I came across this clip of a Santa Fe F7 A & B Unit which really gives a good look at all the real details that existed on the real one, man they are beautiful locomotives. no wonder they are so popular still to this day. Much like 3751, I'd like to see BNSF restore and ABA set and use them with 3751 excursions, here is the clip.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2DwejTZYHw I also found another piece of footage that shows the F units at speed, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oE-XA7y07o&feature=related and man oh man, they really look the part of a speeding locomotive, spectacular. These clips might help us increase the details on our Kato and Intermountai units, enjoy. fatalxsunrider43 PS I hope it is OK to put these up, I am sure that most will like these, correct me if I am out of place, thanks !
To be completely prototypical accurate though, they need to have white walled wheels. Hehe, ok, ok, all kidding aside. Yep, the Santa Fe F Units are gorgeous locomotives. In fact, it was one of these (though Bachmann) that drew me to N Scale long ago. Maybe we can make this the "Show off your Santa Fe F-Units!" thread.
I can remember my desire to own a Santa Fe F unit way back in '54 when the Lionel catalogue came out, showing them, heck I was all of 7, We had just moved into our home and my dad built me a very nice PRR layout, but I had to have those warbonnets. Then during the following summer in '55, we went up to Conneaut Lake and on the park train into the tunnel and whoa, was a Lionel layout with about 3 set of them all over the place. I was sold. never got them, moved to Florida, put away the trains (no room) until 1960 and I was 12, and built an HO 4z8 layout and after my obligatory Pennsy locos I scored a set of Tyco/Mantua F3 Warbonnets. They still are boxed and run great today, and I bought some Athearn FB units to complement them. Once in N, I have owned and sold some Kato F's, and currently own down to one set of Kato F3AA, a Minitrix F7AA's, Arnold FP7AA's and a few others. Wouldn't trade any for the world, and later on this month, have a couple of Kato F's set up to be bought from a late friend's widow. Now, all I need is the passenger set to make it right!!!! Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
Mark I am going to come to your house with my White Shoe polish and paint the wheels on your tri-cycle. That way when you show up to work on Monday, your ride will be looking squeeky clean. Just kiddin too bud...LOL ! Yes, F7 is a love affair without a doubt. So much so that I have covered my bases with Kato ABBA, and Intermountain F7 ABA. Same with F3's. I'd like to add the Yellow Bonnets to my fleet but they are just too hard to find. As soon as they were out, they were gone. And yes, this is a great time to show off our F Units, no white walls though, LOL fatalxsunrider43
If you like warbonnets, than the Green Frog Santa Fe Oddyssey vol I is a MUST own. http://www.greenfrog.com/SFOdsy1_dvd.shtml Nobody captured first generation diesels like Emery Gulash. :thumbs_up:
Yeah, I've got the set. But better than that I have my own memories. I was on the post-Santa Fe "Amtrak" Chief in the summer of '72, the only year they ran it. June '72, Chicago-LA, travelled with my parents at age 15. I'd been on the Super Chief, so it very much was a 'step down'. There was a Burlington dome tucked right in behind two hi-levels, and you couldn't see forward. We lost a lot of time at Kansas City waiting for the meet with the National Limited. When we finally did get out, wow, did they wind that train up with an ABAB set of leased F7's and nine cars! I got the watch out and started timing mileposts - 38 second miles - that's almost 95mph! And we kept it up all the way past Dodge City into the jointed rail territory, what a rush that was. So even when they were pretty old and tired they could still do it. I never forgot it. Been a Santa Fe and F-unit fan ever since. Your first video shows the 347C and a B unit at the Sacramento Railroad Museum. They've been cosmetically restored but are not operational. Many of the surviving F-units have been overhauled and upgraded to 645 blocks and -2 electricals by this time. Remember that the ENTIRE fleet of Santa Fe F7's except for 347 and the B unit were converted to CF7's - no other survivors.
I've seen more then a few in the past few weeks on the 'bay. Here's a Yellow Bonnet B-Unit: InterMountain ATSF F7B Yellowbonnet
Funny thing- I spent my young teen years in the Sacramento area (despite being raised a NY'er). 347c (the parked loco in the first movie) was part of what got me into railroading!! In the 90's, The Sacramento Railway Museum used to leave the locomotives outside 24/7/365..... before graffiti and vandalism started being the "norm" for bored trashy white kids (part of why they keep the beautiful and mostly restored 347c locked away in their ex-SP backshops now). I am a member of the Sacramento railway museum, and I go whenever I can.... Incedentally, my second locomotive was, yes Mark, a Bachmann Plus F7A warbonnet. I still love those locos, Bachmann though they may be.... bought it at the "Great Train Store" that used to be in Downtown Plaza in Sacramento, a short walk from the museum. Now it's a G****MN STARBUCKS. Hey, there was even an underground model railroad/store in Old Sac at that time, they had some beautiful things! Long gone now, of course. This hobby needs a rebirth in the public eye, I think.... too many X-boxes out there. Hmmph. Back to 347c, and her late-F3 (as I have been told) B unit; there's something inherently beautiful about stainless & red, it looks good on any loco.... but that sleek, round red nose on the 347c has brightened many childhood memories of mine They run excursions all summer long behind steamers. Northern-California folks should go, it's well worth the trip (the museum is fantastic as well).
"Many of the surviving F-units have been overhauled and upgraded to 645 blocks and -2 electricals by this time." That's not true. BN's were but I don't know of many others that were repowered. Now UP has repowered their surviving excursion E9As and E9B and have added Dash-2 electricals (mechanically and electrically the equivalent of a GP38-2) but I have seen no other documentation on this... even NS's executive Fs retain their original equipment.
The F units are forever classic and certainly the Santa Fe warbonnet is among the best schemes ever to be applied to any locomotive. Mark
Jerry, right now I'm working on a 12"=1' project on evaluating and transporting ex-MARC units that not only were rebuilt to 645's, they also have HEP. If you look at the fleets that MARC, M-K, etc. redid for commuter service in the 80's, those are some of the best ones out there today and tend to be the operating, rather than the static, ones ("F10's") Remember you can drop a 645 power assembly in a 567 block and get rid of a lot of problems. We did a nationwide inventory of surviving F-units in museums and tourist railroads and it's less than 1% of the original production. The other half of the problem is the number of units where the plymetal sides have so completely deteriorated that they require a structural rebuild now. That's another key to survivability. This is a pretty good list and you can see the number of survivors that got that way by being significantly rebuilt by somebody along the way - usually '80's commuter service. Surviving F Units List I'm really hoping that somebody someday does the two ATSF units, but because they were held out and never got rebuilt the parts are getting progressively more difficult to find. Then you get into a museum vs. rebuild issue on whether or not its better to preserve or make operational. According to the August 1988 article about the 347C restoration in Railfan, each prime mover in the A and B had at least one suspect piston at that time, and that's why the restoration was made cosmetic.
I've been to the museum in Sac and I don't think you've seen a Warbonnet until you've seen it in person. Gotta love those polished sides, it's one of the reasons I love the WP's F units. My first N scale set was a Santa Fe passenger train from Aurora. The only thing I like better is a Warbonnet PA. Wish I could have seen those!
