Athearn Genesis F7 Sante Fe Project / Harold's F3 Completion

Hello All! I have finally completed Harold's F3. A new project is on the horizon, my Santa Fe F7's upgrades. There are six all together. Decoders, light and sounds will be the focus. I have to say this project is long overdue since I had these units for several years..

[@donavonrobbins1908]

Another layout thought for consideration. My layout when I was a kid, was on a sheet of 4x8 plywood. My room was in the basement. At the end of the room, my step dad framed shelving to the wall. The bottom shelf was about 2' off the floor. The plywood was attached to this with hinges and could fold up against the wall out of the way. Actually there was an airgap of the width of the shelf board between the stowed position of the layout and the wall. When the layout was down/open, there were two brass colored chains to support each out side corner and I had a wooden leg to screw into the center of the leading edge before I lowered the layout. When up, the layout was secure closed with a bolt layxh on each upper corner. The layout was a common set up with an outer loop that had an inside siding. An inner loopn I could run a second, smaller train on. The outer loop also had a spur withban elevated coal dump. Therw was also a shelf above and compartments along side the closed layout Where i stored my rolling stock. The track was nailed down with a cork bed. My buildings were not attached. They were easily moved back onto the shelf the layout was hinged to and protected behind the layout when closed. On the bottom of the layout was a ayer of cork. Made the back side of the layout a poster board. It could get tedious setting up and putting it away, but it was a good use of real estate. Heck, one could always have a permanent shelf set up on one wall, and have the hideaway layout fold lowered down to expand on to it for another leg for operating sessions.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Hmm, I'm considering building a modular layout in my room but due to this pandemic it is on hold. the plan is to clear out my bedroom to the point where it is possible to build removable shelves. The shelves will design will be similar to an N scale modular build I have seen in a couple of trains shows. I will have more information later on this. Hopefully this pandemic will blow over soon so I may continue with the project.

[@gp3yt]

WOW...those F's are just beautiful! 👍🏾💯

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Thanks!

[@donavonrobbins1908]

Also, looking forward to your build. I have a flock of E-7's to digitize and add sound to.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Thank you Donavon. I have received the LEDs recently for the F7's and now I need to get the motherboards for the decoders. The decoders will be the ESU Loksound V4 from my Scaletrains Tier 4 GEVO's from the first three releases. The GEVO's will be upgraded to the Loksound V5 in the process. This project will take some time to get complete. Hopefully by the end of the year it will be all done.

[@donavonrobbins1908]

The F-3 pilot looks similar to E-7 passenger pilots. You could give the coupler back to your F-7 and install doors to enclose the F-3 pilot for a more streamlined effect.

[@hdspringer2561]

good to hear that U go with ESU, U will never regret your choice. I use the ESU Ecos 50200 and the Mobil Control II, for me the best system on the market. See ya next time, Dirk.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Hello Dirk and thank you. You are right, we don't regret it one bit. I remember years ago when we had the MRC Prodigy system, and it was a total nightmare to program and operate. So we were in the market for a new DCC control system, NCE and Digitrax were the main contenders. I was not satisfied with their technology so I had decided to find a more advanced system and then I discovered ESU. It took some convincing Martel but he decided to try it out. We never looked back since. Now I have finally have the new latest and greatest for myself I'm very curious to see how far this technology can go.

[@hdspringer2561]

Triple M Model Railroad Glad to hear that U are satisfied with the ESU System. 👍. I think they are far ahead the other DCC systems, only exception is Zimo, but this system is to expensive. See ya next time, Dirk

[@OmegaDeus8467]

@@hdspringer2561 Yes I forgot about Zimo! Zimo prices are ridiculous..

[@thebibletrain8297]

Very nice 👍

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Thank you!

[@spacecalander]

Best system, i want the ESU cab control, can't wait to see video on that. I sold all my Tsunami locos, just ESU now.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

I must agree, the ESU system is the best on the market. Years ago I have predicted that ESU is going to be on top depending on how their competitors respond to them. I was hoping that Soundtraxx and or QSI would develop beyond what they were doing. Soundtraxx and QSI have developed new and better decoders. But what they both failed to do was build a control system around their hardware. ESU already had their ECoS system in place and it was basically plug and play, (almost). ;) Even though I am ridding of most of my Tsunami decoder engines except for my DDA40X's Soundtraxx did a good job on their Tsunami 2 decoder. I will be testing the programmability of the Tsunami's with the new ESU Control Cab. I hope it works without much issues. I will have a video soon on this.

[@spacecalander]

@@OmegaDeus8467 Looks forward to your findings.

[@spacecalander]

Kadee #58 is a scale correct coupler, and look great. That is what i used on my F3s and F7s also used the original draft gear box.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

Thank you Spacecalander. On the Kadee website it is stated that #28 and #38 are the couplers to use for the F3's and F7's. # 146 and 148 were optional. This is confusing..

[@spacecalander]

@@OmegaDeus8467 I believe that is for Atlas, which is a mess of a coupler, if your units are Athearn Genesis yellow or all blue box then the 58 is just like the scaletrains coupler, and fits the athearn factory box and screw.

[@OmegaDeus8467]

@@spacecalander Oh okay I got you. I may have miss read the information on the kadee site. I don't understand how I did that.. :/ Thank you for leading me in the right direction!

[@spacecalander]

@@OmegaDeus8467 No problem, you are gonna love the 58s and put them on all your athearn locos. I buy them in 20 packs. www.ebay.com/itm/Kadee-HO-scale-12-Bulk-Pack-58-x-20-pair-magne-matic-couplers-Scale-Head/370931454699?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649