Williams Amtrak Genesis

Nice looking engine.  I have the A-A pair I picked up at York with an eye to converting them to TMCC.  We need to see some passenger cars behind that engine.

 

Very nice. I like these Williams engines. I have an older Genesis with the wide stripes. It can pull more passenger cars than I can fit on my layout.

 

I remember when Amtrak started using them in the early 1990s I would drive down to Lorton to see them on the Autotrain which may have been thier first assignment. They had a short lived early paint scheme that looked like the strips faded to grey at the back of the engine. It was supposed to look like flags waving very fast. I have never seen any Ogauge manufacturer offer this paint scheme.

Great locos.  They pull everything we can put behind them, and they do it silently.  Eventual candidate for PS2 or TMCC conversion. 

I am fairly certain both Williams and MTH did the fading stripe scheme.  They should be rather easy to find on ebay.  

 

 

Interesting I've looked.

MTH did offer this paint scheme: http://www.mthtrains.com/20-2230-1  I have 2 of the 3 road numbers.

That is a great looking loco! Glad you are enjoying your new additions.

 

Since MTH legally cannot make the Amtrak Phase V "wave" paint scheme for the time being, I've been thinking about adding a Williams just like you bought and adding DCS or TMCC.

 

What Amtrak cars will you be running with it?

I agree with all, Williams did a very nice job on these which I picked up at York a couple of years age.  Added LED lighting, TMCC and Cruise, now they pull my Lionel Superliners.

 

 

I have a set of mth superliners the ones that just came out. 

Despite the fact that I own 3 of the MTH Phase V Genesis engines, I ordered a set of the Williams Phase V engines from Marios Trains over the weekend. I plan to upgrade to TMCC. 

 

I love the Genesis engine...I have many of the MTH O gauge engines.  I have 4 of the LGB G gauge engines and even have N gauge Genesis engines.

Williams offered this paint scheme.  I had one.  I didn't care for it, so I sold it.  It seems to be a bit hard to find at this point.

My Williams Genesis pulls a set of Lionel superliners as well.  Those are heavy cars, and the Williams doesn't complain at all.

They are definitely not of the time period I model, but these locos have taken me and my wife a lot of places, so I will have to get a set, and a whole train, sometime.  

 

Nice locos. How is the prime mover sound on them?  

Peter,

 

They look great.

 

I want to add LEDS to my Williams Genesis sets. I have done the LED headlight upgrade with all my other Williams locos using Evans Design's 3 mm LEDs, it really makes a difference.

 

What size LEDs did you use for the high center headlights, and the lower ditchlights?

 

Did you do any drilling, or just place the LEDs behind the OEM lens?

 

Thanks,

I try to leave any OEM lenses in the engines and put the LED's behind them.  For the headlights, they are very close to 3mm in size many times.  If so, I insert the LEDs into the holes and slightly enlarge them if necessary to fit the LED in.  Either method works fine I've found.

I also have three of the MTH Amtrak version 5 and love them.  My first love is pre-Amtrak named passenger trains, but since I have to have some modern freight engines it has led to also having some modern passenger engines and trains.  Then I had to have modern Chicago Metra engines and cars so now I am to the point where I can have modern running sessions and '60's era sessions.  But I shouldn't mix them which I do too often.

 

Art

They don't fit into a 1950's era pike either......but like you..... have ridden behind those units on the Cardinal, Southwest Chief and Surfliner. I have Superliner cars and Amfleet set for the Cardinal. I'll bring them out once in a while for fun. 

The only problem I have with it is the ditch lights don't work like the MTH engine but still great. 

There are ditch light simulators available, and you can trigger them from a horn driver board for conventional use.

Craignor, I used 3mm red and white LED's.  On the white, I left the original lenses in place while on the red, I put the LED's into the original holes.  I have to admit, with all those lights, the inside of the front was a jumble of wires.

Try putting all those lights, then command and sound in an RMT BEEP!   That's my lighting control board that manages all the lights.

 

 

Craignor,  I have a set of these great engines and have done TMCC and LED upgrades to them.  I did not want to remove the lenses and drill out the shell to fit the 3mm LED's, so I used Chip LED's from Evans Designs and used 3M double sided automotive moulding tape to mount them behind the lenses.  This was easy to do and the tape is still holding strong after 2 years in a hot garage.  Here are some pics of the installation with the tape and a short video after the upgrade.

Sorry in advance not sure why video loaded sideways.

A little late in the thread, but here are mine pulling the Auto-Train, both units powered owing to the weight of this particular train:

These are slated to get LED headlights and eventually command electronics, most likely PS2 or 3, since there are no GE prime mover or Amtrak K5LA horns available under TMCC (that I know of).

 

---PCJ

Rightside up for me.   Here's a screen shot with the video running.

 

 

Peter,

 

Did you put one 3 MM LED behind the center headlight, or two?

 

Thanks,

 

Craig