At 11:30 this morning FedEx delivered an A-B-A set of the newest Atlas F7's.
Road name Eire & Lackawanna. Was I disappointed? Heck no, they are for a friend in our train club. I can hardly wait to see them run this Saturday. 
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SantaFeJim posted:At 11:30 this morning FedEx delivered an A-B-A set of the newest Atlas F7's.
Road name Eire & Lackawanna. Was I disappointed? Heck no, they are for a friend in our train club. I can hardly wait to see them run this Saturday.
Well THAT is a darn shame! They should be either Erie or Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, i.e. Lackawanna. I never liked the E-L merged railroad (Erie-Lackawanna to be correct), growing up on the Lackawanna.
LET'S SEE!!!
These are not MY boxes.
Best I can do is post the pics from the Atlas website. An they look like they are of HO units.
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I ordered Milw Rd an ABA set. I only recieved the powered units today; 74A and 74B. I am still waiting on 74C.
I succumbed to my inner impulses and ordered 77C over the past weekend so I could have a complete ABBA set. I'll get that one before getting the unpowered unit from the original order. It is what it is.
I love those Atlas O boxes.
Boo Man posted:I ordered Milw Rd an ABA set. I only recieved the powered units today; 74A and 74B. I am still waiting on 74C.
I succumbed to my inner impulses and ordered 77C over the past weekend so I could have a complete ABBA set. I'll get that one before getting the unpowered unit from the original order. It is what it is.
I love those Atlas O boxes.
Boo Man -
You won't regret it. A set A-B-B-A F7's or F3'S look GREAT in ANY road.
My friend ordered his EL units in A-B-B-A but Mr. Muffin did not get his full order from Atlas, so rather than hold everything up he sent the A-B-A. The second B-unit will ship as soon as it shows up. 
AMCDave posted:LET'S SEE!!!
Yeah. "Arrived today" reports are kind of worthless without some photos.
breezinup posted:... Yeah. "Arrived today" reports are kind of worthless without some photos.
And VIDEO w/SOUND. I wanna be blown away by the upgraded Railsounds sound-set. If it's the old one, I'm gonna be real disappointed. So here's hoping for an impressive, all-around block-buster product roll-out.
David
I oiled and greased them up. They sound and run really nice. The 74A out of the box had a missing number board. I looked in the box and found it. I glued that on. The 74B had a screw lying on the bottom of the box so I looked around and found where it was missing from.
My layout is still in its infancy so I tried to find somewhere nice to photo them and here they are for your viewing pleasure. I can't wait to get the rest of the ABBA.
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Boo Man,
Thanks for posting. The paint job looks GREAT and I love the close-coupling. Did you get the fixed pilot for your A units(s)? Do you plan on installing them? It would look awesome at least on the lead unit.
Eric posted a video about installing the fixed pilots. It takes about 30 minutes. Here is the link.
https://youtu.be/YefMHgO2sjs?t=300
I thought Atlas was going to "fix the fuel tanks" on their O Scale F Unit models. What the devil happened?????
Talk about high water... those fuel tanks suck. It looks Like
they got higher rather than lower. Not good.
SantaFeJim posted:Boo Man,
Thanks for posting. The paint job looks GREAT and I love the close-coupling. Did you get the fixed pilot for your A units(s)? Do you plan on installing them? It would look awesome at least on the lead unit.
Eric posted a video about installing the fixed pilots. It takes about 30 minutes. Here is the link.
https://youtu.be/YefMHgO2sjs?t=300
Jim,
I saw the video several weeks back. I would like to do it at some point because it does significantly improve the look, however, that will be way down on the to do list. I really have a goal of getting my yard track in and the yard detailed over the next couple months before it is time to start riding the Harley. If you haven't seen Santiago's work on his CB&Q F3, you have take a look at his thread. It looks awesome.
Boy, you aren't kidding. I just looked at images of F7's and then looked at the model and the tank is high. Wow!!! I wouldn't have noticed if not for comments on the forum.
Bob
Canceling my Santa Fe Fs.
Attention Jerry Kimble...
If ALL the F7's have that same fuel tank you guys should brace yourself's for a boat load of cancellations and returns. The same applies for all the California Zephyr F3's that are in the late stages of production.
I'm just sayin'.
Hot Water posted:I thought Atlas was going to "fix the fuel tanks" on their O Scale F Unit models. What the devil happened?????
They're not wrong. They're just "alternative fuel tanks."
Lionel is cutting corners now Atlas?
SantaFeJim posted:Attention Jerry Kimble...
