Sweet! F Units are my favorite!

Thanks for sharing.

Great detail work there Marc!

Great detail work there Marc! Thanks for posting and looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Yannis

Niggly bits

My CN F7Au project is back underway after wrapping up the Railway Modellers Meet ( http://railwaymodellersmeetofbc.ca) a couple of weeks ago.  The one item that has not been finished is the front engineer’s side MU cables.  On the prototype these are mounted on a fabricated sheet metal support that extends out from the anticlimber.  I have been puzzling over how to represent this on the model. 

Previously I had mounted 3 short lengths of 0.015” brass wire to represent the lines for the cables.  I guesstimated these to be about 12” long based on photos and cut them to length.  But how to represent the sheet metal support?

I finally had a revelation about how to do this.  On the Highliners shell there is a slight gap between the pilot and the anticlimber that a piece of shim brass should be able to fit into.  Test fitting confirmed this.  I cut and a scale 12” wide piece of shim brass and trimmed it to fit the curve of the nose using the passenger pilot that came with the kit as a guide. 

I cut the brass an approximate 20” length on the outer side and approximately 18” on the inside, and scored and bent a vertical face scale 9” face.  This left a 12”x9” piece of brass which was attached to the pilot just below the anticlimber.  I trimmed the part that will mount to the pilot so it will slide between the pilot and anticlimber and hopefully give me a solid mounting for the part.  More to come once I get a bit more work done. Scribed from brass sheet

 bent and trimmed, ready for installation

Marc Simpson

More niggly bits photos

  dry fitted.  now to glue and get the hoses done.

Marc Simpson

hoses

 I debated using the Details West cast metal MU hoses or the Hi-Tech Details rubber hoses (Item # 6034) on the 9172.  In the end I decided the Hi-Tech hoses would look better and be more resilient.  I drilled out the appropriate sized holes (essentially a guesstimation done by holding up drill bits to the hoses until I found one that looked slightly larger than the hose mounts) and glued the hoses in place with gap filling CA.  I had to leave for work this morning so I'll have to wait until tonight to mount the assembly on the locomotive.

Marc Simpson

more progress

 The MU hoses are now in place.  Time to move on to the doors on the nose as well as the trucks.

Marc Simpson 

truck detailing

For the most part the work on the body shell is complete with the exception of a few small details.  I have started work on the trucks and underframe.  I drilled out the ends of the brake cylinders and bent 0.015" wire for the brake lines using the stem of a small file I had sitting on the workbench.  

 After studying my photos for a while I arrived at the conclusion that many CN F7Au (including the 9172) only had sand lines on the outer ends of the trucks, with no sand lines on the inner side next to the fuel tank.  To represent these lines I first glued a small length of brass to the bottom of the brake shoe on one end of the side frame.  I cut a length of 0.030" insulated wire to length and glued this to the brass after stripping a short length of the insulation so that I could have a metal to metal joint.  I drilled a hole in the frame at for the end of each line.  I'll have to figure out if I'm going to glue the sand line in the hole or leave it loose.

It's not as obvious in the photo as in person but painting the wheels does make a big difference in the appearance of the trucks.  Since I had the sideframes off the trucks I painted the wheels grimy black.  I'll be doing further weathering on the wheels once the paint is dry.  

Marc Simpson 

A nose plug for 9172

When CN rebuilt their F7 fleet in the early 1970’s they made many changes to the units.  The addition of MU and ditch light receptacles on the nose was one of those changes.  These allowed the F units to run in any location in the consist, as well as to allow removable ditchlights to be plugged in easily.  These plugs also were used as a part of snowplowing operations as well. 

I debated how to do the engineers side plug.  In many photos the engineer’s side plug is exposed with the door either open or missing entirely.  This seemed to be common practice on these units so I elected to leave the door open on the 9172. 

