# Northern Pacific F-9 7012A



## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

Here are a few photos I took either in the late 70's or early 80's at the Burlington Northern shops in Livingston, MT, now the MRL shops. 

Marvin Varnes, the shop supervisor gave ma a call saying that the shop had just done a restoration of the locomotive and were getting ready to ship it to the railroad museum in in Seattle. Over the pass I went to the shops and here's what I saw. I was a little disappointed at first because it did not have the pine tree paint scheme I remembered so well growing up, but it was still beautiful. 

Here it is in action. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=27A6E802782CBDD9C35427A6E802782CBDD9C354





































The quality isn't the best because I scanned them from old photos. 

This train was used in the movie Runaway Train which came out years ago and I have seen a few videos of it in action, with the correct paint job.

Here it is in action. 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...&mid=27A6E802782CBDD9C35427A6E802782CBDD9C354


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Nice pictures, Chet. Those older diesels had character, with their different sounds, paint schemes and shapes. Today's locos seem to mostly be copied after each other, although they are impressive power!! Thanks for posting.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Nice locomotive. The restore looks great.
Thanks for showing.


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## sirfoldalot (Oct 30, 2015)

How come is there twice as many mu connections on the rear as on the front?
Anyone?

BTW, Chet, nice photographs.


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

I will have to agree with Fire21 about the older diesels have a bit more character than the newer ones. The railroads did for the most part a great job of customizing the paint jobs for their railroads which I think gave them a bit of a personality. 

Even something as simple as an F unit had many small additions that dd make them different. I see that this unit still has its winterization hatches and the old firecracker antenna. I also like the 5 chime air horn. 

Thanks to my friend Marvin at the BN shops, I did manage to get my hands on a 5 chime horn from a locomotive that had been damaged. Took it home and went into the shop with the neighbor and put air to it. Yup, it still worked but my neighbor and I were reading lips for about 20 minutes, don't do this at home. 

Here's a photo of an F unit I built about 25 or so years ago. At the time there were no manufacturers offering one in the correct paint scheme so I started with an undecorated Athearn unit. Microscale decals were used and dome detail items were added such as the winterization hatch, antenna, 5 chime horn, lift rings, spark arrestors MU hoses and such. The old Athearn motor was discarded and a can motor from NWSL was installed along with constant lighting. I used fober optics to light the class lights on it also. It still runs like a charm today, as well as any now locomotives on the market.


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## p51 (Nov 12, 2015)

the sad thing is that the unit could use a new paintjob like in the top photos, as the paint on it now is showing its age. It's at the Mt Rainier Scenic RR...








This photo makes it look better than it really is.


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## Hot Water (Oct 24, 2015)

sirfoldalot said:


> How come is there twice as many mu connections on the rear as on the front?
> Anyone?
> 
> BTW, Chet, nice photographs.


There are generally the same number of CONNECTIONS on either side of the coupler. However, not all of those CONNECTIONS may have an MU hose threaded into the fitting, thus it may appear that some units have more CONNECTIONS than other units.


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