You sure it's not in the box?

Mine came with the fuel tank tucked into the foam, since the loco was screwed to a piece of MDF.

Scott Chatfield

I have several other of these

I have several other of these engines, and one of them came screwed down like you said. I looked back at this one and discovered the plastic fuel tank that fits over the steel frame was in its own 'pocket' over to the side. Another of mine also has the fuel tank over in a side pocket of the foam packing.

The one I bought has two pockets on the side, one for the dcc controller, and one (I presume) for the missing fuel tank part.

Write Athearn and ask.

They are pretty good at supplying spare parts if they have them in stock.  If you tell them that the part was missing from the locomotive you bought, they might give it to you without charge.

@Russ

I wrote them an email asking about that part,...but since it is the weekend no response thus far.
I'm only a bit nervous about the situation seeing as how a number of manufacturers do NOT stock spare parts for their Chinese produced engines.

I wonder if any of the other fuel tanks from Athearn locos might fit this one?,...particularly ones fro older models of this FP45, even if they were not genesis models??

Check their HO parts pages

Athearn sells fuel tank parts kits as separate detail parts, and I'm assuming they should work for both Genesis as well as recent RTR models.  The package includes left and right tank halves and a number of extra detail parts.  I'm not sure what size the FP45 would be, but they show 3600 gal and 4000 gal sets in stock among other sizes (also 3200 gal, 2600 gal).

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH90642

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH90643

They have had other sizes available in the past, so you could also check various online sources as well.

Craig

Same issue here....

Purchased a new, but incomplete, SD70M from a nonprofit museum group presuming I could find the missing parts easily. So while I waited for what I thought were the proper railings, I busied my self converting the headlights to LEDs, installing the ditch lights, and adding ground lights.

Alas, I did not understand the differences in the railings between very visually similar models. While there are lots of locomotive railings on eBay, none fit the basic 70M. Lots of 70Mac, 75s, etc. Fireman side battery boxes?  Same lack of parts.

 Nothing on the Athearn web site under parts tab. Looked for shells on eBay but again, no 70M. So I purchased another SD70M, but this time compete. Planning on painting the battery box and railings to match the original body.  Who knows? There  just might be a powered 70M frame for sale shortly. And cheap, too.

Parts Diagram

I found this parts diagram,..
 

Appears in the diagram as a single part,  ...but in the listing as individual parts.

Here is a photo of the fuel

Here is a photo of the fuel tank on another FP45 of mine. Its one piece, and this one had one of the filling nozzles broken off. BTW I rather doubt the non-genesis models would have these details?
 

 

 

 

Confused

Here is the message I got today in reply to my fuel tank request,..

When I go to that link I am now contacting Horizon Hobby once again? Who is who ?? 
 

The part referenced in that link is a different part number than the one listed on my parts diagram,...and its for an EMD diesel. Is that the same as my FP45 diesel?

Horizon Hobby owns Athearn,

Horizon Hobby owns Athearn, and that's the site you go to for their e-commerce stuff.

That tank is almost-but-not-quite what you want, but it will do in a pinch.  For an FP45, it has the extra gauges on the rear for the water tanks, as well as the extra step detail on the fireman side.  They may have most of those parts included, but you may need to do some quick scratch-bashing to add them.  I suspect the FP45 variant is sufficiently rare that they probably wouldn't make it a regular part item.

Once you paint the tank black, you probably won't notice the missing gauges at all.  If you do, Detail Associates or Details West should make detail pieces you could quickly add.

Craig

@ Craig

Thanks Craig, I got confused when they kept bumping me around to different links, that ultimately took me back to Horizon Hobby.

I don't need all that super detail,...but I would like to have the correct tank that fits correctly over that big metal frame.

Bigger tank

You need a longer tank than that, something on the order of 25 feet long.  FP45s had split fuel/water tanks that filled all the space between the trucks.  A 3600 gallon tank is only 18 feet long.

Scott Chatfield

3600 gal tank?

That's interesting Scott.

What do you make of this data sheet?.....fuel 3200 gal?
https://www.thedieselshop.us/Data%20EMD%20FP45.HTML

Size of Tank

Looks like the tank I need needs to be about 3+3/16" long inside dimension to fit over metal projection/frame.
( I just measured that other tank I have and it looks to be 3.25" inside dimension exactly)

At just over 3.25" overall outside dimension that would be close to almost 24' feet long in HO scale??

I believe the 3600 gal tank

I believe the 3600 gal tank would be correct for an F45, but you're looking for an FP45, which has a longer body and frame due to the added steam generator, which means a longer fuel tank.  The FP45 product description on the Athearn website says the FP45 has a 5000 gal combined fuel/water tank size, and I don't think they offer any tanks that size as part of their normal parts lineup (but I could be wrong).

A link to one of their FP45 pages describing various details:  http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG67699

You may have to get a couple of their smaller tanks and splice together to make a larger tank.  As an added bonus, that would also give you the extra fuel gauges at the rear (use the front portion of each tank spliced back-to-back).  The splice joint could also represent the weld line on the side, just lay a piece of .010 wire along the cut.  The only other detail would be the notch for the integrated step on the fireman side, which you could add or leave off.

Craig

@Craig

I see what you are saying about the fuel tank description., "Athearn website says the FP45 has a 5000 gal combined fuel/water tank size with inset steps".

If you look at the FP45 fuel tank I photoed above, you will see that it looks identical to that one you provided a link to,...it has those inset steps.

That would surprise me considering the number of these FP45 engines they likely built,...in at least 4 different paint schemes just for Santa Fe.

I'm surprised I am having such a difficult time getting a straight answer from either Horizon Hobby or Athearn itself???

Re: FP45 Fuel Tank

I don't believe Athearn/Horizon intentionally is not giving you a straight answer. They probably are trying to give you options to assemble a fuel tank for your engine. I heard one of the guys who works at Arnie’s Trains in CA say most if not all the Athearn employees are working from home as LA is hammered with Covid infections and ICU bed availability is at zero.

Plus, they've been without a customer service guy for some time which I assume means a backlog of customer needs.

Give it time. Once the pandemic is a thing of the past, we'll be able to get the service we want, and we need to be patient.    

Did you contact the seller of the FP45 to see if they have the fuel tank in their possession?

DG

I tried contacting the seller

I tried contacting the seller on 4 occasions,...no answer. He also sent me some faulty tank cars without noting them on his listing. I've contacted paypal to try and resolve these issues. I wanted to figure out the cost of the fuel tank so I could enter that into the claim. I'm not in a hurry for it otherwise.

I finally got a price

I finally got a price adjustment from the seller, when a gentleman from Facebook contacted me (out of the blue), and I supplied him with my email accounting of trying to resolve this situation in an honest manner.

Now I just have to work on getting the correct part,...may have to wait till this COVID thing dies down.

Here is a listing I just got notice of that shows how things come packed originally,...with the fuel tank as a separate item that needs to be attached eventually. So I would think there may be other folks that get one of these locos without the fuel tank having been applied by the first owner?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203246356986?ul_noapp=true

Good Photo Linkage

Just saw this one for sale on ebay,...and it had a good photo linking the fuel tank and the loco....

Recent email I received from

Recent email I received from Horizon,..

Hard to understand for such a widespread sold model of the Genesis line of locos??  Surely other folks misplace fuel tank moldings when working on these locos??

balsa?  just buy some of this

balsa?  just buy some of this wood product and shape it as needed adding as much detail as you need.

make it kinda hollow and melt in some lead for weight?