bachmann f7

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CNR Glen said:
I have the Kadee kit on my Bachmann Plus F-7 It takes some work to adapt it but in the end it works well. there are two length options in the kit. I went with the slightly longer drawbar because the shorter one means radically cutting up the trucks to make it fit.
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This is good to know, thank you Glen. I will probably go with the longer option. I have a turn, or two, that are fairly tight :rolleyes:
 
Update on my Santa Fe F7.

I added two LED's to the available solder pads for accessories yesterday. It turned out pretty nice. I drilled out the lower "light" for one of the LED's and put the other one in the cab so those poor guys could see at night.

I also enabled CV 49, option 2, for a mars effect on the main headlight (see below).

View attachment 38168
 


Update on the F7's...

I now have my Pennsylvania A-B-A pulling 18 of the Walthers coal cars (each is about 4 3/8oz) with ease. Those are some very good cars once the wheels have had time to file down on the track.

My Santa Fe F7's A-B-A setup have pulled as many as 20 cars in a freight configuration. Like the other set up, it pulls fine even on my non-prototypical grades of my inside loop. I got some of the new Roundhouse 50' passenger cars (reissue, check them out!), 4-pack and they look very nice behind the Santa Fe F7's as well. I plan on getting another 4-pack to add to this and am thinking about wiring them up with lights.

I couldn't be happier with my Bachmann F7's to be sure and feel anyone who gets them, will be happy too. ModelTrainStuff has the F7's for $99 and they are the best buy I have made out of all my loco's. I am starting to feel that Geeps are jut more show than go at this point. I have a Walthers Proto 2000 GP20 (GM demonstrator) and my Bachmann G9 is heavier, pulls better, and is starting to change my mind on some of the Bachmann offerings.
 
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RCShadow said:
I love my F's to be sure...I have loved them all my life. I do need to find some decent Geeps to add to my setup. I looked at MTH and just cannot do it due to the things I've heard about support and such.

I am trying to find some good quality units with no more than 4 wheels per truck that pull as good or better than these F units. Thoughts?

Congrats on your purchases as well!
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Athearn genesis or life like proto 2000,
 
doct0rnic said:
Athearn genesis or life like proto 2000,
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I ended up getting this one from ModelTrainStuff...

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Walthers-Proto-2000-EMD-GP20-w-DCC-EMD-p/920-41561.htm

I also got a Bachmann GP9 that seems to be rather old as I cannot find on the ModelTrainStuff site (got it local at Discount Model Trains).

The GP20 is a very good looking model though. The GP9 is not bad if you like high hoods and weighs in at 13.8oz if memory serves. The GP20 comes in at a little less.
 
I have thought about getting that myself, keep an eye ebay too, Life like proto 2000 were very good and you can still buy them at a reasonable cost of 100 dollars or less, the problem is when walthers bought the proto 2000 name from life like, the only difference they made was that they hiked the price up to compare with MTH and intermountain, you can still find a lot of life like proto 2000 engines with the same quality as the new walthers but have the price.
 
doct0rnic said:
I have thought about getting that myself, keep an eye ebay too, Life like proto 2000 were very good and you can still buy them at a reasonable cost of 100 dollars or less, the problem is when walthers bought the proto 2000 name from life like, the only difference they made was that they hiked the price up to compare with MTH and intermountain, you can still find a lot of life like proto 2000 engines with the same quality as the new walthers but have the price.
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Thank you for the advice ;). It's really strange. As soon as I bought the GP20, the price immediately went up $20 when I looked back at the page after I "checked out" my shopping cart. It seems the price sometimes is hit-or-miss and you just get lucky sometimes. Like I said, I love the look of those geeps but I just can't get them to pull like the F7's. The GP20 is so pretty I cannot bring myself to add lead to it. Besides, I have no idea where I would add the weight anyway without some very creative thought and work. I did take the shell off and and put some ATF on the driveline.
 
I wanted to update this thread with running time added to the mix. I now have about 40-45 hours of running time on my A-B-A consists and they are just as quiet, if not quieter, then when I bought them.

They pull like a tank too. I have my Pennsylvania A-B-A pulling 18 Walthers coal cars and they do not miss a beat. I've even thought of buying another 6-pack of coal cars and adding them as well. My other Santa Fe A-B-A consist is pulling 18 cars of differant flavors up grades of 5%-6% and hardly slow at all.

For the $99 per unit, I think these are absolutely one of the best buys around and am still very happy.
 
I have another update on the Bachmann F7's. I have had two just die on the track. The first one I promptly shipped to Bachmann and they are doing a repair/replacement at no charge...thank you Bachmann! This was one of the Pennsylvania units running in an A-B-A consist.

The second one was a Santa Fe that I had/have running in an A-B-A-A consist. I got the same symptoms as the above Pennsylvania unit so I decided to look at it myself before sending it off. What I found was loose wires. The wires that attach to the decoder are not soldered at all. They are looped through the solder pad and a cap is placed on the contact to crimp and hold the wire in place. I guess this is done to save on manufacturing costs.

What I will do if/when this happens again is to solder the wires directly to the decoder myself. I haven't made up my mind completely on this but I feel this will help with the issue of the wires coming loose and possibly having intermittent contact and blowing the decoder completely. These are good units to be sure but this should be considered for anyone looking to purchase one.

So far, this is the only disappointment I have found with the nine I have accumulated over the past three or so months.
 


It is a common technique

RCShadow said:
I have another update on the Bachmann F7's. ... The wires that attach to the decoder are not soldered at all. They are looped through the solder pad and a cap is placed on the contact to crimp and hold the wire in place. I guess this is done to save on manufacturing costs. . .
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I've seen Athearn decoders installed exactly the same way. I think it is a common decoder wiring technique not isolated to Bachmann.

Joe
 
The decoder simply using push-on clips to hold the wires on is almost universal. There are a few exceptions, but most do it that way. Atlas, Athearn, Bachmann, even Intermountain. BLI and MTH use connector plugs.
 
The only thing that I wouldn't solder would be the light leads. The clips sure do make it a lot easier to change out blown headlights etc.
 


dont blame bachmann, athearn, walthers and atlas are the same way, they use the clips I dont think they trust a XXXXXX boy to solder a wire.
 
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