I picked up a Con-Cor BN Executive train at the train show yesterday and frankly, the loco runs poorly (not too bad on smooth, but very noisy). How hard it is to fit this shell to a Kato or PCM chassis?
The Con Cor chassis is narrower and the shell walls are thicker, so you have to mill out the inside of the shell to make it fit the Kato mechanism. Years ago I did this to make Kato powered E7s.
If I remember correctly,the Kato has the pilot mounted on the shell,Con Cor doesn't...Actually,I find the Con Cor usually runs crappy because the drive couplers are loose on the shafts..
THe Con cors also have a lionel-esqe thing where the Front pilot is attached to the truck, I also have the BN exec. set I'm thinking of ridding myself of it once I can get some MTL trucks and couplers on it.
I put a Con-Cor E7B shell on a Kato E7 chassis and it fit like a glove (no modification necessary). I've never tried it with an A. Cheers, -Mark
Strange. Are you talking about the Con Cor/Kato E7? I don't believe Kato has ever built an E7 using the new chassis. I just tried all mine. The new Kato mechanism is 0.67 inches wide at the bottom. The Con Cor shells are all have 0.65 inches for the inside dimension. The old shells refuse to go all the way down without shaving .02 inches off the bottom of the inside of the shell.
So, is this BN loco I have supposed to be an E7 or an E8? I just looked up an E6, an E7 and an E8 and it looks like the truck bolster to bolster is 43' for all of them. Does anyone have a PCM E7 or E8 that they could measure the width of the mechanism?
Sorry, I meant a Kato E8 chassis. And yes, a Con-Cor/Kato E7B shell. Dunno what to tell you - it went right on without any problem. Maybe the B shells are different. I know they were made by somebody else (Roco as opposed to Rivarossi). -Mark
Your exec unit is an E8..E8 has round portals & full length grill on the side,E7 has rectangular windows & small screens...E6 looks like a 7,but has a slanted nose...
It is an E8. I found a Con Cor E8 shell and managed to put it on a PCM chassis. I had to remove the cab windows to make if fit but you could shave down the sides of the PCM cab interior to accomplish the same thing. You would also have to remove the pilot from the Con Cor truck and glue it to the shell. I think the pilot should fit around the front coupler on the PCM E8. You may have to secure the shell with pieces of double stick cellophane tape at a few points between the chassis and shell to keep it on.
just saw your post. i have several older con-cor japan-built e7s and e8s. there is no coupler on the primary driveshafts- there is a bell gear at one end and a brass worm at the other. the worm wheels rotate with the trucks. there is no fix for the china-made spur gears and bell gears- they are just noisy presumably because the gears are of poor quality as compared to those used in the earlier japan drives. if the OP will procure some gears from such a locomotive and install them, and remove all end play from the driveshaft assemblies, the loco will run quietly. the 5-pole block-wound motor from the japan version should also be used- I prefer the kato motor. it will be necessary to change the top frame casting, as well. this will further improve the running quality. regarding the con-cor shells- its no big with deal to attach the con-cor pilot to the shell. it's very popular with modelers who are super-detailing for big layouts (broad curves). good luck with your train, hopefully you still have it!
