Anyone have Williams F-3's, how do you like them ?

Hello guys and gals..........

 Hope to restart this classic Williams F-3 thread and its been almost a year and half since this last post.  So here it is and its been that long since I still own the Williams blue/silver F-3's and they have about 50 hours on them (ABA set all powered) and they still run great to this day and no trouble at all.  I still LOVE them #2347's.  How you guys a year and half later do you still have them ?  Let hear your up-dates on them.

Tiffany

Silver Lake posted:

I have a New Haven Checkerboard and this PC. I like mine a lot.

Hello Silver Lake......

I LIKE those all black Penn Centrals F-3's  they look different from the other F-3's with light colors for some reason

Tiffany

Boomer posted:

I think they are great! I bought several of the classic Lionel reproductions to run.I don't have to risk damaging the originals.I pull a consist of Lionel Postwar Celebration rolling stock behind them and it's 1956 all over again.

 

Ricky

Hello Boomer..............

Same here its like 1968 for me as I had the lionel #12730 set (2383's with 4 cars and caboose).  My original set is long gone.  I run my Williams F-3's with ten weighted new modern lionel postwar style cars with it.

Tiffany

I almost began "collecting" Williams F3's. 

First one was Santa Fe red and silver. I didn't like the paint sheen compared to postwar Lionel, so I sold it. Sometimes there's nothing better than postwar Lionel, sometimes not. The next one's I purchased were the Santa Fe blue and silver. The Western Pacific were next, followed by Rio Grande. 

I like that Williams offered the early postwar look of all the F3's. During the postwar era, Lionel cheapened them, but Williams had the details of the first one's. 

I don't purchase them anymore. My interests changed, but I still like the one's I have. 

If Williams produced the Santa Fe blue and yellow freight version, I might be interested, but with the additional cost of sound as they've been doing, might pass.

L.I.TRAIN posted:

Great pullers and a nice addition to anyone's collection

Agreed.  

I've got Western Maryland, Texas Special, New Haven, Penn Central and Boston & Maine.  The latter are my favorite locos and I'd love to see (fantasy) matching passenger cars.  Love how these beauties run.  I can think if several other roads they could make.

The F3's are great engines for all of the reasons stated above. I had several pairs and liked that they reproduced the exact look of the Lionel PW F3s and actually didn't like the more 'scale' pilot of the Williams units at first. Now as my personal tastes have changed, I don't care as much for the large pilots that give the Lionel's that classic look! 

The only set I have left is the Southern No2356 AA.s I had installed a TMCC system in them and need to remove it for a Williams PRR FA set that I plan to keep. Then the Southerns will be offered for sale. I'm pretty much gone over to all scale 3 rail equipment and the Williams FA's are close enough for me.

That's what's fun about this hobby - there is such variety and so many ways to please ALL of us.

The Williams F-3 is an excellent locomotive.  I recently converted the PC my friend Wally owns to PS-2.  I drilled out the front markers and installed red LEDs.  Great looker and great runner.

I'm planning on buying the williams western maryland F3's and having Alex upgade them to full TMCC with ERR.

I have a number of Williams (Pre-Bachmann) F3'S,  no paint quality issues, solid bottom screw attachment shell to stamped metal frames, shell is solid, good runners, reasonably priced base unit for TMCC(ERR) upgrade, look good, dummy couplers A unit to A unit coupled joint operating couplers piloted ends of A units. B units also have dummy couplers, no issue, the B units could never lead the train, no pilots, use to make A-B-A, A-B-B-A or A-B-B-B-A train locomotive power configurations.

I have nothing bad to say about any of their products. They all work as advertised and run smooth when properly serviced. I don't have any with the new up graded sound package, but I'm sure it works fine as well.

The only thing I can say that may be considered a little negative is that I would never pay anyone the catalog listed price. They are way over the top for what the product goes for all over the retail market. Shop around.

Enjoy!

