Info requested on postwar Canadian Pacific F3s

CanAm, I just leafed through Greenberg's Joe Algozzini's Guide to Postwar F-3's.  Not too much on the Canadian Pacific's.  The lettering and numbering are, as you mention, heat stamped.  Silk-screened on repos.  Even the stripes are heat stamped on originals.

Silk-screening usually has very sharp separation lines whereas rubber or heat stamping can be somewhat blurry.

Most 2373 shells were gray.  A few were orange or dark gray.

First, welcome aboard.

In addition to the way the lettering is applied, there were a few minor but very visibly  obvious design changes Lionel made to F-3 shells after the original Canadian Pacific F-3’s were produced in 1957 as follows: 

• In 1958 the handle on the front (nose) door was removed so yours should have a      handle
• All post-war F-3’s have a vent located very low on each side of the front cab nose, cabs made after the post-war era (1970 and later) do not so yours should have those vents

HTH,

Bill

Try calling Len. He has been expertly repainting these for many years and will know what you have.

Len Carparelli
L & L MODEL TRAIN CO.
1 Orient Way, Suite “F” Box 348
Rutherford, NJ 07070
(201) 438-1266

Can you post a couple photos especially of the nose and the graphics mentioned?

There are some very knowledgeable people on here...

Those are a beautiful set of F3s for sure!

Thank you very much guys! I'm looking at pictures of an original set and repaint set selling on ebay now (unfortunately out here in South Dakota I'm limited to my comparison areas) and see what you say about the vents Bill as the repaints don't have them, the expensive set and mine do. I'm not sure about your description of the handle as the repaints as well as mine have those if we're talking about the same handle. My shells are gray but I'm still uncertain about silk screened or heat stamped. They don't look new so maybe that's in my favor. I'll try calling Len as suggested. Thanks again guys! Have a great day.- Tim

I'll see what I can do about the pics as my wife is the specialist on putting pictures in the computer (lol) I can drag them in after that. Else if you ebay I can give you the old listing number and you can enter that to see the expired auction which has some fairly good pictures.

I just talked to Len as you suggested oldrob. very informative and helpful, he was confident I have originals even though only a couple of the letters were slightly indented so I feel much better! Sounds like he does a lot of neat restoration work, wish I was closer to see some of his items. He also explained the door handle that Bill mentioned so I'm better informed on that also.

Thanks again guys! Have a great day!   Tim