Can We Make This Broken 1960s PRR F7A Loco Run Again? 

She's a runner, eh? Well, she is now Harrison. As for the shell, looks like she's been to war, but she still has her horns. Was hoping you'd catch the wheel assembly error before taking it to the track, and you did. I don't recall seeing the Pennsylvania 🦈 nose riding the rails -- it needed to be wired for power. 🤔 And just to see if anybody else reads other comments, Happy 20th Birthday Harrison! 🎉🎂🎁 Thanks for sharing. 👍🥳👍

Every single time when I look your repair videos, I remain speechless...In a positive way...It's so satisfying to see how you bring all those "old girls" in life again...👏👏👏👏👏👏👏....I am sad that in Europe is not so simply to find locomotive like this one in your video.....Cary on with good work

You got me motivated to fix boxes of old locomotives I purchased at the local flea market years ago. From the first box I restored in ho 10 diesels and 1 steam engine. I'm starting on a second box with 12 ho small steam engines. Thanks again and good luck in the future. Long live modelrailroading!

Success again. Always good to see any old locomotive that probably hasn’t run in years or perhaps decades brought back to life.

Great restoration to this I couldn't do better myself. Serenity!! A runner! I've never seen that drive before but its good to see another vintage locomotive running again. I had a model power f3 that had this paint scheme years ago. It was my favourite locomotive when I was about 8 to 11 years old its long gone but slowly ive been replacing what I've had over years which is good thing plus these videos helped me do what i do now to restore mine. Especially the older vids helped with doing track work etc.

I don't know what so appealing about the F7 units,but I love them

SMT: Can we make (fill in the blank) loco run again? Of course we can! Have we ever failed?

I had the same Varney F7A engine. Got it around 1961 or so when I was a kid. The chassis (pot metal) broke in about 5 places after quite a few years. In my travels to train shows about 20 some years back, I acquired an unlabeled Athern F7A power unit and was able to adapt the Varney shell to fit the Athern chassis. So I still was able to use my old Varney unit. Still have both trucks and the motor in the junk box.

The heat shrink tubing....USE YOUR SOLDERING IRON TO DO THAT!!!! Don't use an open flame, because with the open flame you just never know what ELSE you're going to set on fire. And because I'm paranoid, I would have tested it without the shell first. But that's just me. Still...damned good job, dude!!!

Hey SMT! I went to a train show today and got a alco PA-1 and PB-1 pair both running great for $25! I also picked up a great condition dummy loco for $2! I love train shows. Great restoration and glad you have it running. Have a good one!!

That thing would look awesome with a fresh coat of paint and a bit of work on the shell! Good job getting it running

heya Harrison real serandipty you working on this thing. There was an odd SW7 switcher on ebay that at 1st blush looked like and Athearn. But when turned over, the mechanism was very much not. I could not for the life of me figure out what it was! But when I saw your video here I went AHAH!! That is the mechanism. Mystery solved. Thank you sir! BTW the engine got snapped up for near 60 bucks. Someone luved it!

i am a huge fan of the Pennsylvania railroad only because of the logo Life-Like was a manufacturer of model trains and accessories. In 1960 the company purchased the assets of the defunct Varney Scale Models and began manufacturing model trains and accessories under the name Life-Like in 1970.

Another page in the SMT manual.Varney/Lifelike chapter. Good rescue👍🚂🚃🇨🇦

Looks awesome. Way to go on fixing it. Loved watching it run and then later with rolling stock behind it. Would love to see it if you repaint it. Take care.

That’s a nice little engine I believe that’s a late Varney or a penn line not sure though

Ohhhh that poor PRR locomotive 🚂 😢. Looks like it ended up as a bathtub toy.

You can fix absolutely anything if you put your mind to it!!!👍

It's a Varney. I got 2 sets of Varney PRR trains in the late 1960s when I was in elementary school. 1 Freight and 1 passenger. Still have them in the original boxes. Both came with this paint scheme on the engine. Both had a non-powered B unit. Unfortunately, the frames on all of these discentegrated into little pieces. Tried to save them but they just fell apart. These had good strong motors and drives.

Good job on getting that old thing going again. It is, in fact, either an early LL or late Varney. I still have a power pack from one of those sets where LL put an LL sticker over the Varney label. If you plan to keep this, get a miniature zip tie, as something happens with running that causes the gears on the power truck to drift apart and not mesh properly. The zip tie will fix that. Clearly, you have a problem of a dirty commutator and contact wipers in the trucks. You should clean them. In addition to dirt, contact wipers can attract dirt devils. One thing for the future, use much less lubricant. The only thing that excess lubricant does is attract dirt, thus, your contact problem will return. Dirt is a major enemy of scale motive power.

