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'll agree, the F-units are a tad noisy, but not objectionally so. The big, honkin' frame tends to amplify the noise somewhat. At least it's the noise of smooth, not the noise of poor fitting components.
Where most companies would cut corners, SHS would add corners.
In some ways, SHS products are over-engineered, IMHO.
But, that's not a bad thing.
Rusty
