I had time for one last video before heading back to college, so I decided to demonstrate a few more lighting features that, again, MTH does not often promote. In this video, I demonstrate the lighting features of the MTH PS3 Sounder F59PHI, and the matching Bombardier 70' passenger car from the 4-car set. My overall impression was that MTH once again does some things really well, but also falls curiously short.
-For example, the F59PHI has rooftop beacons, as per the prototype; however, once again they are the yellow synchronized beacons and not the strobes which are both prototypical and that MTH did such a fantastic job on with their AEM-7.
-The fireman's side red light is supposed to be a red emergency flasher (see the video for details).
-The red lights are, for some odd reason, wired as the rear headlights (note the Rule 18 coding kicking in as the engine moves in reverse).
-The rear single-lamp headlight is activated by using the marker light feature on the DCS handheld.
-The horn is a good recording of a K5LA, and the bell is an accurate-sounding mechanical bell.
-The 710 sounds are pretty close, as far as I can tell.
-The cab car's lights are bright, and can be switched between three settings.
-These functions are controlled by a moderately hard-to-reach switch, and cannot be controlled via DCS (a la the SoundCar decoder).
-The rooftop strobes are nonfunctional.
In sum, good models, but with a little bit of effort (e.g. changing the wiring of the F59PHI) they could be really good, and with a little more effort (a PS3 slave board, perhaps?) they could be great.