Another great fix by SMT !

Another great job! You have the touch.

Great job 👏, such a cool mechanism for an old loco 👍

Love the old open frame motors.

I almost thought this was about to be the haunting of the burnt Conrail F unit. 😂

cant wait for my two gilbert american flyers to come this week( i ordered a 443 and 433)

I'm glad you saved another F7A. Now if you were to give the shell a deep bath cleaning and repaint it into the same scheme as the 'police' scheme, and keep his old road number, he would appreciate his new owner more.

Another job well done.. Good to see..

Good job, that takes some work. There are a lot of parts in those engines.

The black paint spots is from a black wash. I have tryed on one of my paces of rolling stock amd had a similar effect.

That unit would look really good painted as one of the former Norfolk Southern OCS F units!

That old thing looks like it took quite a beating

Yes SMT, That's a late Varney or early Life Like, Varney got the tooling for this engine from Penn-Line in 1963 Before 63 Varney had an there own tooling for a f3 Thanks

My dad’s old ho scale Santa Fe locomotive had the same design for the trucks

Yo my guy that train hit a bird

Now that's a toy that was played with.

I wish pulling the trucks out was this easy, but I've never worked with this type of motor before. I never would've thought to use heat shrink tubing as an insulator either

"It's a runner!". Coldwar Motors couldn't agree more. Pittman motor dates from the 60's. The Globe models F7 shell used by everybody. Might be the Penn Line engine from their Pennsylvania streamliner set they offered in the 60's. Before the dark times....before Penn Central.

Hey there SMT. I think that locomotive is. Penn Line. Got one with that same drive

It's rather funny I find this video now, since I happen to have a Pennline F7 Laying around that could use some work.

Serenity !!!!

You need to get yourself a set of alligator clip test leads for this stuff.

nice resto smt

Had one of these as a kid. It is a Varney. The shells are very brittle.

Although I model “O” scale the insides look like late 50s Varney to me. The shell is more reminiscent of early sixties lifelike. At first, I thought it was a Tyco. I’ve worked on several of these over the years.

SMT - Don't you have some Pennsy passenger cars to run with that diesel? I feel a little concerned about that green corrosion on the commutator plates; particularly the end next to the armature. Maybe some WD40 could be applied to the plate ends with a small brush?

hello from Ukraine, as always, the video is cool!

Hello smt mainline

I kinda like how trashed it looks.

What you have is a penn line

Have you thought about opening a repair shop?

SMT, I recently purchased a TYCO brown box train set on ebay, and I discovered that one of the axle gears on the F9 is stripped. Do you know where I can find new gears or from what other manufacturer the gears would fit on my TYCO F9 locomotive ?

If im not mistaken i think its a penn line locomotive but i could be wrong

Perhaps you’ve got a compatible F unit body shell to enable you to junk the body shell on this.

super que hermosa maquina

Question: is it ok to use 409 on an engine shell to clean it?

Linda locomotiva 😃👍

Ok so I have this Kato n scale GE ES44AC loco here. For some reason it looked like it was slower for some reason. So I thought it needed to be cleaned and I took out the weeks and stuff. And when I put it back on the track the power keeps coming in and out. Like it runs then stops. Runs. Stops. I need help

I rode this engine in real life

I got cheap one like this from local amazon very poor plastic wheels broke off in days

Half the fun in this hobby is tinkering with the equipment. A little solder, a little elbow grease, a little of one or another Labelle product, some crazy glue and you're off and running again......

Classic Penn Line diesel.

Jumpstart like a defibrillator

Hello, I bought a USRA Heavy-Mikado 282. wp mk-60 #316 by Broadway limited imports at a yard sail, has should, but wont move? looks new, still in the box. How can I get this to you for repairs? If I can not do it myself? I will be happy to send you any information you need. That’s for your help, love your videos.

I demand to know how many trains you have.

It's a Penn Line. I have a few of them.

It's a Varney.

I have an old 90's lionel loco that needs to be looked at. how would i be able to send to you to make a vid on it. i believe somethin is up with the motor

penn line i got a ton of parts

you use too much lube and grease. over time it gets all over the place and then attracts hair and lint etc. you need that needle on your oil bottle

It look like it was in a fight with a NH locomotive and lost big

old AHM?

That f7 is a crusty boi

You whipping out the lighter made me go😨

Not first Edit: actually maybe first before I made this edit but I don’t wanna be that guy

That thing is in pretty poor shape