I got this Great Trains F-7A shell/frame. I used NWSL trucks. I had some proper side frames and other parts to finish it off. I have a B unit that I cast the sides/ends for, using a master a friend made and I made a mold of it, took a lot of resin! I have decals designed. B unit has un-powered trucks.
I used Tru-Color UP Yellow, it matches MTH real well and I will use it with some MTH passenger cars.
I’m looking for more Great Trains engines, F and E units, in any condition.
Are those the stock grills Jerry?
Regards, Greg
Yes they are.
That looks great Jerry. I can’t wait to see both the A & B unit finished.
Chuck
Looking good. The grills really stand out. Later RJD
Those grills are some NOS ones I picked up a few years ago.
Well I’ll try posting this again.
F7A is done, it has the My Loco Sound card in it. The B unit has the Rail Boss4 control and battery. The B unit was made from molds and I cast the sides/ends. The B needs the couplers mounted and it will be done. Stan made the UP winged decal for me, since mine did not work out! I did do the rest of the lettering with a color laser printer and decal paper.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/gunjeep444/f7/F7Adone.JPG)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/gunjeep444/f7/F7ABdone.JPG)
Very, very nice.
I hope to find a GT F-7 someday for my 12 car psng fleet, and 5 car GT Superliners *the prototypes I got from Ray.
Someday…
Thank Bob. Neat you got the cars from Ray. He was sure a nice guy and helped me a lot. Sure sad he’s gone. He knew so much about Great Trains and their history/etc. Guess he never found the molds.
They look great.
The finished engines look great Jerry.
Jerry;
If you plan on putting those units into passenger service, the passengers will freeze. There are no steam generators in them as indicated by the lack of the roof detail for them…that’s if proto detail is of any interest to you.
The same can be said for the Aristo FA and FB unit Alcos.
I don’t have any USTrains units to look at, but they may have that detail. I think the USTrains high hood GP7 had indications that it had a steam unit, by a vent on the short hood…but again, I’m just going by memory.
This could offer a neat project for you, which I started a few years ago, but never completed; a steam generator car.
I was getting the parts together to use an old Lionel LS reefer, or was it a plug door box car. It was too short to be of much use for anything else, so I was planning on putting it on a pair of passenger trucks (High speed), and plugging the big doors etc, along with the appropriate other details. With it you could use any unit you cared to, on a passenger consist, and have it appear closer to prototype.
Now THAT’s what a train looked like when I was a kid.
Fred I have no idea what those look like, you have a link to any?
Tom, I can remember a Santa Fe streamliner like that(I guess) pulling into the station in Wewoka, OK back in the early 50’s. We were there to pick up my aunt and uncle coming back from the Phillipines(he was in the Air Force) I was about 6 years old I imagine, still remember that. Can’t remember what I went up stairs for but do recall that moment 65 years ago!
Jerry, Take a look at 353A, in the foreground. The after most chimney on the roof is the exhaust for the steam generator.
Image from RailPictures.net, shared under fair use doctrine for education.
Fred and Jerry, USAT PA-1 and PB-1 have the steam generators, at least the roof vents. The generators themselves were inside the locomotive shell. I’m guessing what USAT modeled is just the roof vent for generators using Diesel fuel. If you go to http://www.usatrains.com/ and look at the photos, they are the two “boxes” sticking up at the back of the A and the “front” of the B. (I don’t know why the steam generator on the B is at the end coupled to the A. Maybe that’s prototypically correct; I don’t know.) You can’t see any detail, unfortunately, but if you are close to someone who has these engines, you might be able to go look. Also, I have no idea how closely USAT modeled the real thing. Wish I could be more help.
Looks good to me Jerry!
As for the steam generator as stated it’s no more than an exhaust stack besides you could always make the whole consist HEP
Here is the inners of an F9/A…http://www.paulpratter.com/biography/freightlocomotive1.jpg
Yea the USA F3 has roof details to suggest a steam generator. The part that I don’t like is the stack is only hollow down a short distance. It isn’t bored all the way through into the innards.
I am not really a UP fan, but them thar covered wagons look really nice. Good job.
Steve, I’ll take the E units, and you can have the F units in your picture. 
David, the GN tried the E7 on the Empire Builder, thinking like you, but found that they didn’t have the guts to get over Maria’s Pass and Stevens Pass. They were relegated to secondary trains like The Gopher and The International, that ran on the flatlands.
You can have them. 
I’ve got some sort of small round casting I got in a bag of Great Trains parts, maybe that is it?
