Hi Malarye:

Yes, you can swap out shells, but you need to be careful; it's not an exact fit in all cases and you may have to do some jiggling. 

I have a Bachmann FT that I bought as part of a DC Commander set, and I have other Bachmann F shells.

The Bachmann FT chassis will take the current Bachmann F-7 shell, but you need to take off the front coupler to line up the holes in the chassis with the mounting posts in the body for the body mounting screws. Reattachjng the coupler is a little tricky -- you need tweezers or small needle nose pliers, but with a little patience everything is fine.

The chassis will also take the very old Bachmann F-9 shell that was attached to its chassis via a tab and a slot on the body.  Since there is no corresponding tab on the FT chassis you'll have nothing to secure the body, but I have used double faced scotch tape in installations I've used for my F9 locomotive on other mfrs. chassis.

The HO scale F7 was a pretty generic locomotive and there are lots of manufacturers who made them (and continue to make them).  The only one that would require major modifications to fit the FT chassis would be the old Tyco/Mantua F unit which had a lot of molding on the inside to fit their particular weight and power truck.  That molding would need to be sanded flat.  Most of the others might require minor sanding

Several manufacturers also made F-3 locomotives, but with the exception of the Walthers/Life-Like/Proto 1000 F-3, the shell would require a lot of modification to fit the Bachmann chassis. 

Highliners used to market a F-unit shell kit for around $80 which would allow you to make an F2 through F9, but I don't know if you can still get them and I don't know how they would fit the FT chassis.   

You can check the Bachmann parts store for what shells may be available from them, and you can check other manufacturers' parts section to see what it is available.  However, your best source may be local train shows and the "used/white elephant" section in your local hobby shop.  Be careful that you buy what is called an F unit.  An FP shell is too long for the Bachmann chassis, and an FT shell unless it's a Bachmann may be too short because Bachmann modeled the later version of the FT locomotive -- the earliest version was a tad shorter.

Hope this helps.

Electric Fan 

Hi:

Unfortunately the numbers end at 975.

According to Volume 3 of "Amtrak Power In Color", E60s came in two batches. 950 - 955 were classified as E60CP and were steam generator equipped, and numbers 956 - 975 were classified as E60CH and were Head End Power (HEP) equipped.  

Eleven E60s were rebuilt into motor-alternator locomotives (not sure what that means) and were renumbered 600-610.  Their headlight and numberboard arrangements are completely different from the original E60s.

Locos 950 and 953 were renumbered iand used for work train service.

I have a few E60s -- an outfit called GK came out with the first E60s, but I believe Walthers bought their dies.  Their locomotive used a modified Athearn U-boat chassis.  I have one of those.

Bachmann came out with a unit that had a self-contained six wheel power truck (with tired trucks) on one end and a dummy truck on the other.  They were painted for Amtrak but also has a blue and white Rock Island version.  It had a good looking plastic pantograph that was chrome plated.  I had about three .  The self-contained power truck was kind of hit or miss -- they were either very good or tended to burn out early -- when I had one burn out, I used the body over a modified Athearn UBoat chassis -- you have to file the sides of the fuel tank flat so that the skirts on the E-60 fit.

The best E-60 in my opinion was Bachmann's last issue that was a DC/DCC locomotive.  It had a beautiful pantograph, 12 wheel drive and ran very well.   I only have one of those, but it's a very nice locomotive.

From what I've read, the prototype E-60 got a bum rap because of the problems Amtrak was having with the six wheel trucks on the SDP40.  The E60s wound up pulling the heavy New York-Florida trains to Washington and supposedly were better at this task than the AEM-7.

At any rate, I'm babbling.

Hope this helps.

Electric Fan
P.S.  For the BachMann -- you/Bachmann have two Electric locomotive chasses (the E60 and the E33) that are easy fits for 6 wheel U Boats (U23C, U25C, U28C, U30C, U33C, U34C, and U36C).  Besides Rivarossi, no one is manufacturing General Electric U-Boats in HO.  It might be an opportunity for you.  I certainly would buy any you painted PRR, PC or Conrail. EF                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

I have Bachmann Sound Value equipped diesels and matching speeds with non-sound equipped Bachmann diesels for consisting purposes can be a challenge because the non-sound equipped Bachmann diesels don't seem to have the same settings for CV5 and CV6 as do other manufacturers or decoders.  The sound equipped diesels definitely run faster than the non-sound equipped diesels, so I wind up adjusting the sound unit's CV5 and CV6.  When I'm consisting Bachmann sound units with other manufacturers decoders/locomotives, I can usually adjust the non-sound units to match the Bachmann units.

I believe that this is because the Bachmann non-sound decoders have a lower top speed  setting (CV5), but I'm not sure how to adjust it -- I get readings for the CV5 of around 100, but I try to reset it to 255, for whatever reasonm it doesn't seem to take. 

