A kind of bittersweet day on my railroad today....the "temporary" last run of my MTH Rugged Rails PS2 F3 locomotive.
Back in June 2005, when I got this set new, I had just come through a good bit of "issues" and as a result, had no trains except for a few banged up HO engines that didn't run and an LGB set. Back then, I would occasionally get a big catalog from Walthers in the mail with N, HO, G, O, etc in it. Christmas of 2004 found a Lionel Pennsy Flyer set under the tree, a gift from my mother. That was my "second - first" O Gauge train set...none of the sets I had as a kid were still around so I was starting new in O Gauge. June 2005 found a new MTH PS2 set, also a gift from my mother, to accompany that Pennsy Flyer. This was an MTH Railking B&O Freight set with the short F3 loco with PS2, a boxcar, tanker, and caboose.
Fast forward to 2015, the PS2 boards in the F3 are having issues....after a while the engine will become unresponsive in DCS (only run DCS on the club layout) and either go into "zombie mode" of just running dark, silent and no control or totally stop and have no functionality for a while, apparently a common issue with these locos. In my interest in keeping things simple these days, the engine is going to be dropped off tomorrow at my MTH tech who will remove all of the PS2 boards and install new Williams/Bachmann True Blast Plus boards and electronics. In addition, it will get a full "going over" with cleaning, replacing of any worn parts, etc. A sort of "restoration" if you will. A bittersweet evening - I've loved the sounds and operation of this little engine since that first day in June 2005. I remember seeing something about the 611's restoration and how the 611 was "reborn". I like to think that is a good term here. The little F3, which has given me 11 years of happiness and racked up thousands upon thousands of miles is going to be "reborn" and refurbished for decades more use and enjoyment. A bit sad but exciting. One last trip, I put together the original set and ran that on my upper loop of track. You can see the videos above.
Also - that Pennsy Flyer from Lionel that "started it all" again at Christmas 2004....last year it too got a full restoration as over the years parts such as the whistle, smoke, etc failed and minor things taken and cannibalized to keep other things running. My LHS thought I was nuts when I dropped the Pennsy Flyer off to be rebuilt. He kept telling me, looking at it and shaking his head "Matt, I can sell you a brand new one for a quarter of the cost. It isn't worth it at all". I remember saying to him, "Paul, if I wanted a new one, I would've bought a new one already. The money doesn't matter on this one."
Above are a few videos of the F3 and original set it came with. Everything is original. Note the caboose is signed by Mike Wolf.
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