MTH UP Veranda Turbine (updated 8/16 with fixes)

The limiting factor here is the width of the carbody vs. the presence of four vertical motors. This is tough on a full width body, such as the propane #57 Turbine, but it's mega congested inside a tighter body such as the Veranda Turbine. This would also make a scale U50D impossible with the current drive set-up.  Scott Mann had to re-design his entire drive train to accomodate the scale N&W Jawn Henry.  

Any more pics or even a vid yet? I am still on the fence with this engine. I did speak with a LHS and they say they looked at the sets they do have have and did not see any issues. Since on my current layout the largest curve I have is O72, dont know if the overhang would be alot. I assume if I have no issues with the Atlas commuter cars that are 21" long than this engine would be no problem too. 

Thanks

I just got my set yesterday and will post pictures and a video most likely on Monday. 

If you can run 21" cars on your layout you will have no problem running the turbine.

Thanks David. I will definitely be getting this set. 

I had a chance tonight to unpack the veranda and freight cars. my pros and cons are as follows:

pros: nicely detailed.                        

        Great sound

        Runs great on O72

        Very smooth runner, the best ps3 I have

        Typical MTH when it comes to smoke volume

        Truck side frames are well detailed

        Paint and lettering is top notch

        Very loud sound volume

Cons: the forward smoke don't come out where it should

A big thumbs up on this unit, the only con is the smoke listed above but that can be fixed. 

Pictures and a short video will be posted tomorrow.

Some pictures and  a couple of short videos, this is set 20-20661-1 it comes with the veranda turbine and 4 freight cars and a caboose. I have added some other cars in the video.

Another video

Hey Dave

That looks awesome. Cant wait to get mines.

I don't see also that you need to lower the body, the most you could lower it is about 1/16th of a inch without interfering with anything And I am not sure you could do that. It really looks fine without doing it. 

The best ps3 engine to date IMO.

Looks great!  Noticing both truck mounting plates are flat ... MTH is going to replace the warped one on ours.

Will be getting No.70 soon.  Hopefully with revised smoke troth, but if not...I'll make my own.  Now how long 'til they (MTH) takes the roof mold off this chooch and grafts it onto the #57 propane Turbine cab shell....ie. a regular Standard Turbine?   I'll be the first to spring for it !!!

Hi! love my new MTH Veranda Turbine.  Have it running on my layout next to Lionel Veranda Turbine.  Both are great locomotives and I'm pleased I decided to get them.

Veranda shipped to MTH for replacement of the warped truck mounting plate ... also asked if they could install the correct piece to make the smoke come out of the turbine exhaust grill ... :-)  (for an extra fee of course ...)

If they have that particular piece in stock, they should install it free of charge.

Do they have the piece in stock?  Please let us know.

Thanks!

I am going to call MTH tomorrow and find out what is going on.  If they have a fix they should of notified us and I am happy to get an RMA to get it fixed.  I am not happy to pay a fee but we have no choice, I guess.  I will let the board know tomorrow if I can get a hold of MTH Service.

Looks really neat David.  How long is that engine??  What's your layout size.  -Stephen

I talked to the MTH Service Department this morning and they do not have a retrofit design for the forward smoke unit yet.  The service rep said they are not taking RA's for the retrofit of the smoke unit.  They are working on it and are hoping to create a retrofit kit that they can mail to the owners that they can install themselves including a plug for where the smoke is coming out now.  The service department is taking names and phone numbers right now, I gave them mine and they will notify us when a retrofit kit is ready to ship. 

Stephen,

Thanks for the complement. The engine unit is about 18" long . My layout is not that big approx. 17x9x2 wide on the straights. 

Hi David - Thanks for your reply though I've taken my time getting back to you.  That a bit different that my layout.  I started 'Patrick Station' about three years ago as a Christmas gift to my grandson, Patrick, who just turned 7.  Currently it's built upon 5' x 8' layout with a center rectangle that he and I can climb up into that's in the middle of the layout - he can reach everything that way.  We have an inside 'town' loop and outside raised bridge 'country loop' that will represent the Pacific Coast on one side.  I DCS this past year - actually had it for a while but just got it hooked up and a third engine a few weeks ago.  So now I have to plan out a rail yard so I don't have to take stock off the tracks to change them out.  He and his family live in Alaska now so he doesn't get much operating time but he's figured out the DCS already!  Better than grandpa!

Hi all,

Just received my Veranda today. First to do was to check if there were any warped trucks and none I could see. No dents but however a slightly bent ladder rail at the end. Not the end of the world. Didnt realize tender was not plastic at all but metal with some definite weight. So I lube the engine and prime the smoke until. Started to run the engine at slow speed just in case. The first thing I notice is that the teether from the engine is somewhat crooked. What I also noticed as it started to go through one of the O72 loops was that the front wheels of the end trucks was slight elevated causing the teether to rub against the 3rd rail. Not good. So I moved the teether slightly in place. On one of the O72 loops the engine derailed at 10mph. Thankfully I was going slow. It seems that the front trucks had the same problem as the rear ones as the front wheels were being lifted. I definitely do not notice any warp trucks. So I will check on the rollers as Rich stated before to see if they are not off centered. Here are pics below to show. This is one **** of an engine except with minor problems. 

