Williams E7 A-A with "Golden State" Paint Scheme

I should add that the listing does not include "E7" in the title, but I found it by searching "Williams diesels."

Anyway, this is the first such pair I have encountered.

Williams did not do the Golden State, it is a repaint, which I also did to one of my Williams E-7 AB for my Kline Golden State set.

@Ron_S posted:

Williams did not do the Golden State, it is a repaint, which I also did to one of my Williams E-7 AB for my Kline Golden State set.

Thank you for your help!  I had been aware of a total of twenty-five E7 schemes made by Williams.  I have the Kline Golden State set, but I use my Williams Rock Island E7 pair for that.  The Williams diesel seems to handle all those aluminum cars with ease.

Enjoy your stuff!

Gordon

I like the pulling power of Williams locomotives. I powered both the AB and upgraded them with ERR Cruise Commanders and Railsounds. I have all of the 18 inch GS K-Line cars except the Golden Outlook Vista Dome. The consist catches a lot of attention when I run it at the club. I also have a CB&Q E-7 set upgraded, and a orphan MR A unit I am waiting for inspiration to make it into a road name I run.

Since finding out how simple the ERR upgrades are, I am in the process of adding it to all my Williams locomotives, plus making my Lionel F-3 sets repowered with Williams trucks and DC motors, which allows for more powered engines in a consist over the power hungry pullmor sets.

If I saw the same Williams E7 set you saw, red and gray with large Southern Pacific lettering, both A units are powered, 4 motors for monster pulling power.

@Ron_S posted:

Since finding out how simple the ERR upgrades are, I am in the process of adding it to all my Williams locomotives, plus making my Lionel F-3 sets repowered with Williams trucks and DC motors, which allows for more powered engines in a consist over the power hungry pullmor sets.

Please tell me more about this conversion. Is it a bolt on job, or does the Lionel chassis require modification?

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

If I saw the same Williams E7 set you saw, red and gray with large Southern Pacific lettering, both A units are powered, 4 motors for monster pulling power.

If so, the buyer got a bargain.

I wish Bachmann would manufacture E7 units again.  For many reasons, I don't think it's ever going to happen.  Williams large diesels with dummy A units are gone forever.

My loop was too small to find out how many passenger cars two Williams powered units could pull.  I did run two Williams Heritage SD90 diesels together.  They looked nice together, but one diesel was really enough to do the job.

Roy Boy,

It is a bit of both, the motor mounts do bolt right on, you just have to use a narrower fly wheeled motor like the F-3 upgrade or Wilson Chuggington motor and truck. The normal Williams motor flywheel is too tall for the classic lionel f-3 shell.  The only modification is you have to either grind or cut out the wire opening in front of the motor, it doesn't quite line up with the Williams until you do.  It took me about 2 hours total to open the wire opening, paint the chassis, mount the new trucks and motors and wire the ERR CC in. I have kept the B units if they had the TMCC railsounds, if not I gut them and add a mini commander with railsounds from ERR.

I have modified my NP F-3 ABA with 4 motors, B unit sound which pulls 14 of the MTH, K-Line and Lionel NP aluminum streamlined cars with no problem, barely warm after a few hours of running on the club layout which has grades that the original Pullmor had trouble with on Atlas track.

Great information, Ron.

I have a custom painted (Milwaukee Road) Lionel A-B-A F3 set with Pullmore motors.

I also have some red Chuggington locos that were purchased specifically for their running gear.

I did not think of putting Williams China drives in the Lionel F3 units, but you have inspired me to do so.

Thank you!

Roy

Roy, put the bare chuggington frame back to back with your F-3 frame so the motor key holes line up, use a white or light color pen to trace the needed outline, grind, cut or file to that line, smooth the edges and then it is fairly bolt in.  I used a piece of 3/8 plywood in the well to mount the CC to, so it didn't have a screw under the fuel belly. I used double sided 3M foam tape to keep it in place and added LED headlights, back up lights while upgrading it.

Got one frame drilled/ground out and painted. Finding and looking through my parts stash to see how many F3 side frames I have.

If it works out as well as it looks like it will, I will start on the second one.

Thanks again, Ron.

Roy

Roy, I am glad it is working for you. The pulling power and low speed control is outstanding with this combination. I have 5 of these on my workbench in different stages of completion. I too am scrounging for side frames , they sure dried up over the last year. I am doing another AB for Northern Pacific, a set of Rio Grande AAA, A Canadian Pacific B unit with railsounds and the TCA ABA with 4 motors and the B unit with railsounds.

@Ron_S posted:

Roy, put the bare chuggington frame back to back with your F-3 frame so the motor key holes line up, use a white or light color pen to trace the needed outline, grind, cut or file to that line, smooth the edges and then it is fairly bolt in.  I used a piece of 3/8 plywood in the well to mount the CC to, so it didn't have a screw under the fuel belly. I used double sided 3M foam tape to keep it in place and added LED headlights, back up lights while upgrading it.

What did you do to allow the trucks to swing freely?

It seems that the diecast Lionel frame is thicker than the stamped steel Chuggington frame. When I tighten the motor-to-truck screw, the trucks become too tight to swivel.

I tried making a shim around the screw to space the motor mount up slightly, but that did not work, either.

Roy,

If your using the star washer with the truck screw, barely tighten the screw. I had the same problem. put a trace of grease with a fingertip where the mount fits top and bottom.

I just did another set of ABA last night and worked the trucks and loosened/tightened the screw until it was smooth. Also move the truck forward and back until it  fits, I'll send you a short video tonight on what I did last night.

Ron

Please post the video for us to see = thanks

Surfliner, I am having trouble reducing the file small enough to be able to send via email from my Iphone. I used dropbox to send to Roy but I have to approve anyone seeing a file with that system.