History: All of the second generation units were roadswitchers. The first of the second generation units were a pair of Alco RS11s in 1956, the road then bought no further units for 10 years.
The MEC hung on to most of its first generation units for a long time, except the F3s which it traded to EMD for some GP38s in 1966. The GP38s introduced a new paint scheme - Harvest Gold (a deep orange gold colour) with pine green lettering and striping, there were several different variations of this over the years.
After the GP38s in 1966/7 the MEC then waited another 9 years before buying any more new units (although it bought a few second hand first generation units). When they did it was a complete surprise - they went to GE and bought 9 U-18Bs, probably one of the most unusual second generation diesels. These 1800hp units replaced the Alco RS2/3 and S4 units. Delivered in Bicentenial year - 1976 - they became the MECs Independance Class in a modified version of the harvest gold scheme they wore a federal eagle applied to the nose and were named after figures from the Revolutionary War era.
The final units that the independent MEC purchased prior to the smothering in Guilford grey were a batch of second hand U25Bs which it bought when the Rock Island went bankrupt in 1979. They ran in their Rock Island paint schemes with just MEC stenciled hastily on the cabside for a while, before recieveing the harvest gold / dark green scheme (plus cab roof beacons and ditch lights) sometime around 1980-81. A word of warning about the green on these units - its a lot darker than the pine green that was used on the GP38s, in some photos it looks very nearly black.
Modelling options: Alco RS11s: Both Atlas and Proto 1000 have recently done nice models of the RS11. There have not been a huge number of other models previously, probably a 70's era brass import with improved drive would be next best option. I have an undec Atlas unit awaiting attention.
EMD GP38: Atlas have been offering a GP 38 for some time and is probably the option here. The other RTR offering is from Athearn's "bluebox" range - enough said. The latest version of the Atlas model with dual mode decoder is a must - its simply a work of art. Finding an MEC decorated one at a reasonable price can be tricky as they had two very limited runs, and are going for crazy prices on eBay.
Fortunately, when Atlas re-ran an updated version (with detal corrections) with two MEC numbers and I picked one up whilst there was a advantageous exchange rate. I currently own two Atlas units, one of the most recent release with DCC decoder factory painted for the MEC, and an older unit with the Roco mechanism which requires re-detailing and painting.
GE U-18B: Being unusual of course represents a problem because only Lionel has ever offered one in plastic in HO, and the 1980's Lionel model doesn't bear close inspection; brass ones are rare and pricey. I noticed on Model Railroader's "most wanted" list [Feb 2004 edition] this unit featured, it would be obvious for Stewart, Athearn or Atlas (and now Proto 2000) who already have tooling for other U-boats to offer this unit. Otherwise its a tricky kit-bash from an Athearn U-30B. I think I'll wait and see ....
... paticence is rewarded; Intermountain have now announced that they will be offering these in Fall 2007.
GE U-25B: Stewart and Athearn have both offered models of these units.
My version is a Stewart model. It started life as an undec model, although they also have done one decorated for the MEC. I am less than impressed with Stewart factory paint jobs, so this is probably the option.
Paint was relatively straighforward using Polyscale MEC Harvest Gold - this doesn't quite match that used on Atlas factory painted units. The "Pine Green" used on these units was much, much darker than previous versions used on the GP38s, certain photos show it nearly black so I added quite a fewdrops of black to their Pine Green to get anywhere near the green in the decals.
As delivered from Stewart the mechanism runs fine, but the lighting effects are coarse to say the least. I have installed beacons and replacement headlights, powered by an ESU LokSound sound and motion decoder. I rate this decoder highly, but the complimentary range of 100 ohm speakers is rather limited.
