I received my Frisco 4501 on Friday:
Test ran it today and it runs beautifully on my r20 Fastrack layout. The engine performed flawlessly in forward and reverse. The smoke unit is a vast improvement over the PE Berk IMO. The smoke unit continues to produce volumes of smoke at a standstill as a real engine might. The speed steps run from extremely slow (I didn't measure the speed) to pretty fast (I didn't hit top end...r20 curves to consider).
When you get your engine the first thing you'll notice is how l-o-n-g the box is. 27.5":
That's good as Lionel has taken great precaution to protect these beautiful engines. The usual foam inner box cradles the engine and tender separately. The remote is held in the lid of the foam cradle. The remote requires 3 AAA batteries (not supplied).
Operation is simple. Put engine on track, power up track to 18VAC or 18VDC. The engine headlight will start to blink and the tender will sound a 3 note chime. That means it is looking for the remote. Turn on the remote, the chime stops the headlight goes to steady burn and the engine sounds start. Add about 4-6 drops of smoke fluid to be sure there is enough in the engine. The smoke will start in a few seconds and flow from the stack with the engine at a standstill. Turn the remote dial to the right and the engine moves forward. Turn to the left for reverse. There is no front coupler but the rear coupler is an electrocoupler. To operate it hold down the middle sound (announcement) button (shows a microphone and the word SHIFT) and at the same time depress the bell button (also shows a coupler image). The rear coupler will open. The bell and whistle are very nice. The announcements are of the vintage railsounds variety with different ones for different circumstances. To stop the engine for good turn off track power. Don't forget to turn off the remote or it will drain the batteries eventually.
The paint and graphics are first rate. The windows have "glass" on both sides of the engine. The backhead is detailed. 2 cab figures in the cab. The marker lights on the front are plastic jewels (non-illuminated). The wire handrails are separately applied and painted blue. The pop-off valves and whistle and bell on top are of a gold color. The engine has typical standing number boards showing 4501 along with that number shown 3 times on the smoke box door. The blue and gray (whitish) colors are vibrant. The drive rods are of darkened metal. The front,rear and tender side frames are painted blue like the engine. The red METEOR graphic really sets off the tender. Truly a beautiful engine that looks like it faithfully recreates the original example in a modest American Flyer kind of way:
Don't be a rivet counter on this example...it'll ruin your fun.
I really like the huge puffs of smoke the stack delivers when the engine is at a crawl. Add some blasts of the deep tone whistle and itll bring a smile to your face!
Here's a few more pics. Better get this one ordered or you'll miss out like many other Berk-less S gaugers are now.
Enjoy your engine!
Mark