I started out using a few good head on photos to outline and mark the location of the plug.  I initially opened up the hole by drilling out a pilot hole with a #78 bit, followed by larger diameter bits.  I carefully cut away additional material using a #11 X-Acto blade to allow a square profile file to get into the opening. I carefully filed out the opening, frequently checking to ensure the hole was square.  I aimed for an approximate 10”x10” square opening as this was the approximate size of this door.   

 Detail Associates makes the appropriate MU plug required, so I mounted one on a square piece of styrene.  I trimmed the styrene to fit snuggly into nose.  Once I was satisfied with the fit, I glued the styrene in place, aiming to keep the plug centered in the opening. 

On the 9172 the door for this plug was in place so I am going to make a door from a piece of shim brass.  The door on the conductor’s side will also be modelled with shim brass, but this door will be closed as was often the case on these units. 

 I also added etched brass sunshades above the windows after opening up the top of the cab side windows as they were on the prototype.  This was done with a lot of careful cutting and filing to keep the window shape correct.  These larger side windows were a feature of later phase F7 units.  On early phase units the cab door window and cab side window line up along the top.  On the later phase units the cab side window is higher than the cab door window.  Another subtle difference that is often missed.   

Marc Simpson

CN F-unit Madness

Hi Marc:

Looking really good. Definitely captures the subtle details that the rebuild brought to those units. Which also remindes me that I need to check on dynamic hatches for you....

Mike MacLatchy

Great detailing

Inspiring work there! Looking foward to see it progressing.

Yannis

nose doors are complete

A rainy day (finally) has let me get back to the basement and do some more work on the 9172.  I've been mulling over how to do the nose door on the engineer's side and figured a 0.003" brass sheet would do the trick.  

  I trimmed a scale 18" x 10" piece of brass and notched it on one end so it would fit into the MU plug opening, leaving a square 10"x10" door in place.  I left it at an angle so that I can paint both sides before bending it into the fully open position. I also bent a piece of 0.008" wire to represent the lip around the opening.  It was finicky but finally was put into place after several tries.   

On the conductor's side I added another door in the closed position, more rectangular in shape than square per the prototype.  Rough dimensions would be 11"x9".  

Now I just need to cobble up  some ditch light mounts and the nose will be done.  

Marc Simpson

Now with ditchlights

Got the ditchlight mounts done as well.  A bit of glue cleanup and we're good.

 Marc Simpson

Looking goot Marc!

Those open MU doors were always an interesting feature of the CN units.  You going to do the earlier style ditch lights that plugged into the MU receptacle?

Craig

Ditch lights

And then there were two

Why stop at one when you can have 6? Or at least move forward on having more than one in the fleet. 9172 in the front, 9168 in the back. 9168 is moving along at a faster pace than 9172, probably because I've figured out how to do most of the niggly details.

And speaking of niggly details, something that I haven't seen modelled on the rebuilt CN F units are the guards on the back of the steps so that the crew don't slip and end up dangling off the steps. Fairly noticable in photos when you start looking. Only seem to have been added to the cab steps, the other carbody steps are open to the back.  I didn't put the step guards full depth as they would interfere with thetruck swivel.  The step guards had about 4-6" of depth so you could get your boot toe well into the step.  9172 is pretty much complete except for paint, now to get 9168 wrapped up as well.  Only another 4 or so to go...

Marc Simpson

Rear end work

A bit of thought has been needed on the rear of my F units.  I have some good photos of the rear of several CN F7Au and they show some interesting features.  Beyond the round window on the door and lift rings on the top corners of the buffer plate (is that the correct name?), some units had grab irons while others had ladders.  All units had back up lights on the left side of the locomotive.  There is also a noticeable difference in the area between the door and buffer plate between the model and prototype.  On the Genesis shell this is a deeply recessed area roughly on the same plane as the rest of the rear end. 

In the photo detail above (from a great shot by Mark Perry) you can see that this section above the door is roughly on the same plane as the door.   The MU receptacles and light above the door are also very prominent.  Of course I had already glued on a white metal buffer plate with lift rings from Details West before I tackled this area so I made life a bit more difficult.  Why do things right the first time?

