In April 2022, I learned that the Intermountain Railway of Longmont, Colorado, was going to make an HO scale model of 93. I reserved mine and waited until April 2024 before it arrived in the mail.
Santa Fe Southern 93 started life in 1952 as Louisville & Nashville 414, a GP7. It was later renumbered to LN #2304. It was rebuilt and renumbered to SCL GP16 #4804 in 1982. When the merger frenzy started, it became CSXT #1850, then moved on to Minnesota Valley #1850, before finally landing in New Mexico as SFS #93 in 1993.
The Santa Fe Southern began operations in 1992, after the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ended operations on its Lamy to Santa Fe branch line and a group of local business people purchased the track to continue freight service in the area. Passenger service was added later on.
On October 8, 2010, the railroad was purchased by STI-Global, Ltd., an Australian-based company, that said the purchase would allow it to test the safety systems the company produces.
On May 20, 2011, the railroad was evicted from its headquarters at the depot in Santa Fe to make way for a new visitors' center planned to serve New Mexico Rail Runner passengers.
On April 24, 2014, the Las Vegas Railway Express (LVRE) announced that it had reached an agreement with the Santa Fe Southern to jointly operate excursion trains that summer. LVRE would provide the capital to restore the line to operating condition, while Santa Fe Southern would operate the trains.
On September 26, 2014, despite a reportedly-successful first summer, LVRE informed the Santa Fe Southern that it would be terminating the operation, effective on the 29th. Those who had purchased tickets for future excursion trains were informed that their trains were canceled, and received refunds. Remaining freight operations were also suspended. Santa Fe Southern officials commented that they were unsure when the railroad would resume operations, and at the time the railroad was still lacking regularly-scheduled passenger excursions, although it was still running private charter events (weddings, parties, corporate events, etc.), private varnishes, and the occasional movie or TV film shoot.
In 2019, the railway came under new ownership, including George R. R. Martin and entertainment and restaurant business owner Bill Banowsky. It resumed excursion operations under the brand Sky Railway in December 2021. SFSR 93 was painted by Santa Fe muralist Jorael Numina in the dragon theme it retains today.
The detail on this model makes it the best looking locomotive I have. Windshield wipers on the windows and doors are perfect. The railings are straight, and the handrails are real and not plastic bumps. The cab has been modeled but doesn’t have a crew. The locomotive is equipped with a LokSound decoder with sound and works perfectly. It does indeed sound like 93! The only criticism I have is that the exhaust stacks on 93 are taller and black.
The lighting is very good and includes lighted number boards. The prototype didn’t have ditch lights and neither did the model.
After unboxing the locomotive, I put it on the program track and addressed it as 93 or 9300 instead of using the default 3. I didn't change any of the other CV’s.
The cost of the model direct from Intermountain was $271, which included shipping. It was shipped on a Monday and arrived on Thursday.
This model was worth the two year wait and it will go well with my two Santa Fe Southern cars. It looks especially good in front of the Lamy Depot!
Athearn has announced the production of SFSR 07, the other locomotive that runs on Santa Fe Southern.
https://www.intermountain-railway.com...