My Williams powered MTH Scaleking

gg1man posted:

I have nothing bad to say about any of their products. They all work as advertised and run smooth when properly serviced. I don't have any with the new up graded sound package, but I'm sure it works fine as well.

The only thing I can say that may be considered a little negative is that I would never pay anyone the catalog listed price. They are way over the top for what the product goes for all over the retail market. Shop around.

Enjoy!

Hello gg1man

I am a shopper so it DOES pay to shop around !!!!!

Tiffany

Williams powered MTH.  What did you do to put this together.

Although I am partial to the PW F3s (love those dual horizontal, growling beasts), but last year I bought a Williams Norfolk Southern F3 set. Gorgeous looking engines. Like Marty, I drilled out the cast in markers and put LEDs in there as well as a 5mm LED headlight bulb. Also put an ERR sound set in it. Very nice engines.

Roger

Hello guys and gals.........

I am still using the original bulbs that came with the Williams F-3's just like the postwar days and I have about 14 bulbs for spare LOL. I have tried the LED bayonet base bulb and they are not as bright as the original bulbs !!!   I used the same bulb in the porthole caboose.  I thought the LED type bulb would be brighter than the originals but that not the case.  Sometimes I think old school trains is the way to go for cost wise !!!  What kind of bulbs are you guys using in your Williams F-3's ?

Tiffany

What I do with Williams light bulbs is use a meter to see what track cruise voltage is and pick a bulb with voltage rating near that. You end up with much brighter lights.

Rob

I have only two Williams engines, a GG1 and a Texas Special F3. On both engines I changed wiring to series to reduce engine speed and increase bulb brightness at normal running speed. Both engines run well, look great and have been reliable. The only problem I had with the Texas Special F3 was when new one wheel came off. I did not feel like returning it, so I just cemented it back on and all has been good. As far as bulbs go I use 12 volt bayonet bulbs on both engines.

N5CJonny posted:

I have only two Williams engines, a GG1 and a Texas Special F3. On both engines I changed wiring to series to reduce engine speed and increase bulb brightness at normal running speed. Both engines run well, look great and have been reliable. The only problem I had with the Texas Special F3 was when new one wheel came off. I did not feel like returning it, so I just cemented it back on and all has been good. As far as bulbs go I use 12 volt bayonet bulbs on both engines.

Hello N5CJonny.........

I am using 12 volt bulbs that came with the F-3's.  I had to replace one bend axle on the powered unit with the non powered unit axle on the "B" unit, it was a easy job ( I have forgotten about that part OOPS !!) when I was installing the power kit in the "B" unit (one of the axle was bend).   I like what was said in the bible  Jeremiah 17:7-8  AND 9 through 27 too

Tiffany

I have the Williams F-3s in New York Central, Santa Fe and Penn Central, great runners.

Hello guys and gals...........

Did Williams offered a black and gold Northern Pacific F-3's like the GP-9's which was good looking Geep in black and gold colors. I think this would look good on the F-3's if painted like the Geep was?

Tiffany

Tiffany posted:

Hello guys and gals...........

Did Williams offered a black and gold Northern Pacific F-3's like the GP-9's which was good looking Geep in black and gold colors. I think this would look good on the F-3's if painted like the Geep was?

Tiffany

Any Northern Pacific paint scheme would look good on the F3s.  I remember the two-tone green scheme was applied to the scale PAs.  I think they did make the GP-9 in the black and gold.

These work perfect for Williams, wire to the motor and you have directional lighting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181172...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I am a big Williams fan.  I have several GG-1 locomotives that are converted to PS-2 and run under live wire.  My pet is a Seaboard NW-2 converted to DCS.  Many years ago, I purchased my first Williams (FM Train Master) at York from a young kid named Mike.  Mike was working for Williams.  We became good friends and still are today.

Williams F3s are excellent.  Consider them as reasonably priced alternatives to postwar, that run more smoothly and quietly than the originals.  My wife bought me my first set of them a number of years ago for use under the Christmas tree.  She was tired of the noise associated with the postwar F3s I typically ran.