Something a bit different

Introducing the EMD FP7-DC Demonstrator. 

I was inspired earlier this year by Nick Dibben's "Willow Bridge" in NGS-J 2/11 to dig out some of my US stuff and have a play - which in turn had the Darling Daughters get out their assorted collection of stuff, practically all of which has been purchased because they liked it and is generally of US outline and from the bargain bin at hobby shops (no sense spending a lot on something which has a better than average chance of heading to the floor at the hands of a 2 year old, although it has to be said they are all very good with the trains - mine and theirs).  Amongst the stuff we were playing with were some Bachmann FP7s which I had purchased with the intention of using them and the TPM MU motorising kits to make some EMUs for "Swallow Street".  With that layout being in store pending a rebuild in 2012, the making of the EMUs took a back seat and now that Farish has announced their entry into RTR EMUs (with the hope that they may shrink the 2EPB and MLV from OO down) there isn't much incentive to do anything with the pair of A units nor the one B unit I have left. 

As a result I had a thought and the photo above is the result.  The main idea is from the Victorian Railways B Class - see here - but the B is a Co-Co and a bit longer than this.  So I have dubbed it the FP7-DC Demo.  The FP7 was a passenger rated version of the F7 with an extra 4 feet for the water supply for the steam heat boiler.  As this is a Double Cab version, it made sense to call it the DC.  As there were never any in service the Demo was pretty obvious. 

I have done some filling of holes prior to putting new ones in.  The two donor bodies were PRR and NYC and these had different number boards so this has had to be fixed.  A bit of milling and removal of metal from the chassis was required to fit the second cab on but this was fairly straight forward.  Drive chain wise, nothing was needed to be done. 

I have a bit more filling to do prior to working out a paint scheme - maybe EMD like this loco.  Then there is the refitting of the couplings and putting it to work on the kids layout - probably as Dad's Engine so there isn't too many fights over it!