Southern Pacific’s FP7’s
Even on a fleet as small as the SP’s FP7’s, there were variations. The 6460 has a snowplow pilot and five-chime horn. Similar No. 6447 has m.u. hoses, an m.u. plug door on the nose, and striping on its original EMD pilot. It also has a new antenna. Set up for use as a trailing unit, No. 6458 has a blank number board behind its
LED headlights and wiring Make up two LED-resistor-wire as- semblies as shown in the photos. These are 3mm Yeloglo white LED’s from Miniatronics. Use the 470r resistor (yellow/violet/brown) and the wire from two of the removed light bulbs. Cover the soldered assemblies with shrink tubing, marking the wire end to identify the LED’s anode lead before- hand. One of these assemblies must be bent into a loose “Z” shape to fit the space between the lower headlight and the forward end of the cab casting. Snap in the Tsunami circuit board, noting the “Forward” arrow. Solder the red motor wire to the forward motor lug and the black one to the rear lug. Solder the truck leads to the outside lugs at the front and rear, making sure you haven’t crossed the leads. Test the assembly on the track to make sure the engine runs in the right direction. Next, route the headlight leads through the cab and solder the lower headlight wires (the ones with the “Z” bend) to the forward inner lugs; solder the upper headlight wires to the rear inner lugs. It is important that you connect the anode leads to the common side (see the wiring diagram supplied with the board), as otherwise the LED’s won’t operate. Test to be sure the headlights come on (forward = low- er headlight, reverse = upper head- light). Don’t worry: later we will con- figure the CV’s so they both come on together and the upper simulates an oscillating Mars light. Finally, test fit the speaker and cut the leads to reach the speaker lugs on the circuit board. When satisfied, install the speaker with double-sided foam tape on the chassis cut so there is no interfer- ence with the speaker diaphragm. Note
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clear “glass.” The bulbs are represented with pieces of optic fiber; this locomotive does not have m.u. hoses or a cable door in the nose. Like 6447, it does have lifting lugs, and the bells on the five- chime horn are arranged differently. At the far right, No. 6446 has the as-delivered dual horns, no lifting lugs, and no left side ladder.
that the speaker seems to work best if facing down toward the truck.
Final details
Drill out the boiler stack with a ¹/₈″ bit, as this looks better than the shallow casting. Drill two ¹/₃₂″ holes in the roof (see photos) and install ¹/₃₂″ rod in each, extending about six scale inches above the roof. These simulate the boiler blowoff vents. Paint the inside of the stack and the two vents black. The proto- type had a blow-down steam vent at the rear righthand corner behind the rear step. You can model this with a ¹/₁₆″ brass tube. It extends straight down from the floor and ends 18″ above the rail. Add two curved grab irons on the pi-
lot, centered between the buffer plate and the outer grab irons. Paint all the grabs on the pilot white. Add a grab iron adjacent to the rear door where the body casting indicates. Paint this white as well. You may add the fireman’s side ladder (grab irons) and strap step to up-
date the model, but these were not on the prototype as delivered and were only added after 1959 as directed by the federal requirements for crew safety. This may also explain the added grabs on the anti-climber. After I built these units, I noticed that some photos show the anti- climber painted black, some red. It ap- pears this was a shop decision, as there does not seem to be any pattern. I added a brake hose next to the sig- nal hose since these units all had both a signal hose (for passenger opera- tions) and a brake hose. Paint the hose dark brown and the fittings gray or dull silver. Be sure it doesn’t interfere with the coupler swing. You will note that I clipped off the uncoupling pin on the Kadee couplers.
Athearn supplies a five-chime horn,
which is accurate for SP as modified af- ter delivery. You can backdate the loco with dual horns as these units were originally delivered. If you do backdate
The headlight housings to hold the LED’s are made fromfour pieces of telescoping brass tubing soldered together with the largest diameter one projecting enough to make a small lip on the outer end. The housing for the top light is shown at left. Looking into the upside- down shell (right) shows how the bottom of the tubing is filed flat to clear the frame.
NOVEMBER 2013
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