I think I know what the problem may be for the derailing. I'm using on my largest loop O72. So I think since this engine at minimal requires O72 and anything less would probably force the trucks possibly causing the front axle to lift. So my thinking is that on that particular curve it maybe be not align correct to the point which would make it less than O72. Also I did check the level of the two tracks since this is a section of the liftout. But they are leveled. I do happen to have O81 curve which I was already thinking of swaping out the O72 with. I might do it to give more clearance. I did check the rollers and they look center. In fact I was able to duplicate the problem again. Here are the pics. 

I had the same problem with an ABA set, the tether is so stiff it lifts the wheels up. Their older tether worked good why did they change this? 

Funny, I'm having the same problem with my F7 ABA locomotives.  The B Unit will derail  on O36 curves.  Running as a single A, or AA, I have no problems at all.  I wonder if there is a simple fix for this?

Well my minor problem fixed. I did check the track alignment at that particular curve and it was off a bit. So I corrected it and no derailing. For the low teether, just in case I taped a very small piece of electrical tape underneath it in case it comes in contact with the 3rd Rail. She runs like a dream. But because of the absolute minimal curve clearance is O72 better check to make sure that curve is align right to avoid problems. 

drelo

I would check the coupler and teether for the b unit. It could be that they may be stiff and harder to move since you are dealing with a tight O36 curve. 

Has anyone who has this engine notice a whizzing sound when the smoke unit is turned on? I just turned it on the other day and heard it. It was preety lound. I did prime the smoke until before use but had it off until now. I assume after some intial use it will die down.

I have not noticed the sound your describing but then I have not ran the smoke unit too much.

Btw email on those coalporters

Has anybody heard from MTH on the fix they are coming out with in regard to the turbine exhaust?   Any progress?  Is the design laid flat?  Are they going to ask us to ship the engines in for retrofit?  Or will they send us a user friendly retrofit kit that we install ourselves?  Anybody?

My unit is still out to repair the eccentric wheels and bad motor.  I had to send it back a second time since nothing was done right the first time. 

 I talked to the new tech a few days ago and asked about the piece for the smoke exhaust.  He said the part was not in yet which implies they are making one.  I don't have anymore info.  Before I sent it back in I built a smoke tray using stock plastic.  The good news it works, the bad news is the smoke only oozes out, not very prototypical.  When I Get it back I will add some runners to channel the smoke and hopefully speed up the air flow.  So I wouldn't get too excited about getting the part.  To make it look real it would need a more powerful fan. 

When I get it back I will post some more photos. 

Rich

Received ours back from MTH for repair of the truck problem which was causing derailments.  Note says they removed "debris" from the truck, which seemed to resolve the issues.

Note also said Engineering is looking into a fix for the smoke problem, and we'll be notified when and if there is a fix.

I hope MTH has some decent engineers working for them.  They should of created a prototype part and tested it with the part to see if the smoke comes out robustly through the turbine exhaust, like it did on the PS1 version.  If it does not, then they need to conduct a trade study to either redesign the shell, relocate the smoke unit and/or put a larger fan and smoke unit in.  I have a feeling they don't do a good job with design defect fixes.  A lot of this would of been avoided if Mike Wolf had been involved in the design and test of the PS3 Veranda.  He would of known from the original PS1 version that this was a big design error.  Unless Mike Wolf is getting amnesia.  i have a feeling Mike Wolf is doing too much delegating and not keeping hands on in regard to his engines to make sure they are as prototypical as possible.  This should of never happened.  Gross design negligence. Well, enough said.  We will just have to wait and see.

Its back!  MTH changed the trucks and now the unit rides smooth and does not wobble.  To my surprise they also added the smoke tray and plugged the hole.  Now the smoke comes out the turbine vents, although slow, it still works.  The opening is just too wide for fast air flow.  They would need a much more powerful fan which is impractical.  I could attempt to narrow the channel and have the smoke come out of a small area in the exhaust but I really don't want to open it up again.  Its good enough and I'm satisfied with it.

I reworked the pilot to make it look better and added the hoses.  I had to weather it.  Every photo and video I saw of the prototype showed it full of grim and oil.  It runs and sounds great.  I plan on doing another train action only video which will include this engine.  It looks good on camera... here is a short clip.  Its in lower quality format so it loads faster.

Rich

They need a stronger fan.  The original PS1 Veranda had the smoke come out much more robustly.  Still, it is a step in the right direction. 

Lucky Rich!

MTH installed the smoke parts for you!

I just got mine back, with a note saying the parts are not available and won't be for a while ...

Luck of the Irish .... :-(

Any update on the progress of the Veranda Smoke Unit Turbine Exhaust fix or is MTH going to let us down?

Last I heard a month or so ago was "Engineering is mulling it over ... if/when there is a fix you'll be notified ..."

Still waiting ...

I dont if this was mentioned before I did receive an email a couple of weeks ago from MTH stating that a fix was in place but need to work on instructions to send with fix. Here is the email,

***************************************************************

Thank you for contacting MTH Electric Trains.  We appreciate your interest in our products.  I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. MTH has just recently received the parts required to fix this issue.  The parts are currently available but instructions are still being written.  If you like we can send the parts without the instructions or if you prefer you can wait until the complete kit is ready and we will send it as soon as the instructions are finished.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything else I can help you with.

Thank you