Bye Bye F7!!

[ross31r]

The link would be nice, thank you. Are you making a double ended diesel or an electric? Australia had a neat double ended unit, a B Class. It ran on the first production SD trucks though.
Greg

Link is in my signature if you want to take a look.

The FM2`s are going to be double ended electrics. That Australian A Class is effectively exactly what i am building in terms of looks, just mine will be a four-axle interurban electric freight motor rather than a six-axle diesel.

Body is all made now, just need to modify the chassis to fit now. Might be easier to actually body mount the couplers rather than do a lot of modifying to the chassis unless i mount extended shank couplers as i was planning to do.

 

[Honger]

Please post the finished model

Actually, that project is over 7 years old! You see, back in high school I cut out about 20 scale feet of length from a Bachman U33B and made a short switcher locomotive out of it... so I got needed to vent more creativity. I had an Athearn Amtrak F7 shell and frame (no motor, trucks, etc.) and a Life-Like Burlington Northern F7 shell. I decided to have some fun and make a double ended F7. That's as far as I got in the picture. Lots of body work left to make it a nice model (putty the seams, putty some scratches, replace marred rivits around the cut areas, etc.).

I may very well pick it up again someday to finish... it wouldn't make a bad little loco for my railroad. For now though, it sits in my scrap parts box. A :sleeping: giant project so to speak.

 

[Honger]

How do you cut the body? Carefuly I know

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't do it so carefully. If you look at the picture you can see that I had to cut an additional thin section of the BN F7 to fit in between the cab of the BN and the body of the Amtrak. I cut the hood of the BN off too short... mismeasured.

I didn't use my dremel tool for this kind of cutting... too fast and not enough control. I actually scribed the model with my hobby knife and then used a razor saw to do saw through the plastic. All in all, it worked out pretty well.

Joel

 

[ross31r]

202 is finished, completed her last night, just needs painting, couplers and a test run than she will have her "publicity" photo done along with Number 101. They just need some pantographs (havent been able to locate a source of Somerfeld pantos for either HO or my new N traction line yet)

 

[Honger]

Actually, I'd love to see some intermediate pictures as well... you know, under construction shots. =)

Joel

 

[ross31r]

err i didnt take any!

 

[interurban]

err i didnt take any!

But you are going to eh eh eh?????
Just playing with you ross.
Re Pantagraphs, These are avalible on the UK ross I did a web search.
Is it a special type you need??

Check out this link


http://www.btinternet.com/~beckits/Pantos/pantoho.htm

 

[ross31r]

err, help which diamond pantograph is suitable for freight motors - 945 or 941?

 

[interurban]

I Think 961 ross.

I use Marklin Pan`s on mine



They do N gauge as well

http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh/sommerfeldt.asp

 

[ross31r]

lol, right got to order then now.

And start work on 202!!!

 

[ross31r]

well she had her first test running on friday over the club layout. have to say - very impressive power thanks to extra weights, pulled 22 boxcars before she needed assistance from the as yet un-rebuilt B unit.

 

[Honger]

well she had her first test running on friday over the club layout. have to say - very impressive power thanks to extra weights, pulled 22 boxcars before she needed assistance from the as yet un-rebuilt B unit.

This post is worthless without pictures! :thumb:
(just pulling your leg by the way, although I do want to see pictures of this unit)

 

[ross31r]

lol, yeah i promise to post some pictures up soon! and i have started on making a fixed five pack of FTs as well as making a boxcab from the remains of the A units!

 

[ross31r]

piccies!!!

here you go guys, pictures of 202 being built, 201 is off with another club member being wired up for DCC and overhead pickup.

Modified chassis to fit inside 201`s body

Bodyshell with second cab trimmed off the spare shell

Mounted onto chassis to enable sizes to be tested

Two sections joined together and filler placed over join - put onto chassis to aid shell rigidity during the time it takes the glue and filler to dry

Roof showing cooling fans and un-wanted detail to be sanded off

 

[ross31r]

202 under test and parked up alongside the as-yet unfinished Boxmotor No.1

 

[Chessie6459]

Looking Great. Great Job. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[ross31r]

looks less neat than the first one, didnt do quite as good a job on the second unit.
She will be going to see Pete at some time to get "final fitting" done and then ill take some pictures of the pair together.

 

[interurban]

:thumb: Good stuff ross, can`t wait to see the pans fitted.

So you are going DCC with the overhead eh?

 

[ross31r]

yup i am, that way i can also use those smelly self powered things by making the overhead and one rail of the tracks the same polarity.

 

[lv4142003]

Back in November, 1957, Bob Hegge had an article in MR about using plastic diesel shells to get heavy "juice" jacks, large boxcab and double ended electric models. He used the then available "Globe" F7 shells. They later became Athearns F7 shell. I've searched for decades for that article, and finally found it and xeroxed a copy. Found the article in the Library archives here in Philadelphia. These locos look fantastic. the Boxcab could've eben on the Piedmont Railroad, or the South Shore and the sexy one, the double eneded streamlined one, looked like a Little Joe or a Great Northern Y something or other. They sold one with a F unit cab to the Pennsy. Both of the units have "porches" out front with B trucks under them. See if you can locate the article, they were terrfic when I was a little kid and they're still awesome today. <lv4142003>