This is a Bachmann DCC equipped "HO" GP 30 Diesel Locomotive, Pennsylvania #2208.  These locomotives were built between 1961 and 1963.  I got this one because it was the cheapest I could find with DCC, and I wanted to try one out.  I don't think I had any DCC locomotives at the time.  I had a Bachmann E-Z Command DCC system and was just getting into DCC.  It's nicely detailed for a cheap model, and it does DCC; however, the motor is noisy because the DCC is so lousy and cheap, and it's not my favorite locomotive.  I may operate on it and take out all the Bachmann DCC stuff and put in a proper board, and then it may be more satisfactory.

This was my first attempt at installing DCC into a locomotive.  I thought it would be somewhat easy since there was a plug for it, but alas, things were not as simple as they appeared.  But you can see the video of how I installed my decoder and wired up my ditch lights.  And it eventually went all right, except for the fact that I melted my plow and the trucks somewhat.  However, maybe that just adds to the coolness.  It's definitely unique.  It looks like it ran into a car.

I bought this for $45 at modeltrainstuff.com in 2014.  Walthers made these and they were pretty cheap and looked nice.  But they were getting hard to find.  Also, they were only DC and not the new DCC, so they were cheaper.  It was my intention, and still is, to convert it to DCC, possibly with sound.  I will probably use a drop-in board of some kind.

The General Motors EMD F40PH was built from 1975 to 1992 and used by Amtrak everywhere, including in its Surfliners.  The designation "F40PH" stood for the following: "F" for the full-width cowl carbody, "40" as the locomotive is part of EMD's 40-series (based on the GP40-2 freight locomotive), "P" for passenger service, and "H" for head-end power. 

Interesting story here.  I bought this online from Trainmaster by Werner Meer which is in Kilchberg, Zürich, Switzerland (The same place of the world famous Lindt & Sprungli chocolate).  This is not far from Griefensee, which is where I lived for one year as a kid.  The price was (Swiss Francs) sFr. 100.00. It was on sale with 20 % discount. So the price was sFr. 80.00 (approx. $67.00). Plus postage: economy was sFr. 24.00 ($ 20.00) or priority sFr. 39.00 ($ 33.00).

He wrote to me in April of 2007 ... "My last visit to San Diego was in October 2005. We went to the Balboa Museum and took a tour on USS Midway - very impressive! Afterwards, we did some railfaning in Cajon Pass for several days and went to Tehachapi as well. I really love the Mojave desert."

I wrote him back:  "I received the train on Saturday.  Thanks for sending it so promptly.  I tried it out on my track, but it barely budged.  The wheels were tarnished pretty bad, so took them out (the directions showed how to do that) then I used Tarnix to clean most of it off, then a Dremmel tool to further polish them up.  After that the engine worked beautifully.  I have a picture of it on my track.  It doesn't have the plow or other glue-on pieces, and it's pulling the Coaster coaches.

Interesting to hear of your visit to San Diego and your railfanning adventures.  A few weeks ago I took my wife and two kids to Williams Arizona to ride the train to the Grand Canyon.  It's a two-hour ride, 60 miles, and a fun thing to do if you ever get out here again.  They run steam engines in the summer.  It's not a fast, smooth ride like on the Coaster, but kind of slow and bumpy like the "good old days".  It cuts across a huge ranch, and the scenery probably hasn't changed much since 1901 when the railroad first opened.  On the ride up they play music and entertain you, and on the ride back they rob you.  Lots of fun.

Here's a link to the San Diego Swiss Club:  http://www.sdswissclub.com. The neighbor of mine belongs to that and also collects trains.  When I was 8, we lived in Griefensee near Zurich for one year, and the neighbor kid who lived above us got a train for Christmas, and I wanted one ever since then.  I wasn't allowed to touch it, just to watch, but it sure sparked my interest.  Lately I've started taking it up as a hobby, and when I went looking for Coaster trains I found they had all been pretty much sold out.  I scoured the internet and found your site for the locomotive, and another site for the cars.  My next step will probably be to build a bigger layout and go DCC.  Maybe next year. "

I got these two locomotives from a friend who's father once owned them and had since passed away.  The older brother had kept all his dad's good stuff, and the younger brother, who was probably about 60, had what was left and was trying to sell them.  So I bought these two for maybe $10, and thought I could use them.  However, they didn't run very well, so I put them in storage.

