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copyright © Bill Lane; used by permission.
Bill Lane worked on Conrail #6998, an SD7, off and on over the years. These were brass models that were imported by River Raisin Models via Overland Models. They were built in Korea by Ajin Precision in 1994.
Bill's model was a bare-brass model bought second-hand, which he painted and decorated (decals were from Circus City Decals & Graphics). The models came with two independent motors, which is a pain to deal with when it comes to DCC application. So, Bill swapped his with a single Sagami motor and the necessary new drive shafts to the trucks. He also added snowplows, and changed the factory-provided crew to face long-hood-forward, which is how the PRR and Conrail ran these engines.
The Pennsylvania Railroad only bought two of them in November 1953. With the eventual merger into Conrail, they were renumbered.
EMD's SD7 (Special Duty) was really just a lengthened GP7 with support for three-axle trucks instead of the GP7's 4-axle trucks. Most of these engines were retired by the 1980s, but some can still be found in switcher service.
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