Finishing the F7 Saga

Well, this project has been going on for quite a while as you look back on the postings. So, since I have been homebound for a couple of weeks, I decided to push on through it and finish it up. So, here we have one B unit and two A units that I have painted and lettered using the Keystone articles from several years back. Two of the units I only partially painted and one ,which had been damaged, I fully painted.

I used Clover House dry transfers for the road name and a combination of Champ and Microscale decals for the balance. The stripes come from Champ with a home made curved portion on the noses. The colors of the Dulux yellow vary but I do not think it detracts from the whole. I looked up what were the unit numbers of the F7's that were delivered to the Northern Division to come up with the unit numbers to use so I now have correct engines on the property. Cutting all those numbers on the units was a pain but worth it.

Here is the completed B unit. The other B unit is one of the flying F's but I had finished repairs on that earlier. It has a slightly more faded appearance as I used Dullcoat on it. The other three all have a clearer flat finish from Floquil.

You can see the difference in the one on the right.

The rear of the B unit.

This A unit was in perfect condition when I sanded off the lettering so the engine was repainted in the areas where I had sanded. You can see how I protected the grills and the glass on the body from the repaint.

After I stripped off the masking, the paint matched perfectly as Key used Scalecoat to paint the engines. This body is now done.

The other side of the unit. It took me about 2 hours per unit.

This is how I taped down the wiring as the original scotch tape had dried out.

Another interior view.

Close up for my records,

Here we have matched up the chassis. The red wire and a black wire have been added as I converted the units to 8 wheel pick up from the 4 wheel pick up they came with.

A couple of views of the perfect F7 - Number 9659

The PRR used 5 inch lettering in the number board. It took me a while to find some surplus freight car numbers that matched what I needed. I also added red markers on the nose.

She looks good.

Now we beging to finish the heavily damaged unit that was one of the Flying F's. It had a crushed nose and rear. I have reinstalled the electronics after putting glass in the whole engine.

I also had to replace the grilles as they had popped out from the bending of the body. A small wrinkle remains in the rear of both sides but it looks prototypical. Otherwise, we are good to go. I opened the front side windows on this one. I also added a crew.