For people who have received and been running their new F7 locomotives, what are your thoughts now? I am trying to decide whether to purchase some of these. Thanks.
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You might look at some of the comments in the thread titled "Atlas F7s Arrived Today".
Mark in Oregon
Strummer posted:You might look at some of the comments in the thread titled "Atlas F7s Arrived Today".
Mark in Oregon
I am aware of that thread. I am just interested in hearing from people who have been running them a bit by now. I want to hear about sound, starting, stopping characteristics etc.
Fyi, seeing them in person at the BiG E, l am taking those" high fuel tank" comments with a grain of salt-especially when a master modeler like forum member Santiago posts he would get one over the issues he had with his more expensive 3rd rail models! I don't see any high water issues. It's not a glaring issue, and it could have been a lot worse. I suggest people in the market see it and test it for themselves before making a judgement call. IMHO between the Atlas O PRR f7's and the Lionel Legacy F7'S, it's the Atlas O f7's hands down! If I didn't get the good deal from a fellow forumite for the hard to find MTH F7'S with PS3, my $$ was going for the Atlas O units for sure!
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I have one set and I think it runs great, great sounds too.
The sets that have gone out of the shop look and run great! The set that left yesterday had 3 powered units. The operation was very smooth and the sound was amazing.
The fuel tank comments on the other thread are way out of line. I contacted Atlas and they are standing by the height and design of the model compared to blueprints.
Check them out in person. I do not think you will be disappointed.
Dave
Dave I think the original photo from one of the first deliveries is what started the negative comments. It looked horrible. Probably back lighting, angle, backgound...whatever. several people who have taken delivery such as yourself and Norm say they are fine. I'm good with that. For the record, I did send Atlas an email asking a few things about the Santa Fe models and still haven't got a response. ;-) Maybe they only feel obligated to answer dealers and not the consumer. Nor has Jerry Kimble been around the forum to answer any criticism. Oh well.
You can thank Hot Water for that with his "sure as the devil comment!" 
Then the avalanche started...and I weighed in like seemingly everybody else.
The Atlas F7's look great, especially the 2-rail locomotives with fixed pilots and scale couplers.
I recieved the Rio Grande F7's in A-B-B-A, three powered units one dummy, they look fantastic, sound great and run exceptionally smooth. After I tested them, I decided to order the Santa Fe F7's in ABA.
Laidoffsick posted:Dave I think the original photo from one of the first deliveries is what started the negative comments. It looked horrible. Probably back lighting, angle, backgound...whatever. several people who have taken delivery such as yourself and Norm say they are fine. I'm good with that. For the record, I did send Atlas an email asking a few things about the Santa Fe models and still haven't got a response. ;-) Maybe they only feel obligated to answer dealers and not the consumer. Nor has Jerry Kimble been around the forum to answer any criticism. Oh well.
Doug,
Those threads cause unwarranted, widespread panic. It always seems to be the same people stirring the pot. It just gets old.
I don't think manufacturers should crank out garbage but sometimes you just have to be thankful that they took a chance and actually made it.
Dave
David Minarik posted:...I don't think manufacturers should crank out garbage but sometimes you just have to be thankful that they took a chance and actually made it.
...
The complete lack of silence on Atlas-O's part didn't help the hysteria ONE iota. There's a lot that didn't go smoothly in the entire process of delivering these locomotives to the market. And the Santa Fe's have yet to be delivered. I was pleased with what I saw of the Santa Fe's at York. Nothing really bothered me all that much about those pre-production models. But obviously, something didn't go right in production with the Santa Fe A-units. And to the best of my knowledge, nobody at Atlas-O has stepped up to EXPLAIN the delay with the Santa Fe A-units. We're assuming it's decoration-related, but we don't have any facts.
The absence of good communication is never healthy, and is often a contributing cause of things getting out of hand on these forums. I'm glad to see some dealers and consumers have posted recent photos and videos that indicate their satisfaction with the most of the models delivered to date. That's very encouraging overall.
David
FWIW my dealer was told by Atlas there was an issue with the paint finish on the SF units.
hibar posted:FWIW my dealer was told by Atlas there was an issue with the paint finish on the SF units.
If by "paint finish" you mean grab-irons and eyebrows then I agree. 
SantaFeJim posted:hibar posted:FWIW my dealer was told by Atlas there was an issue with the paint finish on the SF units.
If by "paint finish" you mean grab-irons and eyebrows then I agree.
Atlas has not made a statement to this point,so obviously everything posted here is not documented, "paint finish" is not correct or incorrect detailing, just saying!
My Atlas O 3-rail Rio Grande ABBA #5581, 5582, 5583, and 5584 are running smoothly and smoking better with every passing day. The first three: ABB were factory powered. I bought a second powered #5581 and placed my unpowered #5584 shell on the chassis. The powered F7A have the operating couplers and MARS light that the non-powered did not have. (I re-glued the "hot glued" Antenna plate to the roof of my #5581.)
I am now running four powered Rio Grande units: ABBA with a total of eight motors in front of 15 Atlas O Amtrak cars. (I have not unpacked my California Zephyr cars yet.) I recommend both F7A units be powered for the remote couplers and MARS light that they have. There is no Mars light on the non-powered.
The four Atlas O engines are running with the Lionel PA-A Rio Grande units on the main lines. ... And everything is working. The lights of the passenger cars at night reflect off buildings and passing trains. The layout is moving forward.
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I ordered my locos (2 5581s, a 5582, and a 5583, so all are powered) and after about 7 months they finally arrived. There are definite quality control issues. They are fragile to handle (it's easy to push in various parts when carefully lifting the locos, so I finally glued those into place, which solved the problem. Some of the front door hand rails came out of their socked and got bent (or vice versa) with handling. I have run all 4 as a lashup in DCS with no problems, but after several hours of running got short circuits and found that the rear truck center rail pickup on the 5581 was loose and could rotate sided to side enough to touch the outer rail. I can find no way to tighten it as it seems to be riveted in place. I found similar (or worse) quality control issues with the California Zephyr cars. Parts tend to fall off if touched, some issues handling an 081 curve without derailing in a couple of the cars, etc. I would like them a lot better without these QC issues!
Atlas has been fairly good about support; they replaced one or two of the cars (years ago, so I forget), and I am currently waiting for a reply from them on the center rail pickup issue, which has just occurred. (The trains have been in their boxes since 2018.)
Sorry for all the typos! I must proofread more carefully! Here is a corrected version:
I ordered my locos (2 5581s, a 5582, and a 5583, so all are powered) and after about 7 months they finally arrived. There are definite quality control issues. They are fragile to handle (it's easy to push in various parts when carefully lifting the locos, so I finally glued those into place, which solved the problem). Some of the front door hand rails came out of their lower sockets and got bent (or vice versa) with handling. I have run all 4 together as a lashup in DCS with no problems, but after several hours of running I got short circuits and found that the rear truck center rail pickup on the 5581 was loose and could rotate side to side enough to touch the outer rail. I can find no way to tighten it as it seems to be riveted in place. I found similar (or worse) quality control issues with the California Zephyr cars. Parts tend to fall off if touched, some issues handling an 081 curve without derailing in a couple of the cars, etc. I would like them a lot better without these QC issues!
Atlas has been fairly good about support; they replaced one or two of the cars (years ago, so I forget), and I am currently waiting for a reply from them on the center rail pickup issue, which has just occurred. (The locos and cars have been in their boxes since 2018.)
My Atlas Amtrak F7 has been excellent! Does a great job pulling long consists.
