#emd fp7

Ever since I built the Polar Express back in December 2025, I've been thinking about building another movie train in Minecraft. And so, I've decided to build the titular train from the 1976 film "Silver Streak".

Short model railroad update: I got the locomotives for the Olympian Hiawatha! An FP7A, F7B and another FP7A of the Milwaukee railroad

Going ABA instead of just two units does look nicer, doesn't it? I've fitted them all with DCC, using a PD10MU decoder, a basic thing for soldering in.

I've tried the Digitrax plug-and-play decoders before for other F units, and I've always been less than impressed. They're relatively expensive (two Digitrax ones would have cost more than the three I picked), not really that much less work, and I always felt like they're not super great with dirty rails. Of course in an ideal world Kato would just put a standard decoder plug in these things, but I'm not holding my breath. Instead I'm holding my soldering iron.

“MILW eastbound passenger #12 from Milwaukee crosses Canal Street near Union Station, behind FP7, F7b, FP7 (101C….) No need to say it has changed a lot around here! The C&NW tracks above the train in the upper left, festooned with those distinctive semaphores, are also close to the end of their path in NorthWestern Station, out of sight to the left. And #12, as many already know, is really traveling on the Pennsy ‘Panhandle’ route between Union Station and Tower A2. The position light dwarf signals give away the ownership, although technically it is Chicago Union Station company, or ‘CUS’."

Chicago

February 15, 1970

Photo by Paul Enenbach

Here's another classic streamlined diesel, one such that pulled the original California Zephyr along the Western Pacific's portion of the route.

Reference Image: https://wplives.org/collectionpageimages/locomotiveimages/wp805a_f.jpg

Joliet, Illinois

March 29, 1971

“Soo FP7's 504 and 502-A approach Harris Road in Grayslake, Illinois, in January 1979 with an extra east.”

Grays Lake, Illinois

January 1979

Photo by Lou Gerard

Caption: “One E-unit was usually sufficient on the Peoria Rocket but on July 6, 1958, FP7 402 and FP7 409 are ready to depart Peoria for Chicago at 7 AM with arrival scheduled at La Salle Street Station at 9:45 AM.”