On a spare shell I used my calipers to determine the width and height of the area above the doorway and transferred these measurements to a piece of 0.025” styrene.  I trimmed this styrene to fit using an X-acto knife and files.  Once I was satisfied with the fit on the spare shell I bent the top portion of the white metal part down so I could apply the styrene plate.  This is where it is good to have white metal parts.

 In order to raise the plate into the same plane as the door, I cut some 0.02” flat and 0.04”x0.06” styrene to elevate the plate.  I glued these onto the styrene plate and glued them in place. 

  I glued the white metal buffer back in place. Next up I’ll be adding MU receptacles and a light above the door.  It is tempting to put a small LED here but I think I’ll opt for a representative piece of styrene rod instead.  I've also got to figure out how to make the yellow safety bar (that I've never seen in the down position) on the left side of the doorway.  More niggly details...

Marc Simpson

Marc Simpson

Lights and receptacles

I consider the back end pretty much done now, MU receptacle added, 0.03" styrene rod for the light and a bit of 0.03" rod on a square of styrene for the small receptacle on the engineer's side.  If you want to add a ladder to the back, a close match is the ladder off of a True Line Trains 8 hatch reefer.  I have several that are going to be kitbashed into mechanical refridgerators so I stole a ladder for the back of the F.  

Marc Simpson 

Ready for paint

9168 and 9172 are ready for paint.  All that is left to add on 9168 are the eyebrow grab irons.  It took about 1/2 the time it took to get 9172 to this point.  Practice makes progress.

 9168 lost it's engineer's side MU door at some point before 1985 so I'm modelling it this way as a bit of variation in the fleet.

Marc Simpson

Fuel tank and the next victim

I added the round fuel gauges to the side of the fuel tanks for the 9168 and 9172.  This pretty much brings these units to completion, now to get them painted.  

   I also started work on the next victim, an F7Bu.  I am undecided whether to do 9190 or 9198.  Both units had rebuilt ends without the ribs so I chiseled them off the model, and as evidenced by the Bondo got a bit too agressive in a couple of spots.  I am also leaning toward changing out the couplers as well.  This is a dummy Stewart B unit frame and trucks, I'll probably put the shell on one of my powered B drives instead.  

I have decent photos of both units.  9190 is slightly ahead as it wore the earlier 45 degree stripe paint scheme until it was retired ( http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=11927).  9198 wore the later 30 degree scheme ( http://www.cnrphotos.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=11961).  In the end I'll probably do both as I have enough shells and drives to do almost 1/3 of CN's rebuilt B unit fleet.  They might be a tad over represented on my layout...

Marc Simpson

Are you sure about that, Marc?

Photos look like 9190 is wearing the 30 degree scheme and 9198 has the 45 degree scheme?

Regards,

I just want to say that you

I just want to say that you are doing some nice work there.

One question......on the engineers side down near the pilot........that brass piece that the MU hoses are in.......is that a casting or brass sheet that you bent?

of stripes and brass

Indeed I swapped the stripe angle between the units, typed too quickly.  As for the brass bit, it was cobbled out of some 0.005" brass sheet.  There is an earlier post in this thread about how I did it.

Marc Simpson 

Rear light

It's been gnawing at me for awhile, but I gotta know- that brass rear light..is it your own hand-made??  I'd love that detail on my F unit.

Rear light

@Steve: The rear light is a Minatures by Eric part,  https://miniatures-by-eric.myshopify.com/collections/ho-detail-parts-l-to-p/products/l19-rear-backup-light-f-unit.  MBE parts have been a staple of those building Canadian locomotives for decades, but most people in the US have never heard of them.  Tons of really useful stuff to be had.  The brass is somewhat challenging to drill but it can be done.  I'm not planning to have an operating light on the rear of the unit so that isn't an issue in this situation.  

Marc Simpson