HO F7 units, Intermountain or Stewart or ??
Fred Dabney
R. Keith Heinsohn wrote in message ...
>In HO scale, I want to purchase an F7A unit and want to get a truly good
>one. Which one would the group recommend as being most closely matched
>to the prototype? Good running gear is essential, too.
>Intermountain's? It being a kit is a plus, building it would be a fun,
>but a chassis is needed. Either Kato, Stewart, or Athearn, although IM
>says they're going to put out one, too.
>Stewart's? It is mostly r-t-r.
>Somebody else's?
What a lot of guys are doing is buying the Proto 1000 F3 and taking the
drive from it to use in the IM shell. The P1K loco is cheaper than almost
any other option, even if you throw away the shell, and the drive is
identical
to the P2K stuff and runs quite nicely.
The P1K shell itself is ok, but it has all the grabs and railings cast on
which lowers its appeal to a lot of modelers.
Fred D.
Arnold 299
I own over 70 Stewart F units but started out with Athearn. The Athearn are
outdated as far as the shell being close to the prototype. If the new Genesis
is released anytime soon you may want to wait and take a gander at it.
I have been very impressed with the Stewart F units. To me the drive unit is
great either the Kato version or the new drive unit made by Stewart. Some
modelers have complained about color on the Stewart F units and about all I
will say is YOU decide if it is correct or not before you buy them. The
Stewarts do not have a lot of detail applied but if you are halfway decent at
modeling it really is not that hard. Some modelers don't want the extra detail
because of breakage due to rough handling by their children or grandchildren.
One thing is for sure there is going to be a large selection of F units in the
next year which may lower the price so don't be in too much of a hurry. Also
you may want to check out MRC's F units when they hit the market.
Scott
In Nebraska
Roland Williams
own Athearn. You never said the roadname you were looking for. Stewarts
are good but costly and come with molded on handrails. Intermountain
have more detail and have Stewart drives. Wait to see the Genesis.
ROLAND
Fritz Milhaupt
Minor correction, there, Roland. Stewarts come _without_ handrails,
molded or otherwise. At least none of the ones sitting on my shelf came
with them. 'makes it that much easier to add one's own.
I'm also a little curious about the statement that Intermountain diesels
have Stewart drives. Lest we end up with another SD60-style rumor, what
was your source for that information? Intermountain hasn't shipped any
powered diesels yet.
-fm
Webmaster of the Pere Marquette Historical Society Web site at:
http://www.rust.net/~milhaupt/pmhs/
If you feel compelled to contact me via e-mail, shoo away the "llama."
in the address shown in the header.
C. Zeni
> One thing is, finding an IM F7A in SP might not be all that easy
> anymore. Anybody have one they don't want?
I bought a P1K to power my F7A. The drive runs very very nicely
regardless of price, and runs like a dream for $34 (train show price).
It will fit under the IM shell as a drop-in, no sweat. Minor kink is
that if you model F units with the fuel tank skirts removed you'll find
it more work to get it right with this drive than with the Stewart as
there is a bulge on the P1K frame that will show past removed skirts. I
was able to score an AB set of flood damaged Stewart Fs yesterday for
$60 so I'll go that route instead, saving the P1K for a full skirted
unit.
--
Craig Zeni - REPLY TO -->> clzeni at mindspring dot com
http://www.mindspring.com/~clzeni/index.html
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer...
Tim O'Connor
> Minor correction, there, Roland. Stewarts come _without_ handrails,
> molded or otherwise. At least none of the ones sitting on my shelf came
> with them. 'makes it that much easier to add one's own.
>
> I'm also a little curious about the statement that Intermountain diesels
> have Stewart drives. Lest we end up with another SD60-style rumor, what
> was your source for that information? Intermountain hasn't shipped any
> powered diesels yet.
As David Hussey posted, Intermountain is doing its own chassis & drive.
I saw the trucks and gearbox at the MRIA show, and they are testing and
tweaking the motor and drive train now. The trucks are more realistic
than others on the market, thanks to the end cross-beam attaching the
sideframes on opposite sides to each other. This is a detail no one else
has really bothered to model. Also I think the fuel tank is a separate
part like the Stewart and Genesis. So we can model the no-skirts units
with an open space between the frame and top of the fuel tank.
My only complaint is they decided against using .088 wheels. Before you
object, remember that if they had, the outside width of the trucks could
be .044 narrower (.110 - .088 * 2). This means the brake cylinder is far
less likely to strike the cab stirrups on tight curves. In case you have
not built one of these "super units", this can be a real problem!
