Nose Lights D&RGW F-7A

[WPAllen]

I recently purchased a Athearn Genesis D&RGW F-7A and F-7B unit at a very good price. I model the Western Pacifc but these would fit in at the east end of the route. They had the Penn Central logo stamped on them from Athearn but I converted them back to all D&RGW. Anyways I will be installing a Tsunami unit in the F-7A and was wondering about the nose lights. It has two small vertical lights in both the main headlight and the one on the nose door. Does anyone know how they function such as maybe a Mars light?

[stokesda]

I went through this when I upgraded my D&RGW Athearn RTR F7 set. Here’s a couple of websites that should be useful to you:

Info on gyra/mars lights: http://www.trainweb.org/gyra/mars.htm

The short answer is there is a dual-lens Mars light on top. Some key text from the link above is here:

All of the Grande’s PAs, FTs, F3s, F5s and all F7s through unit 5644 were delivered with WR-5000 Mars Lights,. F7s 5651-5694 were delivered with white over red dual-lens Mars lights in the nose (SB-WR-2-200), but these were quickly changed to dual white. F7s 5701-5764 and the F9s were delivered with dual white lenses (SB-WR-2-200 – dual Clear option).

Info on specific locomotive road numbers, so you can trace your PC units back to what they originally were when they were D&RGW units: http://www.utahrails.net/drgw/rg-diesel-roster-index.php

Four F7As (D&RGW 5641, 5691, 5721, 5754) were sold to Penn Central in February 1970… Six F7Bs (D&RGW 5642, 5662, 5663, 5673, 5712, 5733) were sold to Penn Central in February 1970.

Cross-reference the info on the 2 websites to nail down which specific lighting configuration your model should have. Looks like your A-unit was former D&RGW 5691, 5721, 5754. Not sure if PC retained the same road #'s or not.

Good luck,

[WPAllen]

Thanks stokesda. That is some very good information, better than what I found and good for those doing research. The F-7A is 5754 and the B unit is 5733. I removed all the Penn Central logo’s with Micros Sol and an eraser. Worked out quite well. I bought the Microscale D&RGW decal set and redid it to the D&RGW standards. Came out real nice.

So I will make the upper nose light a dual white Mars light as per your link. The nose door light will be a dual headlight. That is exactly the information I was looking for. Thank You, Allen

Edit: by the way they were numbered 754 and 733 when at Penn Central so it made it easier to renumber back to the D&RGW numbers 5754 and 5733. These are real nice units as they come fully detailed from Athearn.