Williams FEC BL-2

Butch

Since I like that line I wish you would post a picture.

Larry

Butch,

I'm not sure about the engine colors but FEC's passenger cars would have been mostly (if not entirely) unpainted stainless steel.  These were assigned variously to trains of the Seaboard and other roads that switched to and from the FEC at Jacksonville.  I don't believe the FEC had BL-2s; if they did they probably would not have been used in passenger service.  Therefore, the real answer is ...it's your railroad; run what makes you happy!

Personally, I run a pair of Lionel MPC FEC GP-9s, a diesel railsounds REAX car, and 3 silver postwar silver 027 passenger cars.  Maybe it's not prototypical but it's a classy looking passenger train.

X2000

The FEC did have BL-2s.  These were freight only units.  Boston & Maine, Rock Island, and Chesapeake & Ohio had passenger BL-2s.

 On page 202 of the book, Speedway to Sunshine:The Story of the Florida East Coast Railway, there is a color publicity photo of FEC F-units.  The colors appear to be a rust with dull yellow(maize?) with silver and black trim and the FEC logo.  

Hey Butch1,  If this photo does not come through, go to railpictures.net web site, and under railroads go to reginals & shortlines, and click on florida east coast.  It will show a sd40 painted in the FEC original Orange paint scheme. It is more orange than red. Un fortunately they do not have the BL2 pics.  They had them both in the orange scheme, and solid blue.  Hope this helps.  Steve

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=428738&nseq=1

I love my BL-2, as you say, the operation is wonderful.   I have the Rock Island which is sharp.  I also have a GP-30 in Great Northern colors which seem a tiny bit off to me, perhaps not as bad as your FEC. 

The Willliams is closer to reality in color, but you're right that it's not the best match for the RK passenger cars. I also have the FEC BL-2. I really like it. When I first got it, I though it ran too fast and the headlight was too dim. I re-wired it in series, and now it runs smooth and slow and the headlight is much brighter. Now it is one of my favorites.

I agree that the headlight is dim, and it is fast.  How do you rewire in series?  Are you connecting the motors in series to do this? 

I wire all my Williams in series - really helps w/ the speed issue.

Here's a diagram to change the wire specs -

Another issue: I sometimes use insulated track as the switch to operate the horn, and that works well when the button must remain pressed for all the time the horn blows.  I'm not sure how to get one quick signal to start the horn sequence on the Williams.  Obviously, I run in Conventional control.

I use an MTH Z-1000 with most of my Williams trains and just push the horn button for about two to three seconds to get it to work. The older ZW's(postwar) need to have the whistle button pushed between two/thirds to three/fourths of the way to get the whistlee button to work.

The BL-2 was used by FEC mainly as a freight hauler.

I have never had to series wire a Williams engine, my engines are from the Crown Edition era. Is this something new because Bachmann uses a newer circuit board?

Mainly I need a second powered unit to pull some trains, like the "El Capitan" passenger set. The six car set needs two powered A units to pull it at a decent speed, otherwise it is a snail pace speed.

Lee Fritz

If you want a color match, This would probably be right on! Dan

MTH FEC  BL2

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-2130-2-0

Interesting thread,  I just found myself in a similar situation as Butch.  I recently got a F.E.C. Williams BL-2  and then found a Rail King F.E.C. "B' unit on ebay so decided to expeirment with it.

Here's a picture of what I have so far.

I have not heard of a BL-2 having a B unit. Maybe an F-7 B unit, at least that is what it looks like to me.

Different engines, an F-7 verses an SD-45, will have different paint schemes even with the same railroad.

Lee Fritz

Lee,  you're right the BL-2 probably never used a B unit.  But I got this B unit at such a good price I couldn't pass it up.  I think I'll repaint it closer to the Williams colors and go from there.

Railroads often miss matched power in the past when it was needed.  The only thing I would do would be to match scales.

Curious if ALL Williams are scale.  One of the stores in NY ran Williams engines on sale a year or so ago, so I bought a KCS even though I run DCS because KCS runs through Vicksburg MS where we have lived since 2003.

Some models are often scale in length (or close to it) but are off in either height or width.

the bl2's paint faded with age lol

the B unit looks like a F3B.  It looks as if it has a steam generator for you rpassenger cars.  I don't know if the FEC had F units for passenger service.  But it is a good looking engines MU'ed, and can break up that color situation you have.

Even real railroads had the situation where paints from different batches of the same color from the same plant had some differences in color.  Even Lionel had this issue.  However, seems paint dies seem more stable now.

smp is correct here in that it would be best to pick up a 'scale' sized F3/F7 B unit as the one pictured here is vastly undersized (0-27) when paired with the near scale length Williams model.

I understand what you guys are saying about the size difference, however I got this B unit for under $30. new in the box so I can live with it,  after all they're only toys.

That being said,  here are a few more pictures of the repaint progress.

Here I've repainted the roof with Krylon "Brick Ladrillo,  and the bottom yellow with Krylon "Bauhaus Gold".  I'll leave the lower red alone so I don't have to reletter it.

Wouldn't this  make a cool mail box design?

56f100,  I like your thinking,  we're on the same track.  I also picked up a set of passenger cars for $30. that I'll try to repaint to the FEC colors.  Here I've painted the roofs.

  I just bought a Railking B & O E8b from Sidetrack Hobbies to go with my Williams EMD Demostrator BL2.  The BL2 is slightly taller than the E8b.  No big deal because the transition from BL2 to E8b to Railking Passenger cars still looks good.  Even better, the mid 60s era B & O paint scheme on the E8b goes great with the EMD Demo paint scheme on the BL2!  

With the holidays behind us I've found time to return to this project and get some painting done.  All this painting was done with the rattle cans and if I do it again I'll deffinately learn how to air brush.

I like what you did. Looks good.