Question for anyone else who has these. My LL P2K FA pair both appear to sit way too high. The steps from the cab look like they should end lower down on the trucks, it appears too much of the frame is visible, and the coupler pocket openings in the body don’t actually come all the way down on the couplers. Despite all this, the four molded posts on the inside of the body that the mounting screws go into appear to sit all the way down on the frame. Still, with the screws out and the bodies just sitting on the chassis, I can rock them front to back slightly and the pivot point appears to be the rear set of these posts. Is all of this normal? Assuming no, what did you do to rectify it? My LL P2K PA’s don’t have this same issue.
Unti recently, I had two pairs of LL Proto 2000 PA/PB locos. My impression was the same as yours, Mike.
I thought that the chassis sat too high over the wheel sets. As a result, the consists appeared huge to me, sorta HO+ scale.
Moreover, the shells didn’t fit well, especially the rear portion. I grew to hate these particular locos, especially since I constantly experienced derailment problems.
With a lot of help from members of this forum, I finally solved the derailment problems, and then I sold both cinsists.
I know that I am in the minority, but I will go so far as to say that this particular loco is downright ugly.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Maybe I’m not nuts after all! [(-D]
The rear is the easiest spot to tell something isn’t right. As high as it appears on the rear, the body is sitting level on the frame, so the whole body is sitting high.
If I pull the screws out that hold the shell in place and simply rest the shell on the chassis I can place one finger on the nose and one on the rear end and alternate pressing either end. The body rocks like a teeter-totter when I do this, and when it rocks toward the rear it takes up much of the “slack” in the opening for the coupler. The pivot point when I do this is just behind the rear of the fuel tank. Like something at that point is too high compared to the rest of the chassis.
Thanks Bear. It looks like I can see a similar gap between the rear coupler and the bottom of the body on yours too. Also looks like it’s right in line body height-wise with your Walthers one though.[:^)]
Yeah, sorta an engine on stilts. Difference for me though is my PAs look perfect.
The shell is level, so maybe they just made an extra large gap above the rear coupler pocket?
After I posted initially I googled pics of Alco FAs and confirmed that the lowest stirrup step for climbing to the cab falls basically in line or a little below what appears to be the center of a leaf
The problem with the rocking is having the mounting posts in the center of the shell instead of near the ends. I shortened the posts and glued styrene blocks at the four corners to hold the frame flush with the bottom of the shell. IIRC the center posts hold the weight in position so they can’t be eliminated entirely. I drilled and tapped the frame and styrene blocks for small screws to hold the frame in the shell.
Another problem is the overall height of the unit caused by the frame riding too high on the trucks. This goes back to Life Like copying the Athearn blue box four wheel truck design. Those also are too high.
I mill the truck bolster on the frame to lower the unit and then drill the bolster for a new center pin. There have been articles that show how to modify the trucks to lower the truck center plate instead.
Well that’s interesting, but based on some first hand measuring I just did, a simpler solution exists.
I found a good scale drawing of an FA, then I measured some models.
I have first and second release versions of the FA2’s and first release versions of FA1’s.
Here is a photo of a first release FA1 and a first release FA2.
They are both the same height and match the prototype drawing within 1 scale inch in both overall height and the height of the body bottom edge from the rail head.
Here is a later release FA2, without the working rooftop fan, and it sits too high. It measures 3-4 scale inches higher both in overall height and in distance from the railhead to the bottom edge of the body.
BUT, the bottom edge of the body is not really covering the locomotive frame like the other two models do.
Sheldon, thank you so much for this information. Mine must be the later run FA2’s as they have the height issue and do not have operating fans. Looking forward to see how you alter the mounts but still ensure they are the same height. That is my biggest fear with altering them.
