If you’ve seen my Layouts thread, you know I’m taking the various rolling stock I’ve got and slowly turning it into a theme for my DRGW/SLC San Luis Valley layout. With a GE 70-tonner and two steam engines nearly completed, I’ve decided for variety I want a grand total of six locomotives for my sleepy locale, three steam and three diesel, so I can run two slightly different transition time periods:
DRGW:
passenger traffic-- P-44 4-6-2; F7A
freight traffic-- C-48 or C-41 2-8-0; GP7
SLC branch traffic: 2-8-0, GE 70-tonner
At Christmas I brought home with me a box of locomotives and cars from my childhood, mostly old Tyco stock, a few Life-Like, mostly junk and not in operating condition. I’ve taken stock of the pieces and parts and out-of-commission locos and found two very promising chassis (chasses?)-- a Bachmann F7 and an unknown GP40. The shells are pretty junked, missing detail parts, lots of sloppy paint, but after cleaning and re-oiling the lower halves run wonderfully! Both have double flywheels, the Bachmann has a can motor, and they really crawl and don’t give off much noise at all.
There’s still a lot of time before I’ll tackle this as I’ve got numerous other projects going on, but I’m wondering whether anyone has advice about getting just shells for these locomotives? The Bachmann probably wouldn’t be a problem, I could order through their site or else look for a dead one somewhere, but other suggestions are welcome. For the other, not knowing the brand, would there be much time involved turning the GP40 chassis into a GP7, and what suggestions would you have for finding a suitable shell for it? I can’t post a photo immediately, but I’ll try to get some up soon.
For the Geep, if it’s shell has four “lugs” that go down into the frame around the motor, it’s an Athearn, most likely older blue-box. If that is the case, any Athearn BB shell from the GP series will fit it. That is your best scenario, if it’s another brand, might need some searching. Hope for Athearn though, as those shells are very abundant, and can be found almost anywhere… Train shows, some (longtime) shops, auction sites (eBay and preownedtrains), even places like the advertising section in the back of MRMag (RJ Rennie is one who advertised in MR for years having Athearn shells).
The wheelbase of a GP40 is 3’ longer than the wheelbase of a GP7, so a GP7 shell won’t fit onto the GP40 frame. Assuming the model diesels are accurately scaled, the distance from truck center to truck center is 31’0" on the GP7; 34’0" on the GP40. Trying to shorten the frame to fit would be a major problem, and you’d have to change the fuel tanks too. I think a new or used GP7 from Athearn, Atlas, or P2K probably makes more sense.
If the F7A mechanism is OK, you might be able to adapt a shell from Stewart or (better yet) Highliners to fit the frame. I suspect the Blomberg truck sideframes would be acceptable. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a really close look at a Bachmann F7A, so I’m prepared to be corrected on this.
I vaguely recall that a D&RGW C-41 2-8-0 may have been imported many years ago, but they aren’t too common. A C-48 was definitely imported by somebody, and it is also going to be rather rare. I suspect a pretty good C-48 could be built using a PFM Santa Fe “1950” 2-8-0 as a starting point. They are pretty easy to find on the used market.
I’ll echo ACY’s comments emphatically. For the GP7, if cost is an issue, look for an Athearn GP7, Atlas GP7 or Proto 2000 GP7 second hand. The Athearn would be the cheapest but also the crudest - non scale hood. Best would be the Atlas in terms of smooth running quality - which is imporant and they look much better than Athearn. Proto 2000 look great but the chassis are not as good as Atlas.
For the F7, look for a Stewart - they run awesome, and look quite good, even by todays standards. The have the best running chassis ever made for an F7 in HO - KATO made them and you can likely find them at shows for reasonable prices. And as a bonus, they can be found painted for Rio Grande! (I have 10 of them myself - nice F units).
The frame on top is a Bachmann Plus. I have several of them that run quite nicely. Other than making sure to isolate the motor connection from the frame and adding wires to the truck sides that have wipers, it is straightfoward to add a DCC decoder if you are into DCC. Just about any F7 or F3 shell will probably fit it.
The frame on the bottom is an Athearn from a GP40-2, GP38-2 or GP50. They are also good runners, but are improved by use of a five-wire system— see my web site trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain for Athearn tuneup ideas. Owing to the four lugs that go into the fual tank, they are most easily used with the Athearn shells. The Atlas GP40 shell is too narrow to fit without milling the frame or sanding some off the inside of the shell.
