F unit roof details

[Anonymous]

Some F units have square ended roofs and some have shaped ends coming to a point above the diaphram. Is there any significance as to which units had which shape i.e. different phases?

[Sperandeo]

Hello Alan,

The January 1970 issue of "Extra 2200 South" had a comprehensive article on F unit detail changes during construction phases of the various models. (I keep a photocopy of this article tucked into my MR Diesel Cyc for ready reference.) It says that the rear overhang was eliminated during F7 production. Although the article doesn't give a specific date, it was apparently before November of 1951, when so-called "Phase !!" F7s began to appear. Note that the overhang was also absent on the long end of FT booster units throughout FT production,

So long,

Andy

[Anonymous]

Andy,

The lack of an overhang on the F7's first appeared with the Canandian production of the F7 (GMD). It then was deleted on the US production shortly there after. I can't pinpoint the exact date with out looking it up but a good source of information can be found in:

F Units: The Diesels that Did It
by Jeff Wilson
ISBN 0-89024-374-3, Kalmbach Books, USA

It is not as indepth as it could be and doesn't address the F5 but it does address your question. It is fairly inexpensive and has some high quality drawings to help the modeler.

Keep "um Polished

Greg Martin

[Anonymous]

That's good to hear, speaking as someone who removed the overhang on a pair of Athearn F7As (The Lehigh Valley special edition of a few years ago). As others may or may not know, the real locos (576 and 578) were repainted former C&NW Phase 2 F7As, so the Athearn body is strictly speaking incorrect as it has the side skirts over the fuel tanks and the overhang at the non-cab end. I trimmed off the overhangs and painted the skirts black to disguise them - I can't remove them as they hold the bodyshell onto the chassis! Also, the fuel tanks are not correctly shaped behind them.