Rusty,
Thanks for posting these pics. I have a bunch af SHS rolling stock and also an ABBA set of the F3's. Overall, I think the F-3's are very high quality and the pilot/wheel options that come in the box are a nice feature. My only points for improvement would be to have metal side grills/chicken wire and mine tend to have a bit too much motor noise for my taste. The upside is they are built like tanks and run super smooth with outstanding low speed performance on strait DC power.
I currently have about 30 - 35 pcs. of SHS rolling stock. Comming from O scale, I was really impresed with the level of detail and quality that they displayed. Detail wise, again from an O scale POV, IMO they are as good or better than Atlas O. One personal pet peave of mine are fragile detail parts and mine seem to hold up very well. The only thing I would improve on are the trucks which seem a bit loose and I would personally enjoy having metal trucks, but so far I have had no problems. The paint and decaling has been flawless.
I would say that MTH got a very solid point of entry into S with buying SHS and if they can integrate what they do well in HO and O into what SHS already has, it will be a winner!
