Fixed Pilot mod for F3,F7 and E7

[Dickietrain]

I modified an F7 A unit  front pilot ( fixed ) without front coupler....may make a door for it...looks good but working on solution for dummy A so it can have a fixed pilot and still pull rolling stock .
The powered A unit looks great and runs fine..just no coupler up front.  This should work for F3,F7 and E7s.
Any comments are welcome.

[CandO]

I am most interested.  Can you post a photo?  I would love to see it.
Over on OGR, someone posted about removing the pilot on F3 and E7 units and gluing them up against the frame.  This gets rid of the pilot gap and looks pretty good.  The guy that posted it, said it still can handle his O42 curves.  I am thinking of trying it on my NS F3s(when they arrive).

Here is my E7 that I modified with a P&D Hobby F3 pilot and pilot door.  The real Pere Marquette/C&O #95 had an F3 type Pilot.  I made the pilot door removable(using small magnets) and it hides a scale coupler.  The pilot is now fixed and it can still handle O36 FasTrack curves.

#98 is stock from Bachmann and #95 has the new fixed pilot:




Here's a link that shows some more photos from the build:
http://s574.photobucket.com/albums/ss182/SunfireGT1996/Williams%20by%20Bachmann%20E7%20fixed%20pilot/

[Dickietrain]

Wow CandO....after checking out your photos...yours turned out great.  All I have is the original Williams pilot cut off at the mounting point for thr trucks and then attatched to the bottom of the frame via two rivets.  Sorry I cant send a photo but its real simple.....not as realistic as yours but getting there. 
I have not found a coupler to install yet.  Where did you get yous ? Are they Kadee 2 rail ?
Are you able to do the same for the dummy A unit ?

Thanks
Dickietrain

[CandO]

Thank you.
The coupler is from a K-Line Plymouth Switcher set.  All the cars in the set had scale couplers and the Switcher had the option of changing between scale and Lionel like couplers.  I ditched the three O27 cars that came with it and kept all the wheels, trucks, and couplers.  They look just like Kadees.

I could do the same to the dummy A unit, but I'm not going to yet.  It took some time to get it right.  To be able to have the dummy pull cars, with the way I did my pilot, the coupler would have to be mounted better...I only glued it's styrene support.   The support could be made with metal and screwed to the frame for strength.  I only run the one E7 unit anyway with my passenger cars...the dummy just sits on a shelf for now.  One day, I may add a power upgrade to it or sell it.

[davidone]

If you just take off the pilot and glue it the body is still a little too high. The best thing to do is to grind down the nub under the truck, it will not only lower the body but also put the body much closer to the pilot. You can then decide weather to glue the pilot or leave as is. The pilot is then so close to the body you really can't tell until it goes around a curve.

Dave   

[CandO]

My Williams NS Exec set arrived recently.  About a week ago, I removed the front coupler on the forward A unit.
A while back an OGR member posted about how to do easy fixed pilots on WBB diesels.

Yesterday, I decided to fix the pilot.  I removed the pilot and cut off the area that connects it to the frame.  I then put on GOOP to attach it to the frame.

I added a Kadee style couple(K-Line).  I disassembled the coupler to use only the coupler arm and I made my own mount.

 



I just made a little plastic open-end mount and screwed the coupler arm to it.  The mount was affixed with GOOP like the pilot.

Here's a few photos of the mount:

 

 

 

[davidone]

Nice job on the fixed pilot. I had a extra ps2 kit laying around and have decided to install it. I will also marker lights. Hope it turns out ok.

Dave