With detail parts and couplers in their buff envelopes. In blue boxes (though I did not actually check the end labels)
How old are these likely to be?
Were they any good?
Bright zinc colour. White metal alloy?
Edit: after several replies it seems clear these are not Athearn and not F7.
Seems likely they are F3 with Athearn drives installed as per the recommendations of the body manufacturer.
As far as I’m aware, Athearn bought the Globe F7s, and originally sold them under the Globe name, just in case the model railroading public wouldn’t accept a plastic locomotive.
I was not aware that Athearn ever marketed a cast metal diesel, although I did have several of their metal freight cars, built from kits.
Wayne
Could be Cary bodies substituted for the Athearn bodies.
Jim
Could also be a globe kit from that era that was just stuck in the bluebox
shane
Well, the boxes are Athearn blue boxes but that means nothing other than the box size is right!
I’ll take a closer look. My LHS shrink wraps good used stuff for good reasons. So, I don’t like to open the “packaging” if I’m not really serious.
Are these Globe models any good, worth painting and decalling?
Or a waste of time really?
As far as I’m aware, the Globe diesels were only in plastic (I had an A-B-B-A set, originally in Santa Fe “Warbonnet colours”). I later re-painted them as CPR locos, and later still, re-did them for my freelanced Elora Gorge & Eastern…
One of the B-units was the only one powered, using a Lindsay motorised truck.
I think that Jim’s suggestion that the cast metal ones are likely from Cary is correct.
Wayne
Worth buying and finishing or not?
If those are either Cary or Varney metal shells, the detail is not quite up to current standards but with a little work - handlrails, etc. - they are very good. I have several. They are also heavy, and if you can fit in the Athearn weight as well they will pull like anything. The Athearn mechansim is solid and easy to service. If they have the older Athearn trucks with the metal sideframes the detail there is poor and inaccurate for most F units. They newer trucks with press-in plastic sideframes are excellent, and easy to retrofit if you can find them. I would go for it!
A lot of folks liked the Cary metal bodyshells because of the weight, which enabled them to pull much better than most plastic diesels. Of course, it helped if you had a decent motor to use, too.
Wayne
If they are Cary shells they would be worth finishing to me. I love Cary bodies, I have 9 Cary E7 bodies on Athearn SD40-2 chassis with 9+ oz of drawbar each. A pair will pull the paint off the walls.
The 2lb on the meter is hard to see, 2lb 2.9oz each, with the Mabuchi motors a pair produce 20oz of HO pulling power with less than 900ma total.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
h
I was hoping that you’d chime-in with a testimonial, Mel. [tup][tup]
Wayne
Well.
All bare metal bodies. Both A and B units are powered. Without removing the shrink wrap over the BB boxes and only peering through the body portholes it looks like the drives are Athearn twin brass flywheel drives.
One BB box is for an undecorated “Super pwr” F7A, part or model #3223. The other box is for an F7A but contains the B unit. There’s a road name and model or part number but clearly not the original box for this B unit.
Very heavy models compared to anything plastic.
Seems unlikely these are in the original boxes.
I wouldl go for it if the price is reasonable. If the truck sideframes are black plastic that would be a plus.
Here’s the Cary catalog, or something quite similar:
http://modelrailroader.net/pdf/cary_body.pdf
If these are Cary shells, that’s pretty promising. Varney F bodies are pretty bad.
Not every Cary shell is a winner. Their SW1500 is too wide.
Ed
Get the LHS to let you unwrap and take pictures, then re-shrink wrap them. E-mail or PM the pix to someone like Ed if you don’t want to go through the rigmarole of hosting on a photo site.
How much are they asking for these?
Will do.
The Athearn boxes may have held the drives someone put into these. The BB part number is within the number ranges in that catalogue.