If ALL the F7's have that same fuel tank you guys should brace yourself's for a boat load of cancellations and returns. The same applies for all the California Zephyr F3's that are in the late stages of production.
I'm just sayin'.
+ 1,000 !!!! 
Here's the Atlas-O website/catalog image for the Santa Fe F7 A-unit (which has yet to be delivered)...
True... the higher angle of the photo may be masking the battery/fuel tanks being too high. But this doesn't even look close to what was delivered -- based on the photos of the as-delivered models in this thread thus far.
Count me in for an order cancellation if the Santa Fe F7 units and the Rio Grande F3 units with the bumble-bee paint scheme (still in production) are gonna have battery/fuel tanks that look like an O-27 locomotive from a kids starter-set. 
As a point of comparison, here's a quick iPhone photo of my Lionel Santa Fe F3 A-unit... the first scale version w/TMCC that Lionel issued back around the early 2000's with their Savings Bond rebate program:
If Lionel can produce a scale model like this back around 2002, then surely Atlas-O can do better than what's illustrated in those Milwaukee Road photos earlier in this thread some 15 years later!!!
Please tell us it ain't so.... 
David
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That fuel tank looks as bad as the MTH FP45. Oh boy! I see they added the nose grabs to those as well. I sure would like to know what Atlas is doing to the F7As. Jerry Kimble never did answer my email... I think I know what that means. Good thing I had my purchase refunded already.
Those Milwaukee units look awful for quite a few reasons fuel tank and high water trucks being 2 of the biggest. Looking at these photos so far I am throughly unimpressed and I am giving serious consideration to cancelling my order.
Laidoffsick posted:... Good thing I had my purchase refunded already.
This is EXACTLY why I insisted on a refund as well after I paid the invoice back in late December, and then we later heard delivery of the Santa Fe A-units was gonna be delayed until an estimated March/April. It's just too much of a risk to pay for ANYTHING from these importers nowadays until we SEE and HEAR the product. Ain't gonna happen.
David
How about some props for Boo Man for posting the photos which have generated the above comments?
How big are those grab irons? They've gotta be 2 scale inches around. I can't get past the fact that the have this distinctly O27 look to them. And those number boards look a wildly exaggerated as well. Not what I expected from Atlas at all
It looks like the windshield has been "grayed" out.
Perhaps the fuel tank is "railroad-specific" for a Milwaukee F7. �� I'm trying to put a positive spin on this.
It's possible that new fuel tanks were tooled but there are still some of the older ones that weren't discarded. We would have to see more pictures to either confirm or deny this. I thought Atlas addressed this issue a few years ago with the F3's.
This was my very first F series purchase and you guys really have me bummed that it isn't to scale. I should have just stuck with the SW8-9's and switching on my layout. I have CB&Q F3 on order, but am really thinking that order is getting cancelled if the masses believe it looks that bad.
This part of the reason I will not do a preorder.
I'm not much of a rivet counter but this is one of the few times I can actually see what you guys are talking about. That fuel tank qualifies as "extra high". It almost looks like an S scale tank on an O gauge body. Just for clarification...does anyone have a 1:1 photo of the real train for comparison? I'm assuming the tank sits just above track level. Oh well. Still a nice model. But someone from Atlas should explain this (facts are always nice). BigRail
BigRail posted:But someone from Atlas should explain this (facts are always nice).
Unfortunately, Atlas rarely shares any information, good or bad. Just one of the many reasons I like and respect Scott at 3rd Rail for being so up front and honest with all of his models.
trainroomgary posted:
OK, so "running them" shows the fuel tanks too high, in my opinion, plus those were all 2-Rail SCALE models in the video anyway.
My impression from looking at the Milwaukee Road units above is that the whole unit sits a bit high on the trucks, which is also lifting the fuel tank and battery box higher.
Also, there were apparently at least two sizes of fuel tank, at 1200 and 1500 gallon capacities. Pictures on line of units with the smaller tanks show a decent amount of clearance under the tank and battery box. Pictures of units with the larger tanks show a greater disparity between the bottoms of the tank and battery box.
I think if the entire unit sat lower on the trucks, by about an 1/8" (eyeballing based on the gap between pilot and shell), the tank would look better too.
Just saying, I'm not an expert on F units, and I don't have any of these units on order. And none of what I've written explains why the pre-production models seem to have one tank and the production models have another. Or whether Atlas ever suggested they would offer both sizes of tanks to reflect prototype practice.
Jim
Boo Man posted:This was my very first F series purchase and you guys really have me bummed that I got a raw deal. A raw deal in that Atlas did not produce this model in scale fashion. I should have just stuck with the SW8-9's and switching on my layout.
