HOrailroading

Model Railroad Review by John Waitkus

The prototype CF7 was produced in the early 1970s by The Santa Fe Railway, being rebuilt from various EMD F units as a road switcher locomotive.   The four-axle  locomotive was primarily intended for yard service, and switching local industries.   By the time CF7 production ended, over 200 units had been built.   As Santa Fe rebuilt the GP7s and GP9s, the CF7 became expendable.   Fortunately, the CF7 proved to be a desirable unit for smaller railroads and Santa Fe had no trouble selling any excess units they had.

Like many other model railroaders, I was pleasantly surprised when Athearn announced the acquisition of Rail Power Products.   Rail Power had been known to produce niche market locomotive shells, and with Athearn buying the company, this afforded the opportunity for them to add to their product line in the form of complete locomotives.

The shell is the old Rail Power Products, albeit with several improvements.  Two versions are produced.  The original "round roof" version, and the later production "square roof" version.  The models include many separate details, such as metal grab irons, plastic handrails, see-thru fans, and horn appropriate for the unit number.   Plastic, Kadee® compatible knuckle couplers are installed, but the coupler boxes will readily accept X2f “horn-hook” couplers, or Kadee® #5, or #58 “scale” couplers.

The paint jobs on the painted samples I examined also looked very good, with accurate colors and sharp lettering.   The first units available are several road numbers for Santa Fe, Amtrak, and LA Junction (a local switching railroad in the Los Angeles area).    Hopefully, Athearn will eventually produce more road names.

This locomotive performs about on a par with the older, regular line locomotive produced by Athearn.   My sample started and ran smoothly throughout all the speed ranges on my throttle, with the familiar "Athearn growl" present..   The unit also has directional lighting.    In tests at my model railroad club, the CF7 showed it is an average puller.   You may want to get a pair for anything over about a dozen cars.   The model comes equipped with a DCC quick-plug.    Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a DCC-equipped layout, so I was not able to test that feature.

Overall, I think the CF7 would be a welcome addition to almost any layout.  In fact, with the abundance of prototype railroads that had the CF7 it might be a good locomotive to include in future train sets produced by Athearn.