I made new tanks for mine so I have some in a box somewhere. It will be a while before I can get around to digging them out. Maybe sometime this summer. If you haven't come across one by then, post again later and I'll see what I can do. Mine all came off of U.P. geeps so they are all gray. (I am building my new house right now and time is critical so no time to look right now.)

I think the flywheels for the F-3 are thinner and wider to fit in the F-3 shell. The other kit has a thicker, narrower flywheel that will fit in all other locos.

Call Bachmann customer service. I broke one last year and a phone call and $11.00 got one shipped to me within a few days. Don't bother looking on the Bachmann web-site for the parts, you probably won't find them. That is why you will have to call.

I finally got around to creating a new Photobucket account, so here are a couple of pics. See my first post for description of mods. It's hard to see some of the details because the photos are small, but maybe you can see what I did to them. I don't like the way the air tanks came out on my Geeps and I'm in the process of making new tanks, so I didn't include pics of them.
Here is a pic of my U33C's.

Here is a pic of one of my PA's. Since this pic was taken I added cab access steps to the lead truck.

I have added the dummy upgrades to a few of my dummies and regularly run them in multiple. No need for a tether or anything other than the power kit.

It takes a few tries to get a feel for cycling the power to get them to stay in synch, but it isn't a big deal. When cycling the reverse boards, with either the direction button or the throttle lever of your transformer, give the units time to stop completely before releasing the direction button or advancing the throttle. If they ever get out of synch, power them down completely and wait about 10 seconds for the caps to discharge and they'll start up just fine.

I have some dedicated to start in reverse for realistic consists. An example being my E7 ABA set. All are powered and the trailing A starts in reverse. Don't bother looking for the "dot" on the motor or flywheel that is mentioned in the directions that mark the forward motor. I haven't seen them on my motors. I just install the kit and test run it before the shell goes on. If the loco isn't going the direction you want it to go in, just swap the connectors on the board and you'll be set.

I have had five of them MU'ed just to see how they would act and to check current draw. They ran fine together and current draw wasn't very high although there was no load on them.

On my Union Pacific U33C's, I added diamond plate to the walkways, scratchbuilt new fuel/air tank assemblies, added brakewheels, drop steps, railing chains, firecracker antenna, windshield wipers, reworked the pilots and added air hoses, painted the exhaust stack, repainted and weathered the sideframes, added MU receptacles, painted the side window frames and put a gray decal on the top of the nose.

My U.P. GP-9's got the same treatment as the U-boats.

On my U.P. PA's and PB, I scratchbuilt new fuel tanks, painted and weathered the trucks, reinstalled the porthole glazing from the inside, painted the red stripes on the anti-climber and painted the screens to make them look more realistic.

The E7's only got new fuel tanks as that was the only real shortcoming of these units.

I haven't figured out how to post pics otherwise I would post them.

Looking scale and being scale are two different things. There is much discussion on the OGR forum regarding this loco and if it is in fact a scale loco. It appears as though Lionel and Bachmann are both producing a Mike from the K-line tooling and no one is quite sure as to the particulars of the models that will be released by these two companies. Were there two different models offered by K-line? If so, who is producing which? Many of us would greatly appreciate some clarification. I would really like to get a U.P. version of the Mike if is truly a scale model.

Is the 2-8-2 that is going to be produced from the former K-Line tooling, a scale or semi-scale loco?

A sideframe broke off of one of my PA's when I took it out of the box a few years ago. I bought a new one for a few dollars. You have to remove the shell and drop the truck to replace it. Don't over tighten the screws when you install the new one or the stress could cause the mounts to fail again. Also make sure the sideframe clears the wheels as there is some wiggle room in them to make adjustments. I had a sideframe that was making contact with a wheel and the loco ran rough until I figured that out.

You're in for a long wait. I've been waiting for some things to be run in new numbers for a few years and was informed that it will be some time before new numbers are run.

Quote from: phillyreading on April 12, 2011, 10:56:52 AM
Maybe you can do what they do in H.O. and that is to change the cab number or road numbers on freight cars with stencils or a re-paint job.

A zero or three or nine can easily be changed to an eight with stencils.
This is an idea, not saying that you must do this.

Lee F.

I did this on my WBB streamliners. The numbers were small enough that the renumbering isn't noticeable. The numbers on the E7's are too large for me to try. The black outline on the red numbers would also make it difficult. I'll just have to wait a few years to get that second B-unit.

Marty I appreciate your response. I have the Williams Union Pacific GP-9 in four different numbers and I know of two other numbers for a total of six different numbers on that model. I have three Williams Union Pacific U33C's with different numbers. All of the other manufacturers and (and Williams in years past) run new numbers all the time. I don't see the price getting that much higher just to do a number change in the last few years.

I have a PB-1, E7B and F7B. All have non-operating couplers on both ends. I guess because they would typically be used between two A-units with non-op couplers, there is no need to have operational couplers on the B-units. I think they make a short version of the operating couplers that could be installed on the B so you could run an AB set and be able to couple and uncouple the B from the rolling stock. I don't think the operating coupler is as short as the non-op coupler so you would probably have a very large gap between the B and the rolling stock or other loco if you were running ABA.

I see the U.P. E7B's have been rerun in the 2011 catalog.  Have they been run in a new number with this latest release?

It is very easy. I double and triple head Williams all the time. You'll have to dedicate one to start in reverse. If you have a reverse board with the two and  four pin connectors it is much easier. With the connectors on the end on the board nearest to you, the four pin connector on the left is the one that the truck needs to be plugged into that you want to go forward. If you have an older unit with soldered wires, you can swap the blue and yellow wires as already mentioned or swap them on the board, which is my preference because there is more room to work with.