BQ23-7

I heard someone talking about these engines and I can't say that I have ever seen one. Does anybody have some information on them? The person I was talking to said they were built in 1978 – 1979. Are there any pictures of these engine and are they still around?

They are all scrapped, and had a face only a mother could love.

http://www.railpictures.net/images/r/rr ... .86395.jpg

You can own an HO scale one... Bachmann made them... they are available on eBay from time to time...

http://i23.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/b0/e5/3a18_3.JPG

Otto, i loved the bq's as they are pre safty cab bordem and in a world of spartan cabs(then) they were refreshing,also i think they had personality,just dont tell those poor conductors who were forced to sit in a 2x2 foot space.anyhooow gonna miss em.Oh and Dutch isnt beauty in the eye of the beholder? dash7

Back in the day whilst visiting Baldwin Yard (Jacksonville), I happened to photograph a BQ23-7 parked cab to cab with a then new DASH 8-40CW. It was the BQ getting the funny looks from the road crews walking from the yard tracks to the office.

Otto Vondrak wrote:You can own an HO scale one... Bachmann made them... they are available on eBay from time to time..

And as a HO scale modeler living through that time, I can assure you that plenty of other contemporary modelers were preplexed and peeved that Bachmann chose that model (with a handful [10?] of prototype units) instead of a regular B23-7 (or other standard -7 series) which were around in decent numbers - definitely a 'What Were They Thinking' moment (I still don't know what were they thinking, to tell the truth - I don't recall these BQ models being big sellers).
Alas, it took into the 1990s for the RailPower GE shells to come around, and even later for RTR GEs B23-7 to appear - Grrr

Weird. There were 160+ U18Bs built and none of the model manufacturers thought there'd be any point in making one in HO or N... and yet one of them decided there was a market for the BQ?! Truly bizarre.

It looks like GE kitbashed an E60 cab onto a B23-7 unit.

"It looks like GE kitbashed an E60 cab onto a B23-7 unit."

Not surprising: GE's locomotive designers got two requests for a box-cab cab design a few years apart. Look at the various GE electric and turbine locomotives of the 1950s: there are notable similarities of cab styling there, too. ... As for details, it's not (too bad for anyone who wants to kitbash a model!) a perfect match. The front windows look more like those on the 1982-1983 E60C-2 built for the Nacionales de Mexico than like those on the earlier BM&LP and Amtrak E60.

Did any ever make it into the CSX era?

Yes:

http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails. ... toID=77963

If anyone would like drawings of this locomotive I have them,I am willing to share them .

Tom

I thought CSX made it so they couldnt lead?

MEC407 wrote:Weird. There were 160+ U18Bs built and none of the model manufacturers thought there'd be any point in making one in HO or N... and yet one of them decided there was a market for the BQ?! Truly bizarre.

Lionel offered a U18B as part of their HO line (yep, they did build HO stuff at one point) around the late 70's/ early 80's....I seem to recall hearing that their HO locos were not very well made...IIRC, some modelers "repowered" the Lionels by mounting the body shells on cut down Athearn frames..