Southern Pacific’s FP7’s
for a water tank and a steam boiler. Prior to that, several roads like Santa Fe were using their F-units in passen- ger service and had found there was not enough room in an F3 or F7 A-unit for a water tank and boiler if it also had dynamic brakes. The Santa Fe solved the problem by pairing their standard
A-units with B-units
equipped with steam boilers, installing steam lines in the A-units with a “door” in the pilot for the steam line connec- tion. Northern Pacific simply put boil- ers in the first baggage car (remember, passenger trains relied upon steam for air conditioning as well as heat). EMD answered the problem by mak- ing the FP7 with integral boilers and water tanks. They produced 381 of them between 1949 and late 1953 for 31 roads. Louisville & Nashville and Atlantic Coast Line bought the most, 45 and 44 respectively. Southern Pacif- ic purchased 16 (Nos. 6446 through 6461) between 1951 and 1953 and later leased Cotton Belt’s No. 306, renum- bering it 6462. The 17 SP units occu- pied classes DF-4, DF-8, DF-9, DF-12 and DF-15 on the roster. Several lasted long enough to see service with Amtrak still wearing SP’s scarlet and gray scheme. FP7’s are easily spotted by their longer length, the “empty” under- body area just behind the front truck, the boiler vents on the rear roof panel and the water filler on the side.
The model
Athearn offered these units as part of their Genesis line with both the standard EMD pilot and the aftermar- ket SP snowplow pilot, four road num- bers all in the Black Widow scheme, with or without sound. At this time At- hearn is not offering the SP models in the scarlet and gray scheme, but they could come at a future date and might include etched metal icicle breakers. I chose to start with Athearn’s Gene- sis FP7, as it is a very accurate model of the prototype. It is based on the F7A tooling, cut and extended with new side panels and a four-foot roof panel. There is very little needed to make the model accurate to SP practices as seen in the 1950’s. However, I chose to add sound (my model came without it), LED headlights, and some minor de- tails. The modifications here are equal- ly applicable to any Athearn F7 model.
Chassis
Remove the body by taking off the coupler and pocket on the pilot and then the two screws at the rear. The body should slide off easily but still be connected by the wires to the head- lights. Unhook all the wires from the PC board and remove the board itself.
64 NOVEMBER 2013
The grab iron ladder on the nose of No. 6454 can clearly be seen in the topphoto. Since it is a trailing unit, the number boards are blank. SP added wind deflectors with integral mirrors on both sides of the cab. Number 6454 (above) is in the red and gray scheme and has the original pilot; the water filler cover is missing (just below the letter “P”). Barely visible is the steam line connection protruding from the access panel below the coupler. This stock At- hearn model (below) has a snowplow pilot, five chime horn, nose m.u. plug door, and hoses.
MODEL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
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