Then one day I decided to try to get the switcher locomotive to run better.  I took it all apart, but got frustrated and threw the whole thing away.  My son saw it in the trash in the garage and took it out.  He didn't know why I threw it away, so I decided to try again.  This time I fixed the electrical issues and now I have it running on my Timesaver Track.  It's my favorite locomotive to run on that.  It's runs on plain old DC voltage, and I will likely never upgrade it.

The second locomotive is also a DC locomotive, and I probably won't upgrade that one either.  It is a Santa Fe F7 locomotive in the "bluebonnet" color scheme; however, I like the old red and silver from the Super Chief better.  I haven't figured out a place for this one yet as it doesn't seem to fit in well with anything I got.

General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) made the F7 from 1949 to 1953.   It was used to pull freight, but also used to pull passenger cars.  I like the streamlined look, and it reminds me of trains I would see in children's books when I was young. 

Both of them are kind of nice in that they have people on them, and I will probably keep them as DC locomotives and not upgrade to DCC.

I "won" this for $108 on eBay back in 2014 when I started buying more than I could figure out what to do with.  It was considered "new", and was a pretty good price for that since it had sound.  This was an Atlas Master Series Locomotive, which means it was pretty much upgraded to the max, with figures inside the cab, lots of details on the locomotive, and DCC with high quality sound.  I like to use this sometimes on my Timesaver track, and other places if I can squeeze a switcher onto the layout somewhere.

The General Motors EMD MP15DC was built between 1974 and 1980 and was used to pull small groups of cars in a train yard.  The name means "Multi-Purpose locomotive, 1500 hp, DC generator".  It's Multi-Purpose designation meant it could also be used as a Road Locomotive since it had a top speed of 60 mph.  

This is another Atlas Master Series Gold locomotive that I bought in 2014 off of eBay.  I paid $140 and it was considered "new in box".  However, it was not new and was missing a magnetic wand to reset it, and I think had the bell broken.  So with eBay you take your chances.  Still, once I got it working on the track, I liked it.  It had very good sound and ran smoothly.  Like the switcher engine, also from Atlas, it had people inside, lots of detail, and nice sound and smooth operation.  A top-notch locomotive.

The EMD SD-24 locomotive had 2,400 hp and was built from 1958 to 1962.  They were turbo-charged and were high-powered compared to similar locomotives at the time.  In general, they were considered Road Locomotives.

Probably my favorite train is the Santa Fe Super Chief.  This is the second Super Chief I bought, and it was a definite step up from the first.  This had a "B"unit and the details were pretty nice.  I bought it at a local train shop and it was a pretty inexpensive Athearn locomotive that I could probably afford, no problem.  I also bought a bunch of $12 Athearn Super Chief cars to go along with it.  The main problem in the looks department was the large gap between the A and B units.  However, this could probably be made to look better.  So overall, not bad, but room for improvement.

The General Motors EMD F7 locomotives were built from 1949 to 1953 and had 1500 hp.  There were 2,393 A units and 1,463 B units produced.   The F7's looked a lot like the F3's except they had a slightly sharper nose.  

After buying the Athearn Super Chief and all the cars, I went and bought another Super Chief from Precision Craft Models.  This had a Loksound decoder for great sound, and the details were great.  Both A and B units were powered too.  I forget how much I paid for it, but it was a bit.  Still, it was worth it, I think.

The General Motors EMD F3 locomotives were built between 1945 and 1949 and had 1500 hp.  1,111 A units were built, and a little more than half that number of B units.   There were 2,393 A units and 1,463 B units produced.   The F3's looked a lot like the F7's except they had a slightly more rounded nose.