This doesn't appear to be a problem in straight DC -- before my club changed over to DCC, there didn't seem to be an appreciable difference between manufacturers or sound vs. non-sound, but you can't get all the bells and whistles in straight DC, so that's not an option.

Also, don't sell Bachmann Sound Value short -- I've been retrofitting sound decoders in some of my older locomotives and dummies and there are at least two manufacturers (not named here for code of conduct reasons) that Bachmann beats out six ways from Sunday, but as others have pointed out, there is a gold standard sound decoder and Bachmann is not there, yet -- but then, again, I'm not sure they want to be. 

My experience is that you can swap out GP40 and GP38-2 shells on the same chassis and I have. 

You can also swap out GP30 with GP35 shells on the same chassis (shorter chassis than the GP40 and GP38-2 chassis), and I've done that as well.

I'm not sure if this applies to the sound equipped locomotives.

Also, depending on the age of the chassis you might have to modify the mounting holes in the shell, but if you have to do that, you may find that you get a tight friction fit -- or at least that's been my experience. 

This is a question for the Bach Man and Bachmann. 

Would Bachmann consider making the Alco/AAR Type B truck side frames available in the parts department?  The truck side frames are used on the Shark, FA2, RS3 and S4 locomotives.  Besides being replacement parts for those locomotives, some railroads used them on GP30s and GP35s when they traded in old Alco locomotives, and Conrail used them on B23-7 and  B30-7 locomotives.

From what I can tell from the parts diagrams, the part numbers are H618x-00001 for the FA and RS3 and H618x-000011 for the FB.  The S4 and Shark A diagrams show part #00001 and Shark B diagram show part #000011.

I know that Bachmann has several different EMD side frames available for Fs and GPs  and from what I can tell from locomotives the Alco side frames would fit the F and GP trucks.

Thanks very much.
 

Hi Jon:  I just called the parts dept. and placed an order.  My B23-7 is a Conrail unit that is a close approximation of the branch locomotive that used to run on the Connecticut Southern (CSO) shortline behind my club in Manchester.  The Bachmann model even had the correct road # (2001).  Unfortunately, it comes with the GE trucks rather than the AAR type B trucks that Conrail used on their B23 and B30.  I asked the parts department if they had any Alco sideframes for sale (they show on the parts diagrams for the RS3, Sharks, FA2 and S4), but the CSR couldn't find it. 

I think I'll send a separate e-mail to the Bach Man and ask  if Bachmann would consider offering the Alco sideframes for sale in the parts department.  There were several railroads that used the AAR type B trucks on GP30s and GP35s, because they used Alco components as trade-ins to EMD when they bought them.  From what I can see on the parts diagrams and from measuring my own locomotives, the Alco sideframes should work with the EMD locomotives.

Jon 

Hi Jon: Thanks for the tip - I e-mailed the Parts Dept. and will probably call them tomorrow.

Jon (My name is Jon, too)

Hi Joe:

Thanks;  one of those cradles just might work -- very interesting, if they fit the chassis screw holders holes, they would also solve the problem of insulating the motor from the chassis -- I was going to use electrical tape.  I guess I'll be calling the parts dept. on Monday.

Thanks again.

Jon

Hi Len:

Thanks;  I couldn't get the toothpicks to work and manged to break one of the brackets - I don't think Bachmann has replacements for sale -- here comes the jury-rig or a lot of parts for the parts box .

Hi Len:

Thanks much -- unhooking the latch from the chassis seems to be my problem -- one bracket is no problem but the one on the other side just does not seem to budge.  I'll keep working at it -- hopefully not until it breaks because there are no replacement parts.

I have an HO scale Bachmann B23-7 that I want to convert to DCC.  How do I remove the motor brackets so I can separate and isolate the motor from the chassis?  Thanks much for any help.

Hi Conrail/Rich:

Thanks for the comments.  I bought a used E33 at the show (I have two others) and measuring the distance between truck centers and body length, they seem mighty close to truck centers distance and body length I downloaded for the E44 from the PRR site.

I think it's close enough that I might try to do some body work and see how it looks.

Do either of you have measurements on what the E33 length and distance between truck centers is supposed to be?

Thanks,

ElectricFan

I visited the Bachmann booth at the Amherst Show, but I forgot to ask.

Are there any plans to develop a model of the E-44? 

It would seem like an easy conversion -- you could use the chassis from the E-33 and the pantographs from the new E-60.  There would have to be a new body, but the E-44 body was not too different from the E-33.

In terms of actual numbers produced, my Penn Central book indicates that there were about 65 E-44s produced. 

Insofar as railroad names, besides Pennsylvania and Penn Central, they were also found in Amtrak, Conrail, and New Jersey Transit liveries.

In addition, there was an E-50 model which was vitually identical to the E-44 which was used  on the Muskingum Electric -- I don't remember the number of units -- I think they were also remote controlled, but don't quote me on that.

Thanks,

Electric Fan