"It's Friday night at the hobby shop...
The regular crowd shuffles in...
Sitting on the end of the counter there...
Are boxes with F3's within."
My friend has received his F3's, an A-B-A set of New York Central and an A-B-B-A set of Pennsylvania. We opened up one of his NYC A units.:
Packed in Styrofoam, with a clear plastic retaining cover just like SHS used to do.
All the extras are there: Scale wheels, a spare set of Flyer compatible couplers, 2 Kadee compatible couplers, one on a bracket for mount to there rear of the unit, freight pilot, camshell door insert for the installed passenger pilot and extra traction tires. Flyer compatible's mound both front and rear. (SHS used to install the door insert as standard on the pilot and left the front coupler up to the purchaser.)
But, we didn't leave it in the box:
In short, it looks great. No exterior changes to the SHS body. We puttered back and forth on the shop's test track using conventional AC:
When power is applied, the loco's in neutral, the sound kicks in, number boards, class lights (green,) cab light and headlight come on.
The sound? Wonderful. I could sit here and listen to it idle all day. It's just like being there next to a real F-unit. Bell and horn are available under conventional AC and the headlight will turn off in reverse. The cab light turns off when the loco is in motion. Class lights stay green in conventional in either direction. Will have to check the manual to see if they change or can be turned off under DCS or DCC.
The F3 started and ran smoothly and slowly under conventional control, responding without a hitch to the Z-4000 buttons, while the prime mover sound revved up as the speed increased.
I know I've been grumbly about the delays encountered with these things, but I'm feeling much better now. I'm looking forward with some enthusiasm to my Santa Fe's showing up.
My friend has asked me to scalify his F's, so I hope to get them converted this weekend and try them out with DC and DCC.
Rusty