This is one of the worst things that can happen in a public forum. Some will disguise this as a search for the truth. In reality, it's just another form of bashing.
One's opinion of whether the model was captured perfectly or not, should only be a gauge, not the definition of fun with toys. To actually cause harm to Atlas here, is just in bad form. Someone needs to post the actual scale height off of the rails that it should be. Then, we have to consider the whole ability to run on any layout's conditions. So the engine's height off of the trucks needs to be considered too, to accommodate those large wheel flanges. This is the High rail forum????
If you want to help, show a simple gasket to lower the fuel tank to the proper height. Yes I now, you may feel that you shouldn't have to touch a new model. In the real world of today's imported toy trains, what models are exempt? Pouncing on Atlas as a pack of wolves, you guys should look and convert to 2 rail.
I can't even get past the look of the claw!
Like Bigrail I am not a rivet counter and I feel I can live with and handle many compromises in scale models, and there is a lot to like based on the photos in this thread. However the look of the F-7s is as Matt said 0-27 and it has me REALLY concerned. I have bunch of Atlas F-3s (CB&Q and WP) on order to go with the California Zephyr set that I purchased. I am very reluctant to do so, but I am thinking about cancelling or at least changing my order with Mr. Muffin. While they are still in production, I do not have any confidence that the F-3s will be any different.
I understand that many are not happy with the locos. And if they were $250-300 each I'd say deal with it. But at the high end premium price they cost.....hard to say that. I am 'lucky' that they were out of my comfort zone price wise or I'd had the Rio Grande units.
Does make the old MTH Scale F3 ABA set I picked up used for $200 look GREAT!!!
Ok...so now that I see a photo of the real thing I must say that the fuel tank in the 1:1 photo does seem to ride higher than others I have seen. So I am taking back my initial thoughts and now I believe the Atlas model does look pretty close to the photo above. Maybe not perfect but close enough that I would have no issue with it. Again, as a non rivet counter, the model looks pretty darn close to that photo. Are there other road names with a lower tank? BigRail
Engineer-Joe posted:... In reality, it's just another form of bashing.
One's opinion of whether the model was captured perfectly or not, should only be a gauge, not the definition of fun with toys. ...
That line of thinking pretty much went out the door when an ABBA configuration sets the buyer back about $1500-$1800 (depending upon how many units are powered).
As I said in my earlier post, that price point shouldn't give the buyer the impression of an O-27 locomotive we'd find in a starter set. There's a responsibility on the importer's end to closely monitor the manufacturing process, approve/modify pre-production samples to get things right, finally sign off on full production, AND be completely transparent with buyers throughout the entire process with good communication.
Enthusiasts have been more than patient with the extended timeline here. And the end-result is very disappointing to say the least, IF these photos are representative of all the units being delivered.
Hopefully, that won't be the case. But until we see the full line up of product delivered, we're certainly not gonna bury our heads in the sand just because you think our first impression is one of "just another form of bashing". 
David
There are pictures of Santa Fe and SP units on RR Picture Archives.net that have a bigger tank. I'm sure there are others.
Rocky Mountaineer posted:Engineer-Joe posted:... In reality, it's just another form of bashing.
One's opinion of whether the model was captured perfectly or not, should only be a gauge, not the definition of fun with toys. ...
That line of thinking pretty much went out the door when an ABBA configuration sets the buyer back about $1500-$1800 (depending upon how many units are powered).
As I said in my earlier post, that price point shouldn't give the buyer the impression of an O-27 locomotive we'd find in a starter set. There's a responsibility on the importer's end to closely monitor the manufacturing process, approve/modify pre-production samples to get things right, finally sign off on full production, AND be completely transparent with buyers throughout the entire process with good communication.
Enthusiasts have been more than patient with the extended timeline here. And the end-result is very disappointing to say the least, IF these photos are representative of all the units being delivered.
Hopefully, that won't be the case. But until we see the full line up of product delivered, we're certainly not gonna bury our heads in the sand just because you think our first impression is one of "just another form of bashing".
David
I'm not saying to bury your head. I have to wonder how you accept the claw, oversized flanges, swing pilots, etc???
Engineer-Joe posted:I'm not saying to bury your head. I have to wonder how you accept the claw, oversized flanges, swing pilots, etc???
Come on now Joe, you know as well as anyone that these "high end" Atlas Master Line F Units, will most likely receive fixed pilots, Kadee couplers, and slight weathering. We 3-Rail Scale modelers have long gotten past the center rail, and the Hi-Rail wheels (although I am running more and more 2-Rail wheel sets on our layout).
