I’ve recently come down with a mild case of RCD (rivet counters’ disease), and am in the process of superdetailing (if you can call it that) my Athearn DRG&W F7A. It’s the RTR one that comes with the B dummy unit. The road number is 5584.
Probably the main thing I’m trying to do is get rid of the welder-in-the cab headlights and replace with more prototypical headlights. From my research, I’ve been able to find out that this particular locomotive had the large, single-lamp Mars light mounted in the upper housing (in the nose), and had a dual-lamp headlight mounted in the lower housing (in the front door). Problem is I can’t seem to find any definitive info saying whether the dual-lamps in the headlight are mounted horizontally (side-by-side), or vertically (one on top of the other). I’ve found some photos on the net showing both configurations in various F9’s and F7’s from other roads, but nothing from the particular road number series that I’ve got.
Anybody out there know if the headlight lamps were mounted horizontally or vertically? Thanks in advance.
I checked a number of Rio Grande F-unit pics over a wide period and they all seem to have a vertical alignment of the dual beams in the lower lamp housing on the door, with a few exceptions. The FTs and and some of the other early F-units before 1950 seem to have been delivered with a seven-bulb lamp in the lower location, but this appears to have been replaced after that date with the vertical dual-lamp assembly.
The upper, nose housing could have either a single or a dual lamp on Rio Grande F-units. The pics I found of 5584 indicate it had a single upper lamp, so you’re good to go on it as you’ve planned.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Not about headlights but but a little sneaky that bit me when I was custom painting. All Rio Grande A units (except the Alco PAs) have engine numbers ending in either 1 or 4. This is because the engine number is expressed only in the first 3 digits, the final digit is the UNIT # w/in the 4 unit set. Thus, the PA numbers are 6001, 6003, 6011, and 6013 with the B units being 6002 and 6012… You might already be aware of this but, as I said, I was bitten by it (of course, the goof was on a customer’s eng.) and it’s one of those little traps that the unwary could easily step into as I did.
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Looks like I’ll go with the vertical configuration. If feasible, I’ll try attaching the light housing so that I can rotate it 90 degrees is someone proves otherwise in the future [:P]
Jim - I was aware of the numbering scheme from some info I found on www.utahrails.net. I hadn’t planned on repainting or renumbering, but I was delighted because it looks like someone at Athearn actually did their homework on this one!