Looks great! At least it has pilot markings. I had to add my own on the L1 and I1.
Color looks good so far! No too green DGLE.
I'm happy that based on the pictures it looks like for the pre-war versions the footboard lamps have the correctly color lenses!
Post-war though, I have some reservations. First, the forward marker/class lamp looks a bit big. I guess they need to fit the LED in there, so I can understand. If that's Lionel bi-colored LED, change that green lamp to white and then paint the lens. I believe it's red on the top half, yellow on the bottom. The bigger issue for me though is the head lamp. A good chunk of steam that received the "post-war beauty treatment," also received the newer style headlamp as well. Looks like the postwar versions in this run still have the pre-war headlamp. Then again, the the pre-war lamp was in the catalog pictures.....
Side tangent, I've never quite understood the difficulty in making the post-war style of headlamp. MTH and Lionel were able to make it previously for their M1a/bs, J1s, S-2s, and MTH's Q-2. However, when it's come to the smaller classes like the K-4, L-1s, and I-1s both companies have used the pre-war style headlamp for post-war engines. This did happen in the post-war era, but based on photographs it seems to be a 30 pre-war / 70 post-war headlamp type deal. Even engines that didn't get the "beauty treatment" got the newer headlights in some cases (E-6s #460 is a prime example.)
@I1sa posted:Got my 6888 today, little disappointed it’s PCM on the pilot markings and not PGH but aside from that everything else is very nice.
Nice layout, too!
@BBasalik posted:
Post-war though, I have some reservations. First, the forward marker/class lamp looks a bit big. I guess they need to fit the LED in there, so I can understand. If that's Lionel bi-colored LED, change that green lamp to white and then paint the lens. I believe it's red on the top half, yellow on the bottom.
With locomotives that received the postwar "beauty treatment" like the pictured M1, the smokebox lights are "tombstone" marker lights. The shape is correct, they are indeed too large, and they should NOT be green (or white). They are marker lights, meaning they are red, and only lit when the locomotive is on the main line, running in reverse, and at the tail end of a train (or running light in reverse on the main line). Anytime the locomotive is moving forward, the tombstones should be dark.
The red markers on steam locomotive tenders should also never be lit unless the locomotive is shoving on the rear of a train, on the main line. With any car coupled to the tender, those tender markers should be dark.
But hey, the 3-rail manufacturers light up their engines with red and green LEDs so they look like Christmas trees, buyers of new trains seem to like it that way, and youtube "influencers" just love the lights, so what do I know?
I turn them off most times, figured for a photos sake I’d leave them on. I think the Pilot markings get me annoyed more than anything. PCM wasn’t even a marking. I guess a small mistake but oh well..just my 2 cents
@Bob posted:The shape is correct, they are indeed too large, and they should NOT be green (or white).
At least they came with lenses. The MTH tombstone markers never came with Lenses, even on the PS3 releases of locomotives.
I figured one could set the lights to white, and then paint the lenses with clear color paint, like Tamiya clear red. I've done this with a lot of my engines that have set colors just to either darken the light or make it look a tad more convincing when the lights are off. Case in point, if I have a train with green class lamps represented by a green LED, I'll paint the lens with a clear green rather than leaving them with that whitish plastic clear.
I can't believe they shipped it with the Q2 tender.
There are few photographic examples of them with 16 wheeled tenders. I'm more surprised that they offered the more common post-war 12 wheel tender setup as a set with freight cars. You can get the pre-war version with the 12 wheel tender, but you have to pay extra for the post-war version....
On a more intriguing note, I'm curious to see if it is the Q-2s tender, or the J-1s tender. That should indicate in Lionel has the Q-2 tooling. Someone check the I-1s that came with the big tender.
Well then, start the bets on when the Legacy Q-2 is announced 
.
Seeing as Lionel already has a nice J1, I'm baffled as to why they wouldn't use that tender on the M1.
Nicolas Smith Trains YouTube channel has a video on one of them, I haven't watched it yet though.
I actually didn't notice that the pilots were different on the models? I guess prewar and postwar versions?
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:I actually didn't notice that the pilots were different on the models? I guess prewar and postwar versions?
Slatted, footboard, and cast are all represented depending on the cab number.
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:I actually didn't notice that the pilots were different on the models? I guess prewar and postwar versions?
Gets better, there's 3 versions!
Pre-War slatted passenger pilot.
Pre-War footboard freight pilot.
Post-War solid drop pilot.
Want even more fun, they appeared throughout the M1 and M1a/bs lifespans. The pre-war stuff sometimes was never removed and lasted to the end of the locomotive's lifespan.
As an aside, there is a great book on the M1 by N.J. international. Classic Power 8, if I recall.
Big difference between the paint with the Mikado L1 tender. All good. No figure in the M1 doghouse.
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#6855 is the one Nicolas Smith Trains shot in the video. I don't remember if I order the six wheel or the eight wheel tender. I will have to check my slip.
Well, the quality issues definitely haven't missed out on this batch of expensive toys...
Got my copy of the #6845 with the Futara lettering and gave it a test run. The failures were immediately apparent.
The RailSounds start up just fine, when initially applying track power and pressing the startup key.
However, as soon as the locomotive moves the RailSounds shut off. Getting them to work again is unreliable and intermittent.
Also, the whistles don't sound as good as they do in other locomotives when quilling. They're a bit robotic. Oh and the smoke motors are so loud.
The fun starts around 1:40.
What a waste!
The sound cutting out might be poor ground connection through the tender trucks, so you might need to check the truck bosses and screws. From other modelers words, that seems to becoming a small (but still annoying) issue on some of the recent Lionel tenders.
From the video, the marker lights go out at the same time as the sound quits. The lights flash on for a split-second and the sound comes back at the same time, but then all is quiet and dark again. The problem indeed looks like power to the tender, not the sound board.
@Mikado 4501 thanks for steering me in a direction to check out. I'll start there I guess.
