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Great Trains F7


Jerry B44
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Larry gave me(thanks!) this Great Trains(1/32nd scale) F7 shell and frame. I'm still looking for another or a B unit. It will be in UP colors to match my MTH passenger cars. I got some NWSL motor blocks that I will use. I had the gray mixed at my lumber yard, they scanned a MTH shell for it and the yellow. Seems each train maker has their own ideas about UP colors, as do the hobby paint guys.

post-49-0-07615000-1392601602.jpg

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Nice Jerry!  When you get time can you share more info on the NWSL motor blocks?  Like how are they constructed and what material they use for the gears etc?  Would like to know for my own knowledge so the next time someone asks about motor blocks maybe I can offer it up as a suggestion.  Going to be looking forward to follow the project :)

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I have not torn into the motor blocks yet, have to yank the pickups, since it will be battery power. I've heard they are better. Larry seems to be happy with the ones he has, maybe he will post something. They have two and 3 axle blocks, powered and un-powered.

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Jerry, leave the electrical pickups on the wheels. I removed all of mine, and then decided to go back to track power. It took tons of work to rewire them.  Let's talk about the NWSL power blocks. Prior to MTH, the NWSL power blocks were the only thing available in one-gauge. Great trains, Ralph Brown, Ted Sharpe all used these. My experience with them and with NWSL has beem excellent. Some of my Lionel GP9's (repowered with NWSL) have over a 1000 hrs of run time on them. The wheels show wear, (you can get new wheels from NWSL) but nothing inside shows any wear. Just take them apart and grease them once a year.  You can put a flywheel in the "B" trucks with a lot of work. (The "C" trucks come with a flywheel) This allows you to convert them to MTH DCS. Now which one is better, no doubt MTH makes a better powered truck. The gears are metal and the bearings are bronze. MTH power trucks will run forever with a little care. Here's the big problem with them, you have to deal with MTH if you need a part. Have any of you ever tried to get a part out of MTH? On the other hand NWSL will bend over backwards to make you a happy customer. They'll sell you every part that ever been made.  They even do custom machine work and they're really easy to talk to on the phone. Hope this helps, Larry

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For MTH parts if you have trouble getting quick responses, it's best to work through a dealer like myself.  You don't have to work with MTH directly.  

 

Very interesting on the NWSL motor blocks, I'm really glad to hear there are durable long lasting alternatives to MTH blocks for kit bashers out there.  Would like to see photos of these blocks if they are available along with internal pics. Are the worm gears metal or delrin?

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Some other info on MTH parts... It also depends on what you are trying to obtain.. if you are trying to get entire boilers, etc they may ask for the old one in exchange.  This is how they are with motor blocks and other key components, all other items like motors, detail parts, screws smoke units, etc are all openly available without issue.  The reason for this is their goal is to make sure they maintain stock on these key components to ensure that customers that actually own their product will always have access to parts to keep their engines running indefinitely.  If they just sold motor blocks to anyone without exchange kitbashers would use them for projects which would eventually lead to them going out of stock on these items and not being able to service their customer engines when they have problems.  So for kitbashers some parts are harder to acquire.  Other than that Midge in parts is pretty good about getting back to people on requests.  I've seen her desk at their HQ in Maryland and can say she stays very very busy.  But again, if you dont get timely responses on parts, work through a good dealer that is committed to helping you.

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