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Just got this engine.  My first williams.  I am really impressed with the operation.  But I bought it to pull Rail King passenger cars, and the color match is terrible.  Rail king is bright red and bright yellow.  Williams is a rusty red, and the yellow is a maize color.

I suspect the prototypical color is somewhere in-between. 

I had really hoped this would not be an issue, but it is.

Anybody know which has the correct color?

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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.  

Last edited by 56f100

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

 

 

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 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

Looking at your B-unit, it appears to have a steam generator.  So, if you wanted to,you could use your BL-2/B unit combo in passenger service.  It's a neat looking combo. Originally Posted by boomer0622:

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

Originally Posted by smp:

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

 

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.

Last edited by boomer0622
$30 bucks is a great price for a B-unit--and it has that all important steam generator detail on the roof!  Show us the cars after you done redoing them.  Looks like you're off to a great start!Originally Posted by boomer0622:

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!  

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