "prospector four stripe" F units with black stripes on gold and silver roofs/boogies:



-Brandon

And if you have two MTH units (I believe I have posted this before, so I am a cheater). Note also how the nose top is green here, sometimes it's also white, or various faded versions of one or the other.



-Brandon

Had I known before starting to paint them B-units...



:o)

Two more A-A configs:


Source: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=568172&nseq=0

"For two days crews have been cleaning up the aftermath of a derailment near Tolland, just east of the Moffat Tunnel. Now, on January 30, 1966, F7A 5741 and 5744 ease down the 2 percent at Coal Creek Canyon on their way back to North Yard with the Denver wreck train. The consist includes derrick 029, outfit cars, a flat of track panels and, behind the caboose, what appears to be a Southern Pacific boxcar missing a coupler. A hospital train of damaged freight cars follows about twenty minutes behind."


Source: http://www.railpictures.net/vie...php?id=567565&nseq=1

"On a blustery April 4, 1966, F7A 5734 and a companion shove hard at Simms Street in Arvada, boosting a freight toward the distant mountains. In about 43 miles, at the Moffat Tunnel’s East Portal, the helpers will drop off and return to Denver’s North Yard. Delivered to the Grande in February, 1949, as 557D, one-fourth of an A-B-B-A set., the 1500-hp 5734 is technically intermediate between late F3 and early F7 models with updated generator and traction motors -- one of a dozen rostered by the railroad and sometimes classified (though not by the railroad or by maker EMD) as F5A’s. "

-Brandon

Thanks both of you for the great photos.
Maybe marklin will give us ABB Rio Grande F7 and a caboose the next year.

In addition to the Yampa Mail (later Yampa valley after the post office contract was lost by RRs), another one that is often short and headed by 1-2 motive units in the 60s is the "Royal Gorge" named after the route it took on the Tennesse Pass Mainline, through Royal Gorge.





Only two (I think A) units on that second one :)

-Brandon

Here's the version of the Royal Gorge I was really looking to find:

https://flic.kr/p/9B53mq

Also, the back to the Yampa Valley:



Additional and interesting information: http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=9077

-Brandon

Fresh wind, very good. How does "Royal" sound in the ears of a U.S. federalist, especially in rugged Colorado?

Now that looks like BrandonVA´s MTH A-B-B-A set !
:o)

Some reflections further to: https://www.marklin-user...e-Rio-Grande-Moffat-Road
Watching the various videos and pix presented in above thread, I was wondering about "plausible" train lengths for US themed layouts.

A) Freight Trains

The videos of the two Rio Grande N-scale layouts show three or four Geeps - sometimes even supported by two helpers pushing in the rear - hauling between one and two dozens of freight cars, respectively. Even on larger pikes, it is impossible to match the prototype by running long freight trains with 50, 100 or even more cars. Compared to H0 scale, N scale trains are more likely to be in full view, thus need to be longer to look plausible. Using view blocks and tunnels to avoid having a full view of a train helps of course to fool the eye. When switching to H0 scale US stock, I soon abandoned my initial plan to employ more realistic 40 ft box car models by Maerklin/Trix due to "zinc pest“ inflicted warping and shifted to less realistic but more rugged 50 ft tin plate models - which are also easier to (un-)couple.

Looking at 50 ft models, my - biased - experience for freight trains is as follows:

F7 loco to 50 ft freight car ratio

---

1 to 3 = minimum
1 to 4 = balanced
1 to 5 = impressive
1 to 6 = looks really long

Thus, a minimum F7 loco to car ratio is 1 to 3, i.e. a F7 A-B-B-A lash-up should pull at least 12 (50 ft) freight cars (plus caboose) to look right, which would translate to 15 freight cars when using 40 ft exemplars. However, from my aesthetic point of view, that is borderline: the longer, the better. E.g., a F7 A-B-B-A with 14 (50 ft) freight cars (plus caboose) looks about right while 16 are perfect, and 20 (50 ft) box cars lead to a "wow" factor. Everything longer is pure luxury for the eyes (and a challenge on tight curves on a grade).

Anyway, the result is still a long train. An A-B-B-A loco with 12 cars and caboose occupies ca. 300 cm of track, with 16 cars and caboose that becomes already 380 cm. I resolved this by coiling sidings around curves. E.g., the circumference of a full R2 circle (12 x 24230 track segments) measures 270 cm, which "absorbs" already a lot. Since US stock has no buffers, a freight train parked on a R2 curve is a pleasant view.


(B) Passenger trains

For passenger trains, the rule of thumb is a ratio of 1 to 2, thus a F7 A-B-B-A makes a bella figure with eight coaches. And for the Alco PA, there is the example of the Santa Fe double-header pulling the very short but long-distance three-car (1 x baggage plus 2 x coach) Grand Canyon streamliner train at the end of the 1960s...

:o)

Rio Grande would also like us to "use our head".



-Brandon

Marklin friendly ATSF freight in Eastern Colorado, check out the colours on those boxcars:



"ATSF 35 - Jul 2 1965 - northbound freight N of Sedalia Colo"

It's rough out there in the wild west. They didn't pull any punches with this one, seems working for Rio Grande was a rougher life than GN!

-Brandon

Märklin 37976 MIKADO 2-8-2