I am not one to buy diesels but I preorder these thinking they would sure look great pulling my K line 21" UP cars. or even the latest 21 inch Challenger set. And all I can say is WOW!
Right out of the box they looked great and ran flawless... and they were the right yellow... 
here are some pictures :
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Very cool, I hope you will post a video... I am not a UP person but maybe I should be, considering the big boy restoration!
Beauties! They look great.
Let us know if they start forgetting their engine ID, mine are starting to drive me nuts.
Pardon the quick video. But I DID make sure I filmed on a tripod to avoid the shakes!
What was odd and kind of humorous was the double crew talk from the super bass B unit and the A units which is the double chatter you hear. I will have to program them as a TR unit.
JDaddy,
thanks for taking the time to make the video. That is truly an amazing unit. My desk top was shaking with those horn blasts!
So what are the wins? I felt these were the pluses:
1) Both units are powered
2) Horn(s) and sounds are VERY loud and really nice...
3) Paint and details are spot on
4) No quality issues- I hope... have not tried the smoke yet
5) Nice super slow speeds with both A units that are perfectly timed together
6) All wheels have flanges, so the truck does not migrate off the head of the rail on O72 radii
7) marker lights are directionally correct
8) The mars lights work but do have a 'different flare' to them
9) Ease of getting things up and running multiple units together.
Cons:
1) The B unit is not as free rolling as I thought, even with some mild lubrication on the axels
2) The double crew talk had me miffed
3) Price of the B unit is somewhat very pricey
4) The shells have flag holders but no flags in the box?
5) Why are the front A unit pilots not fixed?
hokie71 posted:JDaddy,
thanks for taking the time to make the video. That is truly an amazing unit. My desk top was shaking with those horn blasts!
I know, right?! No running these after the kids are in bed at night.
Sorry for some of the blurry photos. I am going to have to breakout the 21 inch cars tonight and do them right...
Well like I say …sometimes preordering is a gamble, but this release is a hit... and I would not miss out.
Way to go Ryan and Dave.
I may have to scrounge some money together quick like to get the Santa Fe units...
Can anyone post video/ pictures of theirs?
Surefire posted:Beauties! They look great.
Let us know if they start forgetting their engine ID, mine are starting to drive me nuts.
Thanks for the heads up. I will assign them a new ID tonight and see if I have the same issue too.
J Daddy posted:
The coupling space / gap was not too bad out of the box. But they will need some customizing.
What I really like is the fully flanged trucks on ALL wheel sets and the pivoting ladder end steps that allow for sharper radii.
Looks like the ladders are different colors on the A & B units?
Well look at that... Looks like I will be pulling out the touch up paint for these tonight. I noticed too, the spacing is different from the head A unit to B unit... and the B unit to trailing A unit. the one in the picture is the worse case gap. Why the difference, is beyond me.
I’m pretty much a steam guy. Pretty much a freight guy also. But I do like Alco’s. I recently purchased both MTH and 3rdRails recent New Haven PA runs. Both are really nice. I probably would give the nod to the 3rd Rail. 4 pickup rollers versus 2 and all wheels are flanged. The sound is also a bit better and you can easily fix the pilots and add Kadee’s.
After watching this video. If Lionel offers a New Haven version. I’m in trouble. Those sounds are incredible.
My recent purchases have been pretty much. All Legacy steamers. The one thing I’d like Lionel to upgrade on. Is their cab figures. Never paid much attention to the figures in the diesels. Looking at the cab photo shot. They are kind of blah as well to put in a great looking and running engine. Surely at the prices everything is going for. Nicer and a bit of variety in crew figures isn’t going to eat into the profits that much.
J Daddy. Enjoy that new engine. It looks to be a keeper.
Cons:
2) The double crew talk had me miffed
The Superbass units for the new F3/F7's have a switch to turn off the crew talk. I would assume your B unit would have the same feature. Another nice feature is that you can turn off coupler so all units can have the same number. Nice layout BTW.
Nice video, the slow crawl of these engines at the beginning of your presentation brought back memories of working for the NS out of Detroit, normally, the engineer and I (conductor) would be consuming a few White Castle "sliders" as we began our run to Ft. Wayne.
Enjoy your new engines...
John
Enjoy them, they’re really nice units
John what’s the item number / numbers ?
Alex
Well, I just tried to program them. And the lead A unit will not program to a new ID. Guess this one is going back too.
Alex M posted:John
Enjoy them, they’re really nice units
John what’s the item number / numbers ?
Alex
Thanks Alex . Item numbers 1933210 AA units and 1933213 B unit
Love the UP and the PA's look great but just not a fan of the PA's. Have fun with them. Thanks for posting.
Dave
J Daddy posted:The details are very really nice and a big improvement over the previous release of the UP E6's with black trucks...
John, glad you like them, hope you enjoy running them.
Do they all have those huge windshield grab irons? Can the pilot be corrected and moved forward?
John, do you have the earlier Legacy version of these that you could post a side by side photo of? I'd be curious if the super bass unit would look close enough to the older AA's to be a good match...
Besides the ID issue I'm having as well I'm loving my UP Alco PAs. Probably the loudest O scale engines I own, and I'm having to turn them down which is unheard of for me.
The only cosmetic issue is that the steps are black on the A units but correctly painted on the B unit. So a little paint job can fix that up quickly.
BobbyD posted:J Daddy posted:The details are very really nice and a big improvement over the previous release of the UP E6's with black trucks...
John, glad you like them, hope you enjoy running them.
Do they all have those huge windshield grab irons? Can the pilot be corrected and moved forward?
Yes. The irons actually look cool. Even though they may not be correct . I am going to see if I can convert these to fixed pilots
c.sam posted:John, do you have the earlier Legacy version of these that you could post a side by side photo of? I'd be curious if the super bass unit would look close enough to the older AA's to be a good match...
I don't . But a friend in our club does. Let me see if they are a close match
What is amazing as far as engine pairing, the entire video was filmed with the aft A unit not coupled to B unit.
Nice!
As they say, in the Chevrolet Silverado commercial, time for a upgrade.
J Daddy, I’ve watched your really cool video twice and it’s fun to see the ABA cruse so slowly and steadily (no shaking) over your nicely designed layout. Your trackwork is great, the trestle adds so much realism and seeing the engine on different levels is fantastic. Your scenery is very nice to, and the structures also add realism. I purchased the newer Legacy/BT F3 ABBA Sante Fe, it had to make a trip back to Lionel for some refinements and they did a great job. The sounds with their new bass units makes a Hugh difference as it’s so real sounding. Thank you for posting the video of your UP Diesels, and please do some more videos. Hope to see you at York in October...Leapin Larry
Friend just brought over his Santa Fe set arrive for temporary run. They don't hold the engine number either, returning to engine #1 after power cycle.
To say he is NOT happy is an understatement. Way, way too many of these failures with new Lionel products.
Thank you Leapin Larry! I'm already counting the days until York.
Dave Olson chimed in on another thread about the boards needed to be reprogramed. However, I am trying to determine if ALL the units need to be returned for programing that I have purchased. two seemed to hold their programing so far, but I am not sure.
Maybe change title to AVOID RUNNING TO LHS TO BUY THESE!
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