Hi all,

I finally made some progress on my poor-man's Union Pacific F7, crossbread from a Märklin Santa Fe F7 and an old Life-Like model.

As the dimensions of the models did not correspond exactly, I had to cut off part of the Märklin chassis and widen the opening for the coupler in the front of the Life-Like shell. I removed the mechanical reverser and added a TAMS LD-W-2 decoder to keep the costs to a minimum. The Märklin part presently looks as follows:



I have not yet set up the second headlight (which will have to be flashing; simple circuit planned) and the lighting of the number boards.

The F7 on the rails presently looks like this:



Here, I still have to print and mount number boards (the original did not have holes there, so I had to make them myself; still looks messy now); I will also have to fill the slots originally used to click the shell on the Life-Like chassis. Perhaps I will also try to add separate handrails instead of the moulded ones present now, but that can wait. Finally, I am not sure about the colour of the trucks. The PA's have greyish trucks, but I think the F7's had the metallic look shown here; must look that up.

As an addition to the Märklin freight car sets I purchased some Accurail sets some time ago to increase the diversity of cars running behind the UP engines. These sets are not terribly expensive, relatively easy to build, and looking nice I think.

Here is a reefer, washed with very diluted matt black Humbrol to make it look more authentic:





It has run for some time without problems now; there are two more reefers in the three-pack it came from, with different road numbers; they are still in-process.

For all those coal-fired 1950s homes I also needed hoppers, and here is the batch I am now building:



I tried to give them different degrees of griminess, as you can see here:



The top right one is fresh out of the box (but does not look so glaringly new on the picture as it does on the desk.

When I have finished them I will post a picture of them in transit.

Jeroen

Looks great, nice alternative for the UP F7! Seems as if you are planing a long freight train.
The truck of the UP F7 have the same grey color as the roof (There seem to be only UP F3s on the rr-falenflags site, but that shouldn't matter):
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/up/up1407n.jpg
Here are also some interesting BW pictures
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/up/up1402ark.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/up/up1410ark.jpg

Hans Martin

Hi Jeroen,

Actually I couldn't find any prototypical UP F7 pictures at all (all from F3 and F9 only), so it is difficult to say whether trucks painted in silver did exist. Allthough it looks extremely esthetic, I would suppose that UP used its common yellow-red-grey paint scheme for the F7s.

There is an article on Donald Strack's UtahRail pages http://utahrails.net/webpubs/up-f-units.php on UP F locos which also mentions the 1467.

Hans Martin

Jeroen: Big congratulations from my side, too - your new F7 looks just great [:p]!!!
Also like the cars, they surely bring a fresh breeze to your layout

John

Thanks all!

Pierre, I have been wondering about the reason for Märklin to make the F7 longer than scale; more room for the trucks to move sideways perhaps? I can live with Accurail's moulded grab irons considering the price (although that seems to have risen considerably; I bought the 12-car hopper sets for $60 each, but they are more expensive now). I have no experience with Intermountain; main problem with the more expensive US stuff is that it becomes prohibitively expensive when shipping to NL + tax is added. The Intermountain cars then become much more expensive that Märklin ones for me. I did purchase a Proto 2000 model (PA-1 B unit). Although it looks very nice I don't like its vulnerability: I had left a carton box too close to the track, and that snapped one of the plastic handrails when the B unit hit it. Also, one of the plastic coupler springs has broken in the meantime, so the B unit is presently out of service.

John, utahrails.net is worth a closer look; there is a plethora of information to be had there. For instance, I spent an hour or so yesterday leafing through these albums, especially the Weber Canyon album.

Jeroen

Hi all,

I just found out that the colour of the F7 trucks should probably be aluminium after all (and certainly I can pretend they are).

As I could have expected, utahrails.net provides the answer: the transition from grey to aluminium is described here for the time frame 1953--1957.

Jeroen

Great site, thanks for posting.

The article is also interesting with respect to the UP steamers. It is clearly confirmed that e.g. the livery of the UP Mikado is from the time after 1937.

BTW, it seems that UP has recently enlarged its historical photo gallery: http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/photos/index.shtml

Hans Martin

Hi all,

My first batch of 12 hoppers is now up and running; I started with the Great Northern ones, and I thought it might be nice to post some pictures of the process:

1. Built one car to get a feeling for things:



2. Preparing for batch build: all iron weights painted reddish; underframes ready for completion with small parts:



3. Underframes with 2 and 3 small parts added (order of mounting obviously important :



4. Underframes glued to bodies; ready for mounting coal doors:



5. Preparation for mounting the door openers (about the smallest parts I have seen yet; a car with door openers mounted is shown as an example):



6. Preparing the trucks for weathering (somehow reminds me of attacking spiders):



7. Trucks weathered (did not bother to treat insides):



8. Preparing for coupler mounting:




9. Couplers mounted; only the trucks to go now; note truck mounting pin has to be checked for good fit (see difference between pins); did not weather the wheels; will check on the layout how desirable that is.



