PHOTO BY TIMOTHY G. COSTELLO


Adding details and sound to Southern Pacific FP7’s


Fine-tuning HO scale Athearn Genesis models/Ted Haas I


was raised in Southern California, and once I got my driver’s license and began haunting the local rail-


fan sites, I soon discovered the joint Southern Pacific-Santa Fe line through the Tehachapi Mountains. That was in 1963. It was magical: long, frequent trains lugging over the mountains with helpers and sporting a huge variety of motive power. Already an HO modeler, it was only natural that I eventually joined the La Mesa Model Railroad Club, a group of devoted railfan-model railroaders in San Diego that were in the process of building an extensive HO scale model of Tehachapi. Soon I found myself trying to model every locomotive on Tehachapi, and I was delighted to see Athearn’s Genesis series F7’s that evolved from the excel- lent Highliner tooling. The new molds


Wearing the original SP Black Widow paint scheme, FP7 No. 6461 has been fitted with a snowplow pilot, lifting lugs on the nose, and icicle breakers on the roof. The train number is displayed in the number boards. Note the steam exhausting from the boiler.


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 63


were a huge improvement over the decades-old Globe units we had all be- come used to. Not long ago Athearn re- leased its FP7, a model “kitbashed” at the factory and derived from their F7. Offered in SP’s Black Widow scheme, I PROTOTYPE PHOTOS BY EDWIN BEST


found them nearly perfect but couldn’t help improving on them.


The prototype


The EMD FP7 is basically an F7 A- unit extended four feet to allow room


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