In 2003 we went to Elkins, WV to ride a train, apparently my SP N scale longer loco which was too long for F7A was based on passenger version, LikeLike, West Virgina Central Railroad has one, and FA1 for the Tygart Valley line along the river, Belington, WV Hawkins Rails.net Western Maryland #67
We road the train to High Falls, pix on my Picasa Tom Roscoe (Salamander)
Tom,
The EMD F7A had ‘limited’ boiler water capacity for the steam generator that provide train heating. EMD offered a 4’ longer version(FP7A) that carried additional boiler water.
The Alco FA-1 has NO space for a steam generator. The later FA-2 was extended in the rear of the locomotive to provide space for a steam generator.
I hope you enjoyed the rides!
Jim
Alco FP4A (I believe that was the designation) had steam generators. These were Canadian National locomotives.
Mike
Jim is correct about the Alco/MLW FA-2 being extended to house steam generators. If the steam generators were present, the designation was FPA-2. There were also FPB-2 locomotives, too. Many roads ran this series of locomotives including both CN and CP.
The biggest difference between the FPA/B-2 and the FPA/B-4 series was unseen. The -2 locomotives were powered by the 244 engine and rated at 1500 or 1600 horsepower; the same as the RS-2/3. The FPA/B-4 locomotives were powered by the 251 engine rated at 1800 horsepower, the same as the RS-11/18.
Alco did offer the FPA/B-4 locomotives in their order books but there were no takers except for MLW’s order from CN.
Steve
Very few F7A’s had boiler. D&RGW bought two, and after 3 or 4 years they were removed.
FYI, the Athearn blue box F7A has steam generator details, which back when I bought one, I was annoyed because I had to scrape, shave and file them off because most F7A’s were freight loco’s without them.
The ATSF had a total of 55 F7A’s with steam heat boilers and the water supply system allowed the A units to share the water supply of the steam equipped B units.
The original Athearn tooling was modeled after those units.
The Rock Island had 12 F7A’s with steam heat boilers.
And the Great Northern had 6 F7A’s with steam heat boilers and used them with steam heat B units similar to the ATSF.
As did the Northern Pacific with their 4 steam heat equipped F7A’s.
There may have been others.
While F7’s with steam boilers were the exception, a large percentage of the earlier F3’s were built with steam boilers prior to the offering of the FP7.
Most of the B&O F3 fleet was passenger equiped and remained so until scraped or traded.
The simple fact is that as a stand alone passenger loco, an F7 with a boiler was not much use due to the limited water suppy, but in a lash up with steam equipped B’s, having 3 or 4 boilers was a good hedge against breakdowns and sufficient steam capacity.
It all depended on the operating conditions of the line in question.
Sheldon
I do not know of any AT&SF F3A or F7a units with S/G’s. They had a 1200 gallon water tank in the area reserved for the S/G, and the usual pump/plumbing to move that boiler water to the S/G in the B unit.
The CRI&P had 3 F7A’s with S/G(part of 3 F7AB sets for the Twin Star Rocket). They also had 10 FP7A units ordered for Chicago commuter service.
The GN had ‘scads’ of F3A & F7A units in the 350 series for passenger service - All with a S/G.
The NP also had a large fleet of S/G equipped F3A/F7A/FP7A/F9A units in the 6500/6600/6700 series for passenger service.
The large western ‘trans-con’ railroads(other than the UP) tended to favor large 3-4 unit consists of passenger F’s. This gave them enough boiler ware capacity to get to the next division point, and enough S/G’s to heat a train(most of the time). The NP and to some extent the GN also used ‘water-baggage’ cars to provide additional boiler ware capacity. Railroads with smaller runs(and maybe using 1 or 2 units) favored the FP7A when it became available as it had the same boiler water capacity of an E8A or E9A. When I worked for the CB&Q in the late 60’s, we used E7A/E8A/E9A units with dual S/G’s and 1950 gallons of boiler water - on a frigid January day, the unit could be low on steam heat after a 145 mile trip between Mpls and North La Crosse. The engines were serviced at North La Crosse and Savanna. There were refueling/water facilities on the ends of the passenger platforms so that the units could be topped off while the crew change/passenger work was being done.
Jim