Modeling Passenger Trains, Yay or Nay?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Speaking of FP7s and short passenger cars, here is another snazzy commuter train that might be fun- The Reading Company Push-Pull.

It ran between Reading Terminal in Philadelphia and continued to Reading, Pa. Starting in the late 60s, the train used 5 "shorty" steam hauled coaches with an FP7 on each end. MU cables were run across the tops of the cars to each locomotive. They ran like this into the beginning of Conrail. In 1978, there was a derailment, which resulted in the set being totally rebuilt, and arriving in Philadelphia as SEPTA units. They continued to run until the early 1980s when SEPTA discontinued all non-electric passenger service.

These FP7s were the last Reading Passenger diesels left by this time. Everything else was RDC or EMU in terms of passenger service.

Atlas and Athearn both made FP7As in Reading paint, and I think Bethlehem car works makes the necessary cars.

[Russ Bellinis]

Did Athearn make an Fp7? I know that they make F7's, but I don't remember an Fp7.

[IndyCity]

For me, interurbans like the South Shore, the Indiana Railroad or the Illinois Terminal are good ways to model passenger trains on my layout. The last two as fan trips of a nearby trolley museums that is not on my layout.

[jwb]

Yes, Athearn is doing FP7s, and they're pretty good -- better than the Intermountain, certainly better than the old Atlas. Their choices of road name so far have also been good, PRR in both red and green, Milwaukee Road both orange-maroon and UP yellow, SP black widow, and some others. My main reservation is that they're set up with McHenry plastic Kadee clones, and replacing them with Walthers metal short-shanks that they use on their own F units is a big hassle. You have to drill and tap a new mounting hole in the chassis.

FP7s are a really good passenger choice -- interestingly, PRR didn't use them as much on passenger, but they're a good freight cab unit choice. I have a DVD that shows FP7s running in sets with mixed red and green units on freight. The PRR ordered the FP7s just before so many secondary passenger trains were discontinued in the early 1950s, and they discovered they had enough E units to handle everything after the FPs arrived. On the other hand, roads like SP, Milwaukee, and L&N used them increasingly on passenger in the 1960s. The Athearn Milwaukee FP7s are probably a better choice for the Walthers Hiawatha than the E7s Walthers ran to go with it.