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Brown Box Era HO-Scale Trains
E-7 Diesel Locomotive
Built by EMD, the Electro-Motive Division of General
Motors, the E-7A was an early passenger diesel locomotive. The TYCO model arrives in the 1978 catalog. MODEL RAILROADER magazine
had a small black-and-white photo of the Union Pacific City of San Francisco E-7 in its April 1978 edition. The picture accompanies
a news column detailing new items displayed in Houston for the 41st Annual Hobby Industry of America Trade Show. The E-7 displayed
at the show appears, from what one can tell from the photo, to be identical to regular production examples produced by TYCO.
The model may be all original tool-and-die work by TYCO, however it does have a resemblence to the old Hobbytown metal
shell and the Model Power plastic E-7. The E-7's last appearance is in the 1986 catalog.
This loco is unique among
TYCO units as it was never offered in a train set. Also of interest is the oddity of releasing a passenger loco at a time
when the passenger car offerings were dwindling in the TYCO line. When the E-7 arrives only Amtrak paint is available for
passenger cars, though TYCO never produced the E-7 in Amtrak...go figure! Roadnames are also among the most limited variety
of any TYCO offering with only four total. The unit featured the PowerTorque drive and was mounted on the non-prototypical
trucks first given to the Super630.
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