Model Train Journal

.............my first attempt at a diesel. It's a Pecos River Brass CF7 belonging to a friend. He had sold it to a fellow and it was returned in pieces-"shipping damage" said the buyer. He refunded the money.

I looked it over over and both pilots were off as well as most of the handrail stanchions were loose, and the motor mount was bent. Anyone who knows anything about PRB, knows they are notorious for crappy solder jobs with joints failing and parts falling off like leaves in the fall. I noticed the front couplers knuckle was smashed back so hard it was welded to the shank. IMHO this was dropped, landing on the coupler and causing all the ensuing damage.

I told my friend I could try and solder it all back together and if the paint suffered some heat damage we could do some weathering to cover it.

I'll post the repair pictures later once I move them from from my i-Phone to the computer.

See, besides posting eBay oddities, I do work on models and have a layout I'm building, LOL!!

Nice weathering, and nice scenery. That code 100 rail does accentuate the gauge.

Do you mean 5' vs 4' 8 1/2"? I thought the same when I looked at the photos but looking at it in person it seems normal. Weird.

Peter

Excellent looking CF-7, your repair and repaint only seem to render it more realistic looking as I recall these would get quite worn out looking before they were sold off. My experience with PRB' s is when soldier joints would break the sturdy gauge brass held up to the necessary repair well ( a real plus for a minimally skilled solderer as myself)
Great looking model of a oddly iconic engine.
Pete

Thanks, Pete, I happen to think these are up there with the BL2's in the "oddly good looking" department.

Not sure anybody cares, but here is how I repaired it. The pilots were soldered to the underframe and side sills w/o any support just edge on. Very fragile. See here:


Trying to keep the heat damage to the paint on the frame/floor I decide to add brass to the floor to give me something to solder the pilot to instead of angled gussets:


I added a stout piece of sheet brass to the pilot:


Which allowed me to solder the pilot to the frame for a joint that should not fail:


It turned out that almost all of the darkened paint on the floor was hidden by the carbody. I used some blue/black/white acrylic in tubes mixed to match the SF blue to touch up the blue. The handrail stanchions became discolored and I found that C&NW yellow was a close enough match with some weathering to suffice.

Thanks.

Peter

Wow! That is one stout repair. Nice job on the repair and the weathering!

BH

herronpeter wrote:Thanks, Pete, I happen to think these are up there with the BL2's in the "oddly good looking" department. Peter

I'll go along with the BL2, but those things, and all the other "form follows function" stuff rate a zero minus on my styling scale.

Do you think it was actually shipping damage or did the buyer run it off the end of the layout?

Rich

Rich,

I forgot to post this rather poor shot of the coupler. The knuckle is jammed back into the shank so hard it's like it's welded together. Definitely not shipping damage unless the driver hit the end of the box with sledge hammer right on the coupler.



Peter

Having dealt with a couple of these, I haven't found them to be particularly fragile as some here suggest, but pretty nice to work with and solidly assembled. Case in point, look at how far that casting actually bent before the solder joint gave way.

I like the CF7 for character; ugly little effer so I can't say I like the form, but my what an earnest looking little guy. There are several operating near me to this day. Hard to believe they have run longer in that form than as F7s.

Best looking GM hood unit by far though is the GP30, for me. I'd love to find one to rebuild (didn't Custom Brass do one and CLW for that matter?) or a Kemtron GP20...

But I digress. You did a nice job on what is a very evocative loco. Perhaps you could patch-paint it for someone like NYSW who ran them after Santa Fe sold 'em off?

Opinion here - best looking EMD hood - SD -7, 9 thru about 24.

Opinion.

sarge wrote: ...snip... Best looking GM hood unit by far though is the GP30, for me. I'd love to find one to rebuild (didn't Custom Brass do one and CLW for that matter?) ...snip...

Custom Brass did offer a GP-30 with a Central drive.