Hi, I'm very new to modelling. I have a vintage Atlas EMD engine, Union Pacific livery---and seperate, from another source, decals. Problem: as a novice the engine body looks like a F7--but has only ONE headlight on the nose--all photos I see usually have 2.in my model, all else looks F7-- even the two "portholes" on the side., NOT four "portholes" for example.... of a later 9... so, it the old model incorrect? what red number should I give it, if any? 591, etc...?? and would such a UP single headligh be pulling a passenger train, as I want it to? very confusing and frustrating. I am a history teacher--I mea, I want it be accurate! thanks so much...
One or two "headlights" was an option, not a model spotting feature. When there's two lights, the upper one was usuall something like an oscillating Mars or Gyralight, with the standard headlight lower in the nose door (due to the weight of the mechanism to oscillate the warning light).
Older (scale/toy) models didn't usually do variations for road-specific details like having the extra lighting options.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
You could Google something like Union Pacific F Unit Photographs and maybe add the years you're interested in. Search through the pictures until you find one that matches your engine. That will at least give you an idea for the road number, and perhaps show you if it's hauling passengers or freight.
I've done that with Milwaukee engines, and usually find lots of pictures. It can be very helpful.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
When you say "Union Pacific livery" do you mean it's painted in UP's paint scheme (yellow and gray) and lettered Union Pacific, or just painted but unlettered? If it was factory painted by Atlas it would have all the lettering already, including numbers.
Assuming it has two four-wheel trucks it is an F-unit (two six-wheel trucks would be an E-unit). The first F's, the FTs, had four portholes on the side. Later the F2 and early F3s had three portholes. The later F-units, from late production F3s to the F9s, had two.
Generally, only passenger engines had two headlights, freight engines had one. A few railroads used only one on both, like New York Central.
A picture of your engine would be very helpful of course!
Hello All,
Check out this site...RailPictures.Net
You can look up specific locomotives and cross-reference them by their livery.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Most of the Union Pacific passenger trains that went through my neck of the woods were all E units. I never saw an F unit pull passengers. That's not to say it didn't happen. I just never saw it. Back in the transition years, UP would alternate diesel and 4-6-2 Pacifics in passenger service in our area.A good source for UP data and information is the Union Pacific Historical Society. Sorry, I don't have contact info to offer.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
If it's a factory-painted UP Atlas F-unit, it will be an FP7.
The single-headlight version that Atlas sold in UP paint bore number 912, and was from one of the original (1970s) production runs
They later re-ran it in the 1980s as a model with two headlights and available numbered 1498 and 1499.
The UP bought only two of them (#911 and 912) , and used them to support passenger service. There should be some vent detail on the rear-most panel on the roof- that represents the roof-top detail that indicates that there was a steam generator inside. The model should be about 1/2" longer than a bog-standard F7 and should have four sets of vertical vents and a sand filler hatch between the portholes on the side.
If I recall correctly, the UP used them on passenger trains on secondary routes. Idaho sticks in my head for some reason. They later renumbered them to #1498 and 1499.
I believe that they were off the UP's roster by the end of 1972, when most of the F-units were purged.
Atlas locomotives of the 1970s and 1980s were always shipped with road numbers painted on. Stewart shipped HO F-units with no numbers, so if there are no road numbers on the model, it is probably a Stewart, in which case it could be an F3, F7 or F9. One way of identifying a Stewart F unit from that era is that it would most likely have "Kato" cast into the bottom of the trucks. Atlas's FP7s were built by Roco and wouldn't have that.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org