MTH 'Hybrid' F3 A unit

MTH did a really nice job on these.  I especially like the addition of the stainless steel panels.  Personally, I would run these with the "freight" pilot forward.  I generally avoid "only","never", and "always" statements, but Santa Fe only ordered F3s with the freight pilot.  Other railroads ordered units with the streamlined passenger pilots, freight pilots or both.  A web search of Santa Fe F3s bears this out.

I would also paint all the black brackets on the pilot to match the silver color.  There must have been a miscommunication with the factory in China.  Here is a head-on view of the prototype.

I have this ABBA set in K-line that I upgraded with fixed pilots, diaphragms, and Kadees.  These MTH units are nicer and it is tempting to buy them and start over . . .

Bob

Yes they certainly did Bob, these are so much prettier than the few Legacy F units I've seen. Although nice enough, I prefer the highly reflective panels on these units.  That's a terrific photo you attached, thanks. Hope to eventually convert these to Kadees or at least gid rid of the huge extended pilot couplers. I plan to order some shorter couplers for the B units to close their gaps as well.

The K-line F3s had the streamlined passenger pilot like your Railking unit.  I replaced them with Lionel Legacy F3 Pilots.  To fix the pilot I had to add a 1/8" styrene shim, otherwise they rode too high.  I added Kadees all around.  I run these with K-line Super Chief and El Capitan cars, so I converted one end of the baggage car to a Kadee.  Here are some pics of the F-unit upgrades for your inspiration.

That certainly looks good Bob.  K-Line made some beautiful F units. I have their late set of PRR F3s ABBA in DGLE with the radio antennas on the A units. Very handsome diesels with window vents and much detail for the time frame when introduced. Even the dummy B units have smoke which looks terrific with all 4 units of the locomotive running. These MTH B units do not have smoke.

Does anyone else have these or similar Premiere plated F3's?  I saw a video of a single A unit pulling a short passenger consist by two fellas recently and the plated A unit was from a later production run than mine which we released in 2018.