I guess the F59 is a lil' bit longer. Maybe with a lenghtened F7 shell in order to make a FP7/9? Anyway I'll check my "Field Guide to trains" when back home in 3 days. Dom
I would guess you're right but I know the MTL chassis is slightly larger-than-scale so I'm crossing my fingers! I can measure my F7 chassis if someone can measure their F59 chassis... From what I see, I could add outside brake hangers to the trucks and it would be a pretty close match visually. I just want to add dcc easily and quiet 'em down haha...
My F59 sets are buried right now. Ed W just bought a set and was going to DCC one so I'll ask him to measure this week. DCC'ing is easy using an NCE Z14 decoder. I'll send you 2 e-mails with pix.
Here is a photo of the chassis. It would be curious to know if this could be modified to fit under the MTL shell. Rob
Here are my findings since I have both units in stock: I measured from front wheel to back wheel centerline: AZL F59PHI 2.46875" MTL F7 2.1875" There are issues such as couplers being mounted on trucks for the MTL F7 vs shell-mounted on the F59. The big thing is that the AZL chassis is too long. Looking at hogging out material from the AZL chassis might be dicey as some of the copper contact structure extends into the ends of the chassis. Not sure what's underneath if you started milling away material from the top. Frank Daniels Owner - z.scale.hobo, authorized MTL and AZL dealer Irvine California USA www.zscalehobo.com
Looks like a no-go. Next sensible step is looking at the ALZ GP chassis. Seems to me it "should" have the same wheelbase as the F7, as IIRC the 1:1 GP's and F's were almost spot-on...
Not surprised the F59PHI is noticeably longer than the the F7. It has 3 times the the horsepower (1100 HP compared to 3200 HP) and it does weigh almost 10 tons more. Need to displace that extra wight somehow. And I bet its a much smoother ride with the longer wheelbase. Especially at higher speeds. Something that was probably not as important back in 1949 when the F7 first came out.... But I was still rooting it would fit... I asked on another forum if any other locomotive had the same wheelbase and truck size to see if i could rapid prototype a different shell for it. Frank (ZFRANK) was kind enough to respond that the F40PH is the closest with about a 2 ft difference in wheelbase but the overall length is about the same... I was hoping for something "more cool" then a F40PH... But if there's any F40PH fans out there, this chassis has potential if you do a custom shell....
Sorry, that won't fit. According to A Field Guide To Trains: -F7/9: 50'8" -FP7/9: 54'8" -F59PHI: 58'2" Dom
Well, although it probably is even less cool than the F40PH in your book, the F59PH is also a possibility. Note, no "I"...not the F59PHI, but the precessor F59PH which is the boxier looking version. Eventually (and assuming no one else has beat me to it) I intend to attempt to design an F59PH shell to produce via Shapeways. But I'm happy to concede the project to somebody else if they want to take the torch. ;-)
I for one, being a child of the 80's and growing up with Amtrak F40PH's on every passenger train here in the Northwest, would love to take advantage of the inexpensive prices on the AZL units, and get me a Shapeways F40PH shell, (if one is made soon), and make one!! Get some of the released Amtrak cars from M-T, and make a train!
Speaking just for myself, I will leave that torch to you Doug ... I agree, the original F59PH is definitely more interesting than the F59PHI, especially with the deck and handrails on both the front and back. And from what I have seen, some versions have a really neat wedge nose that is more exaggerated then other versions. But its a passenger locomotive and I already have 2 A units and 2 B unit F7's to pull my UP passenger train (that long predate the F59PH). So I'd have to spend $100 to buy a F59PHI set to reverse engineer it to create a proper fitting locomotive shell I'll never use.... But Like Kurt said, it would be perfect for MTL Amtrak cars or even Marklin's Amtrak cars... Just not worth the tremendous amount of time (I cant release a model for sale on Shapeways unless I know it 100% has no problems being printed, works perfectly and has been finished and painted) and money for something I'll never get to use...
Dom, I dont know how much of a pain in the rear it is to look up in the filed guide, but if its not a pain, are there any other North American locomotives that have the same truck wheelbase and distance between truck bolsters as the F59PHI?
Classic Trains this month has a great article about F's from FT to F9 to a F18 or a F20 that were never produced. It would be a fantasy to make a F from a GP30. From then on you have the frame & cowl body.
