RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted October 14, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) Making a start in US O gauge as cheaply as possible I bought two items an Atlas F9 in Santa Fe livery and a Pennsylvania gondola. The F9 needs glazing for the portholes and rear door, horns, a bogie side frame and brake shoe reattached and the couplings swapped for KD's. The gondola needs KD's too but looks good otherwise. The F9 needs a decal for the front at least. I have picked up that the only easy difference to spot is the extra vent in front of the first porthole so a repaint into Soo is possible. Edited October 14, 2020 by skipepsi Add pics 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted October 14, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted October 14, 2020 Some more... I forgot to add steps that need replacing and handrails to think about and a simple decoder when the motor is tested. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 15 hours ago, skipepsi said: I have picked up that the only easy difference to spot is the extra vent in front of the first porthole so a repaint into Soo is possible. Not quite - the front porthole on an F7 is further forward than on the F9, as well as the front grille being removed. On my model this was an interesting little operation that eventually involved a rather large drill bit!! (9mm if I recall correctly). 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 (edited) Forgot - plus remove the forward roof fan (dynamic brakes) and the various gubbins on the rear roof panel (steam heat equipment). Being really pedantic the side skirt should come off the body, but as it has the slots the chassis clips in to, and is black anyway, I didn't bother on mine. The front pilot could do with improving but that too is a "round tuit" job for me. Here's my F7 & FP7 (spliced from two F9s)... Edited October 15, 2020 by F-UnitMad 6 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted October 15, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted October 15, 2020 Looking at that better ladders and hand rails/grab handles are also required. I was thinking a pair of F7s shuffling about on a 13ft by 18 inch layout involving a grain silo/ feed mill set up. Have you written up the conversion on RMweb at all? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 9 hours ago, skipepsi said: Have you written up the conversion on RMweb at all? For the F7, no I didn't; it's just the usual sort of detailing we cut our teeth on with 4mm Lima & Hornby diesels in the 80s. The relocated porthole was just a case of measuring the existing ones and observing photos & drawings of the real thing. As for the stretched FP7, I actually bought it like that from ebay, although it wasn't described as such, just as an Atlas F-Unit. Whoever did the conversion made a cracking job of it, cutting the two shells so that panels spliced together - it wasn't just a quick cut'n'shut job!! Of course the chassis had to be extended too, and the drive shafts, though that is a moot point now as I replaced all that with current Atlas China-drive trucks. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 There's always the hardcore alteration, of turning an F-unit into an industrial switcher.....including a cab [windows] in the blind end? Also one way of making use of a B unit too? { Both these conversions done by industrial /mineral railroad shortlnes...no pix offhand, but there were articles in the ancient US model press.] Of course, there's always the prospect of modelling the dents and scrapes old F units acquired once 3rd, 4th, or even 5th hand? Those lovely noses were a tad vulnerable. [Speaking as someone with a large slack handful of ancient & various HO F unit shells...and not enough powered chassis to fill them all Some Athearn, some Varney, one or three Lifelike....].....Sorry, 'oly thwed dwift, batman. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, alastairq said: There's always the hardcore alteration, of turning an F-unit into an industrial switcher.....including a cab [windows] in the blind end? The Soo Line didn't bother with any of that, but did send out lone F-Units on branch line freights that included lots of switching. I do suspect they were sent up branches that at least had a wye at the end (such as Whitetail, Montana) as I've never seen a photo of a lone Soo F-Unit pulling a train "backwards". What the crews thought of it all I have no idea. One thing that did catch out rookie dispatchers on the Soo was that 'A' F-Units carried numbers that could end in either A or B. Cabless 'B' units had numbers ending with a C. Apparently more than once the proposed power for a train was rostered entirely with B Units.... As for thread drift, the single cab was what attracted me to them in the first place. They had a sense of 'direction', like a steam loco, and utterly unlike most British mainline diesels with a cab at each end. Edited October 16, 2020 by F-UnitMad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) https://www.railpictures.net/photo/461704/ Haysi Railroad..a B unit with control stands inside...note the headlight/spotlight....don't Humbrol do that livery? Edited October 17, 2020 by alastairq 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 http://magazine.trainlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/rmj_199610.pdf KNew I'd seen it somewhere..I have a few years' worth of Railmodel Journal!!! I wasn't thinking of a loco with a proper 'cab on the blind endat all.... The conversion I recall seeing was a normal looking F unit [ie scruffy]....with a window in the blind end, an open door, and an inginear peeking out? Not a full F unit nose grafted on at all... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 2 hours ago, alastairq said: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/461704/ Haysi Railroad..a B unit with control stands inside...note the headlight/spotlight....don't Humbrol do that livery? Cabless B Units did have 'Hostler' controls so they could be moved independently around servicing yards and suchlike. I don't suppose it was too much of a leap to fit them out for switching duties, like the Haysi RR example above. