Stewart Drive Types for F-7 Locomotives

Randy_S Mar 14, 2015

  1. Randy_S

    Randy_S New Member

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    We have several sets of older Stewart F-7 locomotives for CB&Q, MP and GN. I'd like to add powered chases to non-powered units. I've heard that Stewart used more than one drive system in these locomotives. I believe some were built by Kato and others by Athearn. Before purchasing powered Stewart chases (e.g. on e-Bay), I'd like to make sure the new chases will be compatible with the units we have. I think that the Q and GN units have a Kato-like mark on the underside of the powered trucks. The MP units do not. None of them have the bronze bearings typical of many Athearn (and Proto 2000) units (though I don't know if this would be a distinguishing characteristic of Athearn powered Stewart locos or not. Do these bronze bearings appear on the Stewart units with Athearn drives? Any help in identifying these drives would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
     
  2. railtwister

    railtwister TrainBoard Member

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    Stewart F Units

    I've never seen a Stewart F unit with an Athearn drive, as far as I know, the first runs of these were made for Stewart by Kato. Later ones were not Kato, although the drives looked pretty much the same as the Kato, but I'm not sure if they are Chinese clones of the Kato drives, or if the components were made by Stewart themselves. I have some, and they run beautifully, but beware, the retaining pins that hold the sideframes on the truck are easily broken. Fortunately, the Stewart line is now owned by Bowser, and they offer excellent parts support, so even if you break it, it can likely be fixed.

    Bill in FtL
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2015
  3. Randy_S

    Randy_S New Member

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    Bill,

    Thanks very much for your helpful reply. The locos with the Kato-like imprint on the bottom of the powered trucks and those that don't have this seem to run well together. I'll probably go ahead and try to get powered Stewart-Kato chases for all three roads. I appreciate the tip about retaining pins that hold the sideframes. I, too, have had excellent experiences with Bowser with respect to getting parts over the years, so that is a plus. Thanks again!

    Randy in NLR, AR
     
  4. James Fitch

    James Fitch TrainBoard Member

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    Here is what I know.

    When Stewart first offered the F diesel series in HO, they were manufactured for Steve Stewart by KATO, chassis and shell (F3, F7 and F9). In the late 1990's Steve Stewart decided to take the tooling out of Japan and brought it to the United States and began making them here. When that happened, there were some changes, as noted by others the motor was different as was the circuit board, but the basic chassis and shell was still from the KATO tooling. Both the KATO made and Stewart made F units ran very well. I don't think you can go wrong with either chassis and they both should run fine together.

    I bought some F9's (single stripe D&RGW) Stewarts and those were made in the USA and were nice, but I have since sold them off because I replaced them with the Athearn Genesis F9's who's shells are based on the superior Highliner F shell. That said, I still have 10 Stewart F7's and 3 F3's, all based on the KATO made version and they are very nice. You should still be able to find those at train shows and on Ebay.

    FYI, Steve Stewart sold his company to Bowser in 2004, and Bowser has continued to offer most of the Stewart line of models since then.
     

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