Speaking of models we are working on ...... and models that have been sitting around for a while ...... For many years, I have had a true flotilla of Stewart undecorated F-units, both A's & B's, F3's-F7's-F9's, 10 units in all, all but 2 powered (Kato), sitting on the shelf, waiting for the paint shop, and reminding me constantly of how much I spent on them. I've never rushed to complete them because of having a bunch of other cab units already in service and, importantly, not appreciating the appearance of the way too wide gap spacing between coupled Stewart F-units that results from their coupler set up. One of these is a black-painted but undecorated F3B that I bought on eBay a few years ago mainly to get another Kato drive. I also have a number of Stewart shells, plus two Highliners shells, so I felt I needed another drive, and this one was in near-new shape and, importantly, cheap! The guy did a fairly nice job with the black paint job, so over the weekend, I decided to go ahead with this unit and finish it off as SLSF 167, one of those that made it into the ugly, all black "economy" scheme. This was the renumbered SLSF 5117. As part of this project, today I installed a Kadee 450 Stewart close-couple kit on the F3B. Cool! It really worked well, and gives me a prototypical 3-ft spacing between units. This thing will shortly be running with a set of Genesis F3's, looking totally gross like the real ones did, but giving the consist a definite Frisco late 1960's-early 1970's look. The spacing makes it fit right in, and the Kato drive runs well with the Athearn Genesis drives. FYI. Anybody else tried the Kadee 450 kit? It has the parts for two couplers, so for a B-unit, you need one pack. But for an A-unit - since the nose coupler spacing is OK, one pack will do two A's. Ken |-|
