Test Track
InterMountain: Louisville & Nashville FP7 Any company wishing
to submit products for Test Track may do so by providing samples to be reviewed to the address below. We prefer light- colored models that will photograph well. Submitt ed models will not be returned.
Please send products to: Railroad Model Craft sman, ATTN: Tony Cook, P.O. Box 177 Platt sburg, MO 64477
HO — With decades of history firmly planting their totem of rail- road development and industrial success, Electro-Motive Division’s (EMD) legendary E- and F-series locomotives generally need little in- troduction. Yet, the stealthily modi- fied and thus easily overlooked FP- series presents an interesting case study of a builder’s oversight and redemptive solution. Upon their debut in 1938, the application of E-units for passenger trains and F-units for freight quickly became the accepted rule of rail. Indeed, there wasn’t much of a problem until specific-use cases loomed. So, consider that in addition to
dual prime movers necessary for priority service, the longer E-units provided space for the steam gen- erators and water tanks required to heat a passenger consist. In ad- dition, their six-axle trucks were typically geared to favor speed ver- sus the drag ratios of their short- er, four-axle freight-bearing F-unit cousins. Nevertheless, several rail- roads eventually realized that the lower tractive effort provided by an E-unit’s A-1-A (dummy center) axle arrangement made them less than optimal for mountainous ter- rain. Although EMD’s MU-capable design and booster B-units meant the flexibility to build a power con- sist for almost any situation was virtually assured, using additional cabs or boost-
ers was not always the most effi- cient option. If dedicated F-units seemed to be the obvious choice to solve the tractive issue on affected routes, their lack of space for suffi- cient steam heating capacity made them a non-option. A paired B-unit could house steam heating equip- ment within the space vacated by their absent cabs, but that again required the semi-permanent as- signment of an MU’d booster (and its prime mover), which might otherwise be overkill if not better used elsewhere. Nevertheless, sev- eral roads devised various solu- tions by modifying equipment to suit, until June 1949 when EMD finally mashed the best of both worlds into a dual-purpose pack- age: the FP7. As a custom solution to a spe-
cific problem, the FP7 was almost radically simple. By stretching the F-unit’s 50-foot frame to 54 feet, enough space for a steam gen- erator and its reservoir feedwater tanks was realized. Leaving little else changed, this granted rail- roads exactly what they wished: the tractive effort of an F and the passenger support of an E in one self-contained, independent unit. At lineside, the modification is a subtle tell: the extra four feet are discernible between the first car- body porthole and filter louvers, as well as extra space between the
86 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
PRODUCT REVIEW
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