I recently purchased a EMD E7B off eBay for a kitbash project and I would like to find out who the manufacturer was and a baseball date when it was available. It has a Cary shell professionally painted in the PRR color scheme. It runs very nicely as well very quietly. Someone has re-motored it with a Mashima can motor.
I thought it might be a Hobbytown of Boston but I couldn’t find a match on HO Seek.
I’m making a modified E7B to house some electronic circuits pulled by a pair of E7 A/B locomotives with Cary Shells on Athearn SD40-2T frames.
I’m keeping the Cary shell but I do not need the locomotive frame because I have kitbashed a couple of Athearn PA-1 frames for my project. I would like to identify the frame so that I can either make it available on eBay or swap it off to someone that could use it.
Mel
It looks like the old Model Power chassis, somewhat modified. These were surprisingly good-running locomotives, with a large can motor and a decent-size flywheel - perhaps two - mine are long gone.
They offered an E7 and E8/9, with both A- and B-units, and both as powered or dummy versions.
My E8A was pretty-much stock, with some added detail, while the E7B was made from two A-units and extensively modified to represent a Phase II version:
Definitely not a Hobbytown drive. General arrangement of their system was to drive only 1 truck up top, and then run a driveline underneath the loco to power the second truck.
I looked at HO Seek under Model Power and there isn’t any E7s listed. Sorry about the Google Drive thing but I couldn’t get the pictures to upload here.
Did the Model Power E7 come with a Cary Shell? This E7B must have been in an Estate sale from a dedicated RR guy because of the can motor and Cary shell. And you are correct it is a very good runner.
The Model Power E7 and E8 had plastic sheels(with a big screw in the roof just behind the cab). Some ran great out of the box, others had some problems - all fixable. They had a huge can motor and were great pullers.
Just because HOSeeker has no documentation for the E7 just means no one has ‘donated’ the paperwork.
Con-Cor eventually picked up the model and ‘fixed’ the screw problem, IIRC. They sort of went away when the nice Life-Like E units arrived on the scene in the 90’s.
Very close! The one I have both ends are square because it’s a B unit. The motor has been replaced with a smaller Neodymium magnet motor. What is it? Model Power?
This particular locomotive is a very good runner. I bought it for a kitbash project, it was listed as non op without any info but four good pictures. It runs so good that I’m keeping the frame for future use as a powered E7B. I’m going to use the Cary shell for my project, it will be a dummy second E7B on a kitbashed Athearn frame towing my Southern Pacific Daylight passenger train.
I have a dummy E7A with a camera mounted up front that the Model Power E7B would push very nicely.