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 2 hours ago, alastairq said: Not a full F unit nose grafted on at all... I understood what you meant, I'd think everyone else did too The only "double cabbed" F-Unit lookalikes I can think of offhand are the Australian versions - oh and the ancient Tri-ang 'Transcontinental' engine. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctor quinn Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 On 16/10/2020 at 21:47, F-UnitMad said: I understood what you meant, I'd think everyone else did too The only "double cabbed" F-Unit lookalikes I can think of offhand are the Australian versions - oh and the ancient Tri-ang 'Transcontinental' engine. There are the European versions built under licence by Nydqvist & Holm and Anglo Franco Belge 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, doctor quinn said: There are the European versions built under licence by Nydqvist & Holm and Anglo Franco Belge Yes I've seen those types before, but they don't actually look like F-Units. Edit - strangely they remind me somehow of Baby Deltics!! (Which of course, looked nothing like a Deltic - yes I'm aware the name was derived from the engine, in both cases.) Edited November 9, 2020 by F-UnitMad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted November 10, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 10, 2020 2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said: Edit - strangely they remind me somehow of Baby Deltics!! (Which of course, looked nothing like a Deltic - yes I'm aware the name was derived from the engine, in both cases.) For that matter, they look nothing like babies, either... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted February 22, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 22, 2021 After much dragging of feet I sold more H0 wagons and acquired two more long wagons another PRR gon and a SF pulp wood car. Then I got 5 40' cars and a stock car. I bought kadees #745s from Gaugemaster but I failed to buy screws/nuts & bolts and they now show as out of stock. I will be cutting the Atlas couplings from the bogies and fitting the KDs to the bodies. Does anyone have suggestions for suitable fasteners? Not cable ties (:,) I looked at the lockdown garden railway topic so a mocked up concrete block and old decking planks may appear... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 (edited) If there are threaded mounting holes already on the frames, then screws of 2mm thread x 8mm long will fix the Kadees from underneath. If there are just holes or you have to drill holes, then I use 10BA nuts & bolts; the flathead/countersunk head type. The bolt goes in from the top, nut underneath and trim off the excess thread afterwards. Edit - available on ebay, of course. Edited February 23, 2021 by F-UnitMad 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasond Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Hi Mick, celebrated(?) my 74th birthday last week, have had my jab, got nicer weather ... ready for a walk to the Post Office with your F9. It's packed, remind me what parts you may still need for the other one. Jason 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted February 24, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 24, 2021 I will pm a list in the morning. Jason Thanks Jordan I will scour ebay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 From your description Mick it sounds like your cars are the old Atlas/Roco models from the early '70s. I only have a wide-vision caboose & two 4-wheel Bobber caboose from that range, but they had plain holes in the frames ready for Kadee draftgear boxes, so you might find your stock does too, in which case the 10BA nuts & bolts will be the best. Modern China-built Atlas stock mostly have 'blind' threaded mounting holes that are spaced for the Atlas coupler, which is a fraction out for the Kadee, but the trick is to fit one screw (2mm x 8mm) loosely through the Kadee box, then locate the second one with a bit of wiggling, and tighten them both a bit at a time alternately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted February 24, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 24, 2021 4 hours ago, F-UnitMad said: From your description Mick it sounds like your cars are the old Atlas/Roco models from the early '70s. I only have a wide-vision caboose & two 4-wheel Bobber caboose from that range, but they had plain holes in the frames ready for Kadee draftgear boxes, so you might find your stock does too, in which case the 10BA nuts & bolts will be the best. Modern China-built Atlas stock mostly have 'blind' threaded mounting holes that are spaced for the Atlas coupler, which is a fraction out for the Kadee, but the trick is to fit one screw (2mm x 8mm) loosely through the Kadee box, then locate the second one with a bit of wiggling, and tighten them both a bit at a time alternately. From memory a bit like fitting sumps to Caterpillar engines then... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted February 26, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 26, 2021 I would just like to say a public thank you to JasonD a parcel arrived today containing lots of things required for progress. At a time when the black dog is chewing my ankles I have something to smile about. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium skipepsi Posted February 28, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 28, 2021 First two Kadees fitted to Gondola, F9 next I am going for body mounting unless anyone has other ideas? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Body mounts for definite! It has been accepted practice for decades... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now