Model Power FP7

[ek2000]

Any opinions on the model power FP7 with DCC and Sound? Does someone know if it has startup and shutdown sounds? $95.99 at MBK.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The MRC decoders in general are rather limited. No speed tables or curves. No kick start/pulse adjustment. I have a few MRC decoders that don't even have advanced consisting! The speakers are down right awful. Unless you intend to install your own sugarcube with baffle.

Even at $100, I would pass unless you NEED an FP7 and can't afford the IM unit.

[spookshow]

I have one in the mail (much to my eternal regret). The absolute last thing I need is a Pennsy FP7 

-Mark

[peteski]

I've been reading on the Interwebs that the current MRC decoders are a bit better than the older unloved ones. Still, with all the other brands of superb sound decoders out there, I would still not even consider getting MRCs.  But that's me.
Some people are quit happy having a plain hamburger, while other wont go for anything less than a Double Whopper with cheese.  Bot will satisfy your hunger, but a Whopper is better tasting. 

[ek2000]

Thanks all. Guess i'll wait it out. A 'C' or 'B' grade in spookshow (for the DC units) is definitely not a buy grade. Will wait to see how this one rates before taking the plunge.

[thomasjmdavis]

DCC and Sound aside, have they fixed the nose?  I have one of the earlier non-DCC run, and the nose doesn't really capture the EMD look.

[peteski]

Why not just get a Kato FP7?  Those are sure bet!  Look good and run great.

[thomasjmdavis]

Why not just get a Kato FP7?  Those are sure bet!  Look good and run great.

But currently available in only one road name, and is the winterization hatch remove-able?  Of course, with Kato, there are bound to be more roadnames and variations available in the not too distant future.

The other alternative is to enter the Intermountain road name sweepstakes.

[Mark5]

Of course, with Kato, there are bound to be more roadnames and variations available in the not too distant future.

Seems like a no-brainer. But with Kato, ya never know.

[brokemoto]

The other alternative is to enter the Intermountain road name sweepstakes.

IM did Penn, if that is the one that you want:  both DGLE and Tuscan.  There were some B-units, as well.   Of course, there was no such designation as FP-7B, as there always had been room in the Bs for a steam generator. 

One of the Grange Roads (Louie or Crab Grass and Weeds?) had regular F-7As with steam generators, but I forget which road it was.

[cjm413]

IM did Penn, if that is the one that you want:  both DGLE and Tuscan.  There were some B-units, as well.   Of course, there was no such designation as FP-7B, as there always had been room in the Bs for a steam generator. 

One of the Grange Roads (Louie or Crab Grass and Weeds?) had regular F-7As with steam generators, but I forget which road it was.

CGW 153 -156

[johnb]

IM did Penn, if that is the one that you want:  both DGLE and Tuscan.  There were some B-units, as well.   Of course, there was no such designation as FP-7B, as there always had been room in the Bs for a steam generator. 

One of the Grange Roads (Louie or Crab Grass and Weeds?) had regular F-7As with steam generators, but I forget which road it was.

the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific had them too...

[cjm413]

the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific had them too...

ATSF only had F7B's with steam generators.

[brokemoto]

the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific had them too...

As cjm413 correctly indicates, on All Tramps Sent Free EMD F-units, only the Bs had steam generators. This seems to have been a practice peculiar to ATSF, as I am not aware on any other roads that did them that way.  I wonder if it was a holdover from the passenger FTs, which had room only in the B-unit for a steam generator.  (another peculiarity of FTs was that the batteries were jammed into the smaller A unit, despite there being more room for them in the B)

B&O did have some dual service F-3s that it ordered as A-A pairs from EMD:  one had the steam generator and small water tanks, the other one had extra water tanks.  Of course, as the passenger trains disappeared, the railroad did break up the pairs.

I was not aware that Sudden Pathetic had regular F-7As with steam generators.  They must not have worked the SF Peninsula.  SSWs FP-7 did, and it was on its last leg when I rode behind it in high school.  It often worked #110, which was usually only a single Harriman sub (the mail and express traffic that it carried when it initially was carded in the late nineteenth century had disappeared by the mid-1960s).  If you had to be at Bellarmine or St. Francis for an activity before school you rode that one instead of #112, which was the "Schoolbus on Rails", and got you there just before home room.  I do not recall seeing those other F-7s with steam generators on either freight or passenger trains on the SF Peninsula.

The freights got a mixed bag of power, but mostly EMDs.  Most of the yard goats were FMs.  GP-9s usually powered the local freights.  Occasionally, an RSD-4 would show up in Santa Clara Yards (I saw the crew fire off one of those one time while I was waiting for a train at Santa Clara.  These flames shot from the exhaust stack then a thick cloud of black smoke everywhere.....................)

The Daylight, by that time, usually had E-units.  The Del Monte usually had a pair of torpedo boat GP-9s (although some times it had one or two with dynamic brakes and a steam generator).  Weekdays, the commutes were mostly Trainmasters; weekends "Cadillacs" (SD-7 or SD-9) and GP-9s.  I do not recall ever seeing a regular F-7 with a steam generator there, though.

[nkalanaga]

All of the GN's passenger Fs were Fs, no FPs.  They solved the space problem by doing without dynamic brakes on the passenger units.  Their freight Fs all had DBs.

The NP wanted steam generators AND DBs in regular Fs, so they put water tanks in the baggage cars.