I have come up with an idea for my E. St. Louis Rail Group locomotive roster that has saved me big bucks! This works good with F3 or F7 units but may work with Geeps as well. I purchased a sound equipped Proto 2000 F7 with sound. I modified the interior of numerous F unit shells, getting rid of any plastic protrusions that would interfere with mounting the body on the new Proto 2000 shell. The Athearn shell is a good choise. I then painted and lettered these in NYC, C&EI and Cotton Belt. I also use a C&NW and SP shells for this purpose that were factory painted. I also installed a Digitrax DH 165AO decoder in a Athearn Genesis L&N F7 and use that chassis for body interchange. By using this method with FA & FB units I can run different road names for the price of the shells (around $10.00 each). As the E. St. Louis Rail Group had 20 railroads that served the greater East St. Louis area (Prototype for the 1950’s) I can run them all at a greatly reduced cost! One note of caution: pick up the locomotive as a unit, Do Not Pick Up by the Shall, as the chassis will fall to the floor! I hope you will try this idea.
If I may say so, this is not a new idea by any means. If it works for your needs great.
I think most modelers will fine it not to their liking for a number of reasons, including:
Sound equiped locos are likely to vibrate with the shell just “sitting” in them.
Many modelers I know have no interest in running locos from a long list of different roadnames. Personally, I model the B&O, C&O, WM and my freelanced ATLANTIC CENTRAL. I do not own any locos for other roads as they would not appear in the area modeled and I am not a “collector” of model trains.
Every loco (and every piece of rolling stock) on my layout has a job in the operation and needs to be
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The Ferroequinologist:
I have come up with an idea for my E. St. Louis Rail Group locomotive roster that has saved me big bucks! This works good with F3 or F7 units but may work with Geeps as well. I purchased a sound equipped Proto 2000 F7 with sound. I modified the interior of numerous F unit shells, getting rid of any plastic protrusions that would interfere with mounting the body on the new Proto 2000 shell. The Athearn shell is a good choise. I then painted and lettered these in NYC, C&EI and Cotton Belt. I also use a C&NW and SP shells for this purpose that were factory painted. I also installed a Digitrax DH 165AO decoder in a Athearn Genesis L&N F7 and use that chassis for body interchange. By using this method with FA & FB units I can run different road names for the price of the shells (around $10.00 each). As the E. St. Louis Rail Group had 20 railroads that served the greater East St. Louis area (Prototype for the 1950’s) I can run them all at a greatly reduced cost! One note of caution: pick up the locomotive as a unit, Do Not Pick Up by the Shall, as the chassis will fall to the floor! I hope you will try this idea.
If I may say so, this is not a new idea by any means. If it works for your needs great.
I think most modelers will fine it not to their liking for a number of reasons, including:
Sound equiped locos are likely to vibrate with the shell just “sitting” in them.
Many modelers I know have no interest in running locos from a long list of different roadnames. Personally, I model the B&O, C&O, WM and my freelanced ATLANTIC CENTRAL. I do not own any locos for other roads as they would not appear in the area modeled an
I don’t know about sound engines, but Stewart Hobbies F shells will swap with Proto 1000’s.
Since I’m planning on rotating eras from time to time on my layout, I’ve been on the lookout for ways to do things like you describe. I’m working on a third body shell for my old Walthers H-10-44 switcher for example. Unfortunately, undecorated body shells are harder to get than they once were; a few years ago you could go get an Athearn dummy engine for $10-20 (undec or painted) - the dummies came with the handrails, window glazing etc. so were better than the shells by themselves.
Sheldon: By way of exclamation the following: 1) When using interchangeable bodies I have had no vibration noise with sound units, either on E or F units. 2) The area I model in the 1950’s (Greater E. St. Louis) did have a large number of different railroads, 20 in all, so that many road names would be seen. I don’t collect just to collect, but try to stick with railroads in my area of modeling. On my layout ( soon to be part of a round robin group) I do have a job for all of my locos and trains. A few of them are: Cotton Belt- Blue Streak Merchandise (auto parts & L.C.L.), Nickel Plate-Fast freights #90, #96 East Bounds and their West Bound counterparts, C&NW-coal and coke trains to Granite Steel, IC & GM&O-Banana trains from New Orleans and C&EI -Bridge line traffic. These are only a few of the scheduled trains run on the E. St. Louis Railgroup layout. 3) I can sacrifice a working front coupler on the FA unit for the versatility gained. A dummy front couple could be installed for appearance, without interfering with the chassis. There is no real need for a working front coupler as the road freight only sets out and picks up trains at terminals The yard switcher handles the switching chores. 4) For realism you do need all your F under frames & trucks to be black. Example- ATSF body on NYC chassis wouldn’t work as ATSF trucks were silver & NYC were black.