10. Hoppers delivered!



Jeroen

Great job Jeroen

Looks very good!

Hi Jeroean,

Very nice ore train, the cars look indeed realistic, and I see that the weathering is a real improvement. The Kadee couplers look simply great.

Have to weather my own coal train, too. It still looks like coming just out of a car wash plant.

Hans Martin

Hi all,

I was wondering why the Accurail hoppers do not have brakewheels. It does not seem probable that Accurail "forgot" them, but how did they operate the brakes then? Looking at photo 9 above I would guess it was a kind of lever (the small shaft just left of the brake shaft), but does anybody know?

Jeroen

Hans Martin: You're right. But <u>nobody</u> is allowed to enter my train room. Constantly under lock & key [}:)]

John

Hello Jeroen,
thanks for the great topic! This one made me to create an account too and join the gang.
Please see my post about ATSF F7B project in this same category.
https://www.marklin-users.net/fo...ault.aspx?g=posts&t=4594

BR,
Juha

Hi Jeroen,

I am presently planning to convert my Delta Amtrak F7 double header (33621) with a Lokpilot + high efficiency motor parts. The delta lok is a strong puller, but it either stops (at low throttle position) or runs with high speed. My single-motor F7 with 60903 set is clearly superior even to the two-motor delta version: very constant runner, even at lowest speed on grades, allthough I sometimes wish I had a two-motor version, like the PA.

Would be interested in your experience with decoder performance on long trains.

Hans Martin

Hi Pierre,

No problem to read your essay in French. I am still in doubt about detailing my F7s (A and B unit) in view of all the other things on my wish list and the reasonable impression they provide presently.

As to weight, I made a first step by adding a sheet of metal from a pre-historic disk drive cover from a Compaq (below the board with the decoder on the photo in the opening post, but barely visible as I painted it black). A second step could be what Ron(? not sure; can't find post anymore) did in a similar case: glue a piece of lead on to the motor compartment (there even is room in the space left by the old magnet).

Jeroen

Hello,



How are the Märklin F7 2-motor A-A, A-B and A-B-A -units built?
Is there just one Delta or Digital module for both motors? Is there any attempt to sync the speed of the motors?
I've noticed in triple units the pick-up shoe is in B-unit.

Anybody willing to pull the shell and post pictures?

Thanks,
Juha

Thanks Hans Martin, that was fast!

These pictures are very helpful. I was expecting something like this, simple and sturdy.

BR,
Juha

Hi all,

In the weekend I found the time again to work on the UP F7.

The weight problem has dwindled after I cut some pieces of lead from roofing sheet (or whatever that is called in English) and draped them around the motor:


I also had a look at the coarse steps molded on the Life-Like shell. With a scalpel it is not too difficult to cut away material for more realistic dimensions; see the difference between the modified step at right and the original one at left:

.

Finally, I fitted the LED for the second headlight; I decided I wanted it to blink more or less like that of the PA's; the relevant CV values of the Lokpilot are above 80, so they are inaccessible to the MS. Luckily I have the free Dutch program MrDirect [DOS; runs on a 486; used with a Delta control as a booster; controls both Motorola and DCC; makes all CV's of the Lokpilot accessible], so the F7 can happily blink its second headlight. [No picture, as I am preparing for a video of this and other engines in motion.]

Jeroen

Hi all,

Today I received some new power for my UP division. Alas it is not available from Märklin (yet? ever?), so I settled for Proto 2000 (P2K). The previous owner treated the A-unit as if it was Märklin though; unfortunately, P2K does not take such treatment well. I could make a look-and-shiver quiz about the result: how many details have been damaged?
Here is the mangled E6 A unit (click pictures for high-res versions):




Jeroen

Edited by user 11 October 2009 18:13:19(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Jeroen, don't tell me that you will not have fun to repair this nice locomotive !

You will soon have the largest AC-3 Rail UP fleet in the World ...

Pierre.

Jeroen, when you have time, can you write a little more about MRdirect?

I have downloaded the "handleiding" and are trying to read it right now;
but "it's all Dutch to me"

Serious, I can figure out most of it; but a general view would be nice.

Thank you.

Per,

Jeroen, do these loks have traction tires? I am considering similar modifications to a couple of DC H0 power chassis to build a couple of portuguese loks, but the particular chassis do not have traction tires. This worries me in that these would become useless, with no traction power, particularly since some of the Portuguese coaches that will be towed are brass, quite heavy...

Luis

Hi Jeroen,
are Märklin UP F7's really getting this rare?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mark...WDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/e...CC_Pr4_PcY_BID_Stores_IT

At least the asking prices are getting up ...
These are listed as "Excellent condition". Just wonder how are the ones without scracthes with pristine factory paint called.


BR,
Juha

Juha, I doubt he'll get any bids. First, by installing an decoder she became junk for any serious collector. Second, her shell is in extremely bad and ugly condition. Third, a digital player is way better off with any brand new PA-1 for less cash.

Well, nice F7s in UP or D&RGW livery are scarce, surely. But not this one ... [xx(]

John