My interest in model railroading is driven mainly by my interest in history. I find I am also very interested in the history of model railroading. After all, my very first trainset was a then brand new tight radius Hornby clockwork set. My second was a Hornby Dublo set sold for battery use. No powerpack, just a throttle you wired up to two dry cell 6v batteries in series. My final train set was a CN F7 based freight set made by Triang which I sold to the very same LHS I patronize today. I invested the entire sale proceeds in what was at that time the state of the art Athearn BB F7A undecorated. I had in the meantime converted some Triang hook and loop couplers to the then standard NMRA horn and hook couplers, so I am no stranger to the modelling aspect of this hobby.
Then I went off to law school (at age 19, just btw) and married at 20 (to the love of my life as it turned out) so NOW I get to model railroad, for my grandsons you understand. The money part isn’t really an issue for me as long as I buy for value.
I kept my undecorated Athearn BB F7A for 50 years before finally decorating it in CPR colours. Trouble is I now know CPR did not buy any F7, only FP7A and F7B. Their FP7A also did not have a Mars light as well as a headlight, just the one front end light. My F7 has the two “headlights”. Makes the discussion about the particular Athearn F7A bodyshell inaccuracies a little beside the point.
If these particular models have some value as heritage models then I’m all over that. One reason we built a DC layout was to be able to run old stuff. I have it wired so my MRC Tech 6 just plugs right in if I want to run any more modern DCC locomotives in DCC mode. A touch of a button and a slide of an Atlas Connector switch and that Tech 6 smoothly transitions to a DC powerpack. </
To me, a “heritage model” is one that you might have lusted after when you were 11. And finally got.
This is not that.
This is what was supplied to (or collected by) a relatively sophisticated modeler to build a Better F-unit(s).
My view of a “heritage model” is my Gilbert HO C&O DL-600B. Complete with Pittman DC-70 and (continually) ringing bell.
Or perhaps my Tenshodo Great Northern S-1 4-8-4, still pretty much as it was when I got it home from Keene’s Model Railroad Shop in 1963.
Ed
My use of the word was intended to convey an interest in something old and probably outdated now but out of the ordinary at the time it was made for sale to the hobbyist of the day.
I’m pretty sure that all brass models now also automatically fall into that category due to advances in design and manufacture of plastic bodies for locomotives and rolling stock. Even resin moulded stuff is getting matched by ABS and styrene moulded stuff these days.
I’ll take a closer look at these two units when I drop by my LHS to see if they still have the Intermountain F7B shell I plan on fit onto my not heritage but definitely legacy Genesis F7A factory painted VERY poorly in CPR “colours” when the CPR did not buy any F7A and the red Athearn selected as “Tuscan” is more boxcar red than the purply tinged red CPR actually used. The grey is wrong also which is at least consistent…
I guess it didn’t to me, since you had to explain it.
From your explanation, perhaps you could replace the word with “old and unusual”; that fits exactly. I say that because you used the words “old” combined with “out of the ordinary”.
“heritage” and “legacy” sound like names for expensive cars.
Since brass models are not all old, then they can’t “automatically fall into that category”. I have one on order that has yet to be made–not exactly old. Perhaps “outdated” would fit better; your use of the phrase “…due to advances…” would imply that.
You are undoubtedly wondering why I would have an outdated model on reservation. Unless, of course, you already know.
Anyway, I look forward to your report on your findings for these models. Looking over the pictures of the Cary steam boilers sure is nostalgic, in a h
These are they.
Exactly as pictured on page 5 of that catalogue.
F2/F3 phase I or II. Three portholes per side both on the A and the B units.
Both are fitted with Athearn drives that have brass flywheels instead of the steel ones in my BB F7A.
There’s another pair the same but painted a lurid green, sort of forest green, no lettering or other marked.
CPR never bought or ran any F2,F3 or F7.
At the time it was uncommon for foreign motive power to be seen on CPR track.
They didn’t even use a factory demonstrator. CN did and then bought a few F3.
So, sadly, not a project that makes any sense for me no matter how appealing they are. Very nice models which are bound to run and pull well. Heavy and with bulletproof Athearn drives. Almost worth buying just for the drives, if I needed any.