Does anyone know when Athearn modified the shell on there F3/7? If you notice in the picture the CNR one has a dual headlight whereas the Conrail shell (Thanks NP!) does not. Like to find out when that happened. The CNR ones had only a single light.
Thanks, Gareth "A is A" -Aristotle Law of Identification Edited by - romcat on February 26 2012 1:24:28 PM
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I am not sure but I think from the start they had the option. If you look at the mold marks on the shell it looks like it was a insert that if they wanted 2 headlights they put a piece of the mold in for it. 1954 was the year Globe started making the F-7 and in 1957 Athearn started making them with the globe molds.
Adam
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The dual headlight appeared along with revised numberboards (molded on versus seperate parts that had to be glued on) about 1960. Other than that the shell has pretty remained unchanged since its original release in 1954.
Larry
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I have seen PRR ones painted the same and numbered the same with both the dual and single headlights. Found that out the hard way trying to put together a matching ABBA set.
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Originally the Athearn/Globe F7 shell had a single headlight. When the number boards were revised to be molded on, it got a second light added.
Later, in the 1980s I believe, at the behest of Bev-Bel a run of shells with the lower headlight blanked out was done. It was a one-shot deal. These units will have the new style trucks. That would be what the Conrail one below is an example of.
It's worth noting that both the Penn Line/Varney/Life-Like F7 and the Tyco F7 shells are just about 100% duplicates of Athearn's shell; the Tyco has a single light, and it's possible with some work to swap chassis around and confuse the issue even further.
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I have one of the Globe shells in CNR on a Hobbytown Chassis. Ultimately I plan to use one of the Cary F3 shells and using Highliners F7 detail pieces make one mother of a heavy F&Au unit and attach a B and an A unit both Athearn Hi-F units sans their drive trains but emplying their electrical pick-ups to make a very smooth heavy pulling combo....
-Gareth "A is A" -Aristotle Law of Identification
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Posted - February 26 2012 : 1:22:13 PM
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