Lionel Catalog Typo?

Has anyone contacted Lionel about this? This picture depicts an F7 Diesel doesn’t it? So I wonder if the picture is wrong or the description is wrong. I’d love to pre-order this diesel as long as I’d end up recieving what’s pictured and not an F3 (Which I have already)

Also this is the engine (the F7 like in picture) I wanted to run on 027 curves and asked about in another thread…I think it’ll run on 027 curves and it just says “minimum radius 031” because its from Lionel’s "Standard “O” offerings.

I’ll try contacting lionel myself as well; i’ve heard it’s not impossible to get a response.

Thanks,

Roland

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I’m not much of a diesel spotter, but IIRC the tall fans + Screen side vents make this unit a late version of the F3. I may well be wrong, but that’s what I seem to remember.

That said, it is NOT the old postwar version of the F3.

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EMD F7
D&RGW #5634 in 1950; this early Phase I locomotive was delivered in July, 1949

Power type

Diesel-electric

Builder

General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD)

Model

F7

Build date

February 1949 - December 1953

Total production

2,366 A units, 1,483 B units

AAR wheel arr.

B-B

Gauge

4 ftin (1435 mm)

Power output

1,500 hp

Locale

North America

The EMD F7 was a 1,500 horsepower

This is a very good source for information: http://www.railpictures.net/

And, oh btw, the grills and the internals were the difference. http://www.answers.com/topic/emd-f7

It is an F3. The grills are the cosmetic difference, and on the inside, the prime movers are different.

Thanks for the info…after stumbling around the internet I was able to find good evidence that this is a late model F3 as palallin pointed out in the first response…definitely very indistinguishable from the subsequent F7’s from EMD. So I guess then, it might be safe to assume that since a postwar F3 can negotiate 027 curves and switches this version must also be able too. Seam like a good bet?

[:)]

Roland

I have always thought that a horizontal-motor Lionel F3 would not clear an O27 switch machine, because of the much greater spacing of their truck center bearings. McComas and Tuohy say, “…the other F-3s…sometimes brushed their fuel tanks against the 027 switch motors, causing derailments.”

The 2343 PW F3 you see in my avatar clears all my 027 switches both PW 1122’s and their modern equivalents. It has dual laydown motors on the 2333-20 frame. The tank just brushes the switch machine sometimes…does not cause any movement in the cab and has never caused any derailments and still has yet to leave a mark on the fuel tank so It’s not rubbing very hard if at all. No extra clearance tho.[;)]

So I’m thinking my PW F3’s are worst case…as the newer models appear to be shorter? and definitely no longer.

Roland

All the postwar F3s, whether with horizontal or vertical motors, were the same size; and that size was very close to scale. So it seems very unlikely Lionel would make any later F3 longer than that.

What differed between the horizontal- and vertical-motor versions was the location of the truck center bearings. On the prototype, these would have been centered on the trucks; but, on the Lionel models, they were offset. In the horizontal versions, the offset spaced them farther apart, which caused the middle of the carbody to move farther to the inside of a curve than the prototype would. The vertical versions had the spacing offset the other way, closer than the prototype, resulting in less overhang to the inside of a curve. So, if there is a problem with running modern Lionel F3s on O27, it probably has to do with whether the center bearings have moved again since the later postwar years.

Ahh…good info Bob. I will be searching for some evidence as to how the newer F3’s are set up.

Roland