Can anyone tell me what the visual difference is between a FP7A and a F9A. I have a pair of Highliner kits and want to build the locos that are used on the Royal Canadian Pacific train that currently runs the rails out of Calgary. Apparantly the FP7A is up graded to an F9A standard and I was wondering if the upgrade is all internal or are there any changes to the external appearance. Any help is appreciated. Thankyou CPPedler
FP’s are longer than the standard F7 or F9. The extra length was mainly for more water tank room for steam generators.
As far as I know the Highliner kit is not set up for FP’s (not long enough). It can only do a standard F unit. Be it anything from F3, F7, or F9…and the odd balls F2 and F5.
Only FP7 I’m aware of in HO is the new Intermountain version. Here’s a link:
Intermountain FP7 (they are listed in the 499xx series)
The FP7A and F9A are two different engines. When EMD designed the ‘F’ unit, they allowed space in the back of the car body for a steam generator to heat the passenger cars. The steam generator hold maybe 200 gallons of boiler water. If the locomotve was not equipped with dynamic brakes, that space could be used to provide another 600 gallons of boiler water in a ‘hatch tank’. A dynamic brake equipped ‘F’ unit has only the water that is in the steam generator. It needs to have the optional water pumping equipment to draw water from teh trailing booster units. The Santa Fe did not even equip their passenger F7A units with a steam generator. They has a water tank installed in the steam generator space, and pumped the water back to the steam generator equipped booster units! The ‘booster’ or ‘B’ units had enough floor space that a 1200 gallon water tank could be installed. You see the extra length of the FP7A when comparing photos or drawings of the two models.
EMD introduced the FP7A to address the boiler water issue. It is 4’ longer, has a floor tank, a hatch tank seperate from the dynamic brake option, and can have an optional 600 gallon underbelly tank installed. A typical FP7A(or FP9A) has about 1950 gallons of boiler water on-board, and still has a dynamic brake capability. This compares to the 1950 gallons of boiler water a typical E8A has(1350 gallons of boiler water in the underbelly tank and 600 gallons in the hatch tank if not equipped with dynamic braking). The engine sold quite well as it was perfect for smaller local runs that may have on 2-4 passenger cars and a single locomotive. BTW, there were no stretched FP7B boosters built as a standard ‘B’ unit already could have the 1200 gallon floor tank installed.
Now, kit-bashing one from Genesis parts: The Genesis body is not the right length and you will nee
Thankyou for that very descriptive narative . I had no idea there was such a difference in the two loco types. I might take a look at the Intermountain model and if necessary renumber it to 1400, which is the loco in question.
I would however, be interested to know what C.P. did to upgrade a FP7A to a F9A, I can’t imagine that they would cut 4feet or so off of it!!! and why would they take a loco with the extra water capacity and remove it.
The set-up for the Royal Canadian Pacific appears to be #1400 FP7A, #1900 F9B and #1401 F9A with #3084 GP38-2 as a back-up to use as required for extra dynamic braking in the Rockies, Plus 4 or 5 Heavy weight Business Cars and sleepers.
Thanks once again for your help. CPPedler
As I understand it, the upgrades are all internal so the Intermountain or old Atlas FP7 would work, with the correct details added. They did not remove the extra 4’ of length.
VIA Rail did a lot of upgrades to their fleet of FP7’s and FP9’s in the late 80’s/early 90’s to keep them going until new power was bought, so I would presume these are the “upgrades” you are talking about. Of course, CP has probably done some more as well.
I have the Atlas FP7 (HO scale) in CP paint. The Intermountain version would make an even better model but I am happy with mine.
If you can still get an Atlas FP7, they are nice running engines. One negative is they couple too far apart.
Doesn’t Highliners have an FP7/9 conversion kit?
http://www.1stplacehobbies.com/cgi-bin/prod.asp?pn=328-5001
Only link I could find.