Swapping Atlas F3 cabs?

Anyone done this and can offer advice please?

 

I have a powered Santa Fe A unit and a GM&O A unit dummy. Am wanting to swap them out which may necessitate painting both chassis. I'm looking for viable options.

Heard somewhere that the Atlas units are difficult to work on. Completely new territory here!

They can be difficult.  I've worked on SW9's, a GP7, RS1, and Dash 8-40BW's.  All tend to be tight, requiring care on assembly and proper positioning of wires.  They use a standard plug-in modular wiring system where the electronic mother board is marked for each plug.

 IMO An F3 with a slightly wider body may be a bit more accommodating. All the ones I worked on were tight around the cab area requiring caution with wiring on re-assemble.

Mike

It is very easy to remove the cab. I removed mine yesterday to make a repair. There are (4) small screws (one in each corner) that have to be removed in order to remove the cab.

You need to be very sure that the cab you are installing on the powered unit has room for the electronics. I don't know about the F3's, but I once tried it on a pair of GP35's and it turned out that one (the dummy I was trying to upgrade) was from an earlier run with different electronics, and they had modified the mold to make room for the different electronics pack on the second one (the donor engine). The result was that I gave up - there was no way that the earlier shell was going to go over the later electronics pack. 

 

On the other hand, I did the same trick with a pair of Erie Built A units and the swap went just fine. There was plenty of room for the electronics. So, all I can advise is to test the fit before you start screwing things down. 

Thanks fellas for the good info. I am not familiar with Atlas production but I think these two F units are similar models. I'd like to be able to transfer the mechanism & lighting from one to the other as much as possible to avoid painting the original pieces.

The powered unit is Santa Fe while the dummy is GM&O. One has silver underpinnings and the other black. I want to power the GM&O.

I think I'll write to tech support at Atlas and ask them for an opinion too.

Sam:

Maybe a little more work or not.  I have had the several units I listed apart.  The electric motors and gear drive seperate from the trucks with some wiring dis-connect, reconnect. You may be able to swap trucks easier than painting.   Changing the fuel tank would involve the speaker and speaker wiring. There should be breakdown schematics on the Atlas website for the F3's, I check later via my own computer.  At the worst you are only painting the frame, which may be covered by the shell.

Mike

I checked the Atlas site.   F3 break downs are not there.  Closest match would be FM Erie Builts.

I would check with Bill Seratelli, at Atlas, he is an excellent technician.