Proto 2000 "B" Unit

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I own a Proto 2000 SAL E8/9 engine. Looking for a comparable "B" unit. I have the Mint green paint scheme. I heard Stewart Hobbies has one. Probably undecorated but thats OK. Any advise?

-- Jack King (king814@aol.com), December 31, 2000

Answers

Ted,

P2K only produced the E7A & B in the citrus scheme. The E6's (With E4B's masquerading as E6B's) came in both citrus and mint flavors. The E8/9 is available in mint only. The problem with using the E6/4 B unit is that the mounting to the power chasis is completely different from the way it was done with the E7's. This makes converting the B unit to a powered locomotive next to impossible, (At least I haven't figured a way to do it).

-- John V. Pasquariello (GRIZZLETOAD@AOL.COM), January 06, 2001.


I suggested using the mint/coral E4/6 B unit with the 8/9, to save the difficulty of custom painting. Didn't LL do the E-7's in mint...or only Citrus ???

Ted

-- Ted Strickland (tstrickland@pol.net), January 01, 2001.


Jack, Unfortunately, Proto 2000 saw fit to not make an E 8/9 B-unit to match their exqusit A-unit. The only E8/9 B-units I ever saw were ones produced by Rivarossi some time ago, and they appear to be discontinued. All is not lost, however. SAL never had any E8/9 B- units on their roster. The only E B-units they had were 5 E4B's (#3100-3104) and 3 E7B's (#3105-3107) The E4's are available in mint green from Proto 2000. They are misidentified as E6B's, but there is no external difference between the units, and they are properly numbered. The E7B's are more difficult. As it happens, I'm planning to build several E7's in the mint green scheme and a B unit was one of them. I obtained a shell and all the detail and window parts directly from Life-like for about $20.00, plus postage. You have to order the E7B shell, E7B body detail parts package and the E7B window parts package, and you'll have a complete E7B body to work with. You can then mount the body onto an E7A unit chasis and have a powered B- unit! It's fairly easy to do. First, carefully trim out the 4 mounting shafts for the screws that hold the B-unit shell to its chasis, then open the fuel fills on the skirting, and the shell will just snap right onto the power chasis. Good luck, Jack! Regards,

John Pasquariello

-- John V. Pasquariello (GRIZZLETOAD@AOL.COM), January 01, 2001.


Jack - The Stewart B-units are all freight B's to match FT's, F7's, etc. Proto 2000(Life Like) has passenger B-units, but you will probably have to deal with them directly to see about an unpainted version.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), December 31, 2000.

Stewart has no "E" units that I know about.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), December 31, 2000.


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