Proto:HO wheels (.064 w/ NMRA flanges) would be even better -- then you
get 0.092 less truck width!
S C Sillato
: I bought a P1K to power my F7A. The drive runs very very nicely
: regardless of price, and runs like a dream for $34 (train show price).
: It will fit under the IM shell as a drop-in, no sweat. Minor kink is
: that if you model F units with the fuel tank skirts removed you'll find
: it more work to get it right with this drive than with the Stewart as
: there is a bulge on the P1K frame that will show past removed skirts. I
: was able to score an AB set of flood damaged Stewart Fs yesterday for
: $60 so I'll go that route instead, saving the P1K for a full skirted
: unit.
Only one problem that I've found.. The P1K drive does not run well with
the Stewarts. I have 3 P1K drives that all run together(when facing the
same direction<g>) but they DO NOT MU well at all with Stewarts.
Interestingly enough they do run well with my only 2 "super power"
Athearns.
Go figure. LL clones the Stewart chassis and drive but changes it just
enough so the shells won't interchange without modification and the drives
don't run together. Hopefully it wasn't done on purpose. I'd hate to
think that a group that put out such great models would have done
something like that.
--
Steve Sillato NYC, LV, GBW & ALCo fan
Forty is the old age of youth, fifty the youth of old age.
Andy Harman
<milh...@rust.llma.net> wrote:
>I'm also a little curious about the statement that Intermountain diesels
>have Stewart drives. Lest we end up with another SD60-style rumor, what
>was your source for that information? Intermountain hasn't shipped any
>powered diesels yet.
The Intermountain F's which have been shown at the company booth in
the last few shows have Stewart drives for demonstration purposes, but
they are not sold yet with any drives. The Intermountain drive is
under development (actually witnessed its first assembled test run)
and appears to be entirely their own creation, Kato-clone trucks, not
sure what type of motor (Buehler?).
Andy
----------------------------------------------------
Please reply to aharman at hhcustom dot com
Visit the RPM Web Page at http://www.rpmrail.org
Or my personal site at http://www.hhcustom.com/nspmg
----------------------------------------------------
Jerryglow
>less likely to strike the cab stirrups on tight curves. In case you have
>not built one of these "super units", this can be a real problem!
>
Not as much a problem (physically) on Highliner/Athearn units as the stirups
are thinner..
.
Jerry Glow
Train Detail Works
Brea CA
layout tour: <http://members.aol.com/TrnDetWrks/tour1.html>
DHENK
AOLa...@webtv.net (Roland Williams) writes:
>Intermountain
>have more detail and have Stewart drives. Wait to see the Genesis.
>
Intermountains F units currently have no drive for sale. The ones seen running
for Demo purposes are using a Stewart chassis.They are designing there own
chassis. As a matter of fact the initial test runs were at Des Plaines Hobbies
on 29 October after the Chicago Show shut down for the day. They were
soliciting opinions and ideas. They had a couple of different motors and
universals that were tried. Also it was suggested that they leave room in the
back end for a speaker. Doing so would reduce the weight slightly but allow
sound to be added.
Dave Henk
Dave Henk
David Thuss
> R. Keith Heinsohn wrote in message ...
> >In HO scale, I want to purchase an F7A unit and want to get a truly good
> >one. Which one would the group recommend as being most closely matched
> >to the prototype? Good running gear is essential, too.
> >Intermountain's? It being a kit is a plus, building it would be a fun,
> >but a chassis is needed. Either Kato, Stewart, or Athearn, although IM
> >says they're going to put out one, too.
> >Stewart's? It is mostly r-t-r.
> >Somebody else's?
>
> What a lot of guys are doing is buying the Proto 1000 F3 and taking the
> drive from it to use in the IM shell. The P1K loco is cheaper than almost
> any other option, even if you throw away the shell, and the drive is
> identical
> to the P2K stuff and runs quite nicely.
>
> The P1K shell itself is ok, but it has all the grabs and railings cast on
> which lowers its appeal to a lot of modelers.
>
> Fred D.
I've been genuinely impressed with the P1K F3's running qualities. They run
better than my E-R Sharks (which I paid 2-1/2 times as much for). Some of the
early units had a 4 diode circuit board which prevented back-to-back units
from running at the same speed. Life-Like has a newer 6 diode replacement
board which they will send free of charge. I would suspect that the newer "A"
units, and the soon to be released "B's" will have the new boards installed.
--
Dave
It's all an illusion! (Henning)
Roland Williams
going to stay with the Stewart or build there own. Now I hear the are
testing there own. I was telling the guy he could use Stewart for the
Intermountain.
ROLAND