Good for me then. I'm looking at early to mid 50's for modeling. Thanks, guys. (And to clarify, by 'elephant style', you mean running multiple forward-facing A Units, correct?)
exactly...also, no situations with A, or cab units nose-to-nose...(until the MU receptacles and doors)
I loved the first photo in the above post, especially since I bought an ABBA set to pull my stock train which is comprised of a full set of Intermountain Santa Fe stock cars. I always knew that these locomotives would be appropriate power for that train, but it's still nice to get photographic confirmation. I see Kato has improved the opacity of their yellow paint, especially in the cigar band herald. It's too bad they still insist on putting yellow LEDs in their headlights. But overall I'm very pleased with these locomotives. Kudos to Kato!
The yellow LED issue will resolve itself with almost any board replacement decoder. Both TCS and Digitrax have nice white LEDs. Not sure about others though. If you do not do DCC, it wouldn't be too difficult to replace the LEDs with the color you want.
I have to replace a front coupler on one of the A's. I ordered one today. how difficult is this going to be? 2000-1 MT says assembled front coupler. any advice appreciated! thanks......
It almost couldn't be easier. Remove the clip and remove the copper "spring" from the clip. Insert the coupler (no filing or cutting required) Insert the clip. You are done. Mark
The most recent issue of The Warbonnet has inspired me to 'get crackin'' on the freight F fleet details... This one is a 'spare' cab unit (not part of the 4 LABC sets). One of the things I took away from the article was the 'freight' pilot and ATSF-applied footboards on all these units (the third batch with the 48" DB fans-280L-Cs seemed to built with the 'passenger pilot' and integral step but these also had the larger fuel tank and FARR vertical slit grills, as well as a few other detail changes)
Bill, OUTSTANDING WORK!!!! I've been detailing the next of my 1st and 2nd run Kato Freight F units for Santa Fe (I have 8 cab units in all to do...) I made a deeper hole for myself when I realized I needed to alter the pilots AFTER I applied the BLMA cut levers!... So, I carefully removed the molded step, inserted some scrap styrene triangles to fill the gap, recontoured the pilot profile, then used Mr Surfacer 500 to fill any gaps. I cut small bits of 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and glued them to the tip of toothpicks to create some mini sanding sticks; these pics show how I eas able to smooth the area w/o damaging the cut levers...whew! I'll add the footboards on either side of the pilot before I respray the flat black... Bruce
Hello all... I've reached a point, in detailing my Kato Santa Fe Freight F units, where I can't get to the last step until I find a source for these items in N scale... ATSF-applied footboards to cut down-'Freight-style- pilots... I'm sure these details are available in HO scale, but not in N scale...and simple styrene strip isn't going to cut it... Does anyone, here, have any suggestions for reasonably duplicating these in N scale? A small photoetched piece, requiring three bends to form the open 'box' shape would be optimal, but I realize this is a pipe dream.. Are there any ideas about sourcing shapes or items that, with a little work, could represent these? I can't see NOT adding these considering the level of detail that I've added to these...I have 8 Freight F units to so equip... Thanks, Bruce
Rick, that's a good suggestion-I have a number of these already (not enough, though). I've also been going through any of my scale Aircraft photo-etch frets to see if there are any items that may sub for these... What you suggest may be my only recourse... Bruce
Another idea, use some small styrene square tubing, cut one face off and narrow the walls with fine filing. Then glue 0.01" sheet styrene to bottom. Trim to fit. Either way, this is going to take a lot of fine work
all good suggestions!... I'm going to try a few of them and see which ones I can give me the best results AND can be duplicated accurately! Bruce
So, what was the advantage of these jury rigged steps over the stirrups that originally came with the F7? It seems like trying to model these would just end up with tiny projections that would be in constant danger of being snapped off. Even the prototypical ones look less stable than the stirrup that was already provided by the manufacturer.
Since these were freight locomotives, brakeman would see much more 'action' coupling and uncoupling on these... these footboards were provided in a 'better' location for the brakeman, in relation to the cut levers...the pilot hand grabs were also more centrally located on the pilot... details on engines and rolling stock always have the possibility of getting damaged (some are more ham fisted than others)...I am very careful when handling my models so it's not been an issue for me; however, I have acquaintances that don't exercise the same caution I do, so having detailed items isn't a good idea for them... since they're so obvious on the real units, I do want to model them on mine; it's another spotting feature that separates the passenger locomotive details from the freight ones-the pilots one the fright version were cut down in comparison to the passenger versions, although there were a few passenger F units that received these freight pilots. Bruce
Great pics and great work guys. While I enjoy great detail , I prefer not to have it all on my fleet as they are transported and handled too much. Anyway here they are again, since some may not have seen them. Mike
