Was looking at the following BEV-BEL's 15008 F7 Diesel Erie Lackawanna #7091 I believe they got it wrong, I was looking at this site http://www.thedieselshop.us/ErieL.HTML. And yes I know they're -bev-bel- gone. It seems that some Bev -Bel products are not historically correct ,No I am not surprised that no one mentioned it to them before their demise. Tom
Apparently Bev Bel is still around and yes they did what we call today 'foobies' but in the early days no one really cared.
Those were Life-Like FP-7s (although those who know more than me have stated that they had features of several types and phases of the F-units). At one point, I was referring to them as FP-Whatevers. Some of them had incorrect numbers. I seem to recall that the Baltimore and Ohio versions had B&O passenger F-3 numbers(I sold off my LL Fp-Whatevers, so I can not run upstairs and look). B&O had no FP-7s in the Blue and Grey era nor did it have even regular F-7s set up for passenger work (some of the Grange roads had the latter). After the C&O takeover, it did transfer some of its FP-7s to the B&O, but none ever had the Blue and Grey Scheme. I seem to recall that the number on the Penn unit was incorrect, as well, but, I never had the Penn unit. I just remembered that I still have my New York Central unit. Its number is 1632 and it even has the class designation DFA-2B. The class designation is correct for the number. Class DFA-2B were freight F-3s. As this is an F-7, the number would be incorrect. New York Central never had any F-7s equipped for passenger work. The Penn had FP-7s, so those did get onto NYC rails after PC. The New York Central unit is in the black lightning stripe scheme. The grilles are even black, although NYC did leave the silver colored grilles on its F-7s. The "chicken wire" on the F-3s were black. Thus, I suspect that this is an attempt to disguise an F-7 as an F-3. New York Central did have six F-3s equipped for passenger work: Four As and two Bs. They were class DCA-1. The "C" stands for "combination", which means that they were meant for both passenger and freight. For these reasons, it does not surprise me that the E-L number is incorrect. I followed your link and learned that the number is for an E-L formerly Erie F-3. I do not know if it was a passenger or freight F-3 or if the Erie even had passenger F-3s. If someone sells an E-L decal sheet, you could erase the Bev-Bel number and put a correct one onto it, if the E-L had any FP-7s. If it did not, you could remove the steam generator stacks and put a freight F-7 number onto it. You would be left with a freight F-7 that is some four feet too long, but, I doubt that many would notice the difference. This is not a bad locomotive. It has the same type drive as the plastic frame LL FA-2 and BL-2. The shell is somewhat more clunky than the FA-2 shell and those who know better than I do have stated that not all of the details are correct for either an F-7 or FP-7. It does not run poorly, espcially considering the era in which it appeared. It is an excellent puller. If it has any weaknesses, they are: A. The drive is archaic by to-day's standards B. The flexing wires soldered to pivotting trucks come undone. Letter "B" is a common complaint about the LL FP-7, BL-2 as well as the plastic frame FA-2 and GP-18. I have experienced it on all of the above except for the GP-18. This is only because I had only one LL GP-18. I rarely ran it, as it is slightly out of my era. I finally sold it. In this era of DCC, we have returned to flexing wires soldered to pivotting trucks, although there are better ways to do it. If the price is twenty dollars or less, you might buy it and make a few alterations to it.
