Closure: MTH S Scale Santa Fe F3’s

Realizing that this has been a heck of a frustrating experience for all who supported MTH and their F3 releases, these appear rather lackluster compared to all the interest and excitement generated about the Atlas and 3rd Rail models with their striking and beautiful stainless finish.  

I had Flyer as a boy and always admired the other guys' F3s.  To finally be able to purchase a quality F3 in S sale is a milestone of sorts but what a long drawn-out project....

Mine is still at Charles Ro for warranty repair. It's been a few months, but they sent a notice last week that they are working on it. They must have a long repair queue and probably no parts available.

My Pennsy A-B-B-A set has flawless paint. Silvers, yellows and whites can be tricky.

Kudos for making it through to the end Rusty. I think after a battle like that the natural reaction is to look at what is "wrong" with them. I've learned recently (and you know this better than I) that being in S means enjoying what is available and making the best of it. They aren't perfect, but they are a still a beautiful set. The SF War bonnet scheme is one of my all time favorites even though I don't model the SF.

Enjoy!

The Warbonnet is cool, isn't it...

On the El Capitan:

Rusty

 

Enjoy 'em!

Mark

I've had an issue with the shape of the curve of the red paint on the side of the engine. It's much more elongated than that of the prototype, and looks kind of odd compared to the correct paint job. Actually, there's little curve at all, just a tight little one, because the red has been extended so far back on the engine. Some of Lionel's scale F-3s have a similar curve problem, though not quite this bad. The new Atlas version has done a better job with this detail.

Breezinup,

That's an interesting observation about the red paint on the sides.  It does look elongated.  MTH extended it around the second square grill from the front, whereas the prototype, AM, and SHS have it curve around the first one.   I like them with the larger radius, less elongated look.  I bought enough SHS diesels and steam engines that I still enjoy the ones I have, sold off a few, and converted some to TMCC.  I'm not really in the market for MTH locomotives until/unless they produce something SHS did not already sell.  I hope those that do buy MTH units have tremendous success with them and get to enjoy many years of smooth operation like the SHS engines I purchased have rendered and continue to provide..  

Wow! You are right, that's a really distorted curve compared to the prototype! One would think that as many Santa Fe F units they have made, MTH should not have gotten it so wrong. I suspect whoever approved the samples from China must not have been awake on this one!

Bill in FtL

breezinup posted:

 

Enjoy 'em!

Mark

I've had an issue with the shape of the curve of the red paint on the side of the engine. It's much more elongated than that of the prototype, and looks kind of odd compared to the correct paint job. Actually, there's little curve at all, just a tight little one, because the red has been extended so far back on the engine. Some of Lionel's scale F-3s have a similar curve problem, though not quite this bad. The new Atlas version has done a better job with this detail.

The elongated warbonnet is correct for the first part of the order for the 16 class F3's (16LABC to 21LABC), which were delivered with the 3 porthole side panels.  The warbonnet extended past the center porthole:

This is what the MTH model represents.  As the locomotives were upgraded to F7 specs, the "long" warbonnet was retained:

The "short" warbonnet began with the second part of the order, along with stainless steel panels and other changes, beginning with the 22LABC:

Two things about the Atlas model:

• It's a model of the 37 class F7, not the 16 class F3
• It's not S Scale

And, just for fun, a side-by-side comparison of a 16 class F3 and a 37 class F7:

Both represent their prototypes correctly.

Rusty

RoyBoy posted:

Mine is still at Charles Ro for warranty repair. It's been a few months, but they sent a notice last week that they are working on it. They must have a long repair queue and probably no parts available.

Mine FINALLY came back from Charles Ro warranty service. It works on the bench. I just have to put down some track and test it that way.

They re-assembled it wrong, with the fuel tank tab sticking outside of the shell, so it had to be taken apart again to fix that.

Thinking that aesthetically, the long Warbonnet looks pretty proportional on an ABBA locomotive with the red curve at both ends.  But then again,  when does a Warbonnet NOT look good?  :-)

c.sam posted:

Thinking that aesthetically, the long Warbonnet looks pretty proportional on an ABBA locomotive with the red curve at both ends.  But then again,  when does a Warbonnet NOT look good?  :-)

There is one exception....

Rusty