mth railking santa fe. f3 aba #30-2471-1 ? mystery solved.

I can’t confirm the model # because I can’t find the box the units came in, but my railking Santa Fe ABA is a 3 volt unit .

thanks tayco trains. I belive those are the ones I bought. same road number on the engine number boards. good now I can feel good about the purchase. I am trying to stay away from the 5 volt boards unless its a very rare roadname or obscure model that was never remade with ps2 3volt or ps3. thanks again man.

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

thanks tayco trains. I belive those are the ones I bought. same road number on the engine number boards. good now I can feel good about the purchase. I am trying to stay away from the 5 volt boards unless its a very rare roadname or obscure model that was never remade with ps2 3volt or ps3. thanks again man.

No problem Roger !

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

if you have or had this model can you chime in here and tell me wich on it is 3 or 5 volt. thanks.

You can check yourself without any disassembly.  Look on the bottom of the lead unit, is the charging port round or rectangular with beveled corners?  The round charging port means it's a 5V board.

Thanks john, I new that but I just bought the engine today off the bay. Have not had it in my hands yet. In the posters photos the charging jack could not be seen. I asked the seller and he replied it was a 3 volt. What confused me was mth. After downloading the online manual off the mth websight. It showed a 5 volt board and battery. As you know in that time frame they were just moving over to the 3 volt boards and batteries. Was not sure if this was delivered with the old 5 volt or the new 3 volt system when released.

Tayco trains photo pretty much confirmed my answer for me. The engine I am buying is the same exact one down to the road number as what tayco trains has so it seems. Not that I did not fully trust the sellers answer,but one never knows so I always check mth online manuals if I can to verify. Most manuals I have seen state right on the front cover ps2 3 volt somewhere. This particular manual did not. I sure wish mth would have designated that feature on the box end, sadly all ps2 engines I have purchased beit premier or railking only state ps2 on the box end.

I missed out on this same set here on the for sale forum the other day. Jumped on it too late. It definitely was a better deal, but today when I ran across this set on ebay and put a watch on it.  the seller came back and  made me a reasonable offer and so I accepted. Glad I got this set. I really always wanted those lionel f3'3 when I was a kid. Now I have the same style postwar engines that run way better and have more sound features than the old post war versions ever did. Since mth is now almost gone and finding these in almost like new condition down the road my be a challenge. I jumped right on this set and I must say I am going to be happy to add these to my collection. Thanks again for the info bob and john.

It appear to be a different tank mold than your model, but the arrow points to what looks like a round jack.  Not always, but usually the MTH site is fairly accurate.

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

For those who have this model. can you confirm that this is the ps2 3 volt and not the 5volt model. the manual off the website says it has a 5 volt. battery and looks to be a 5 volt board in the pictures. reason I am asking is I just bought a set of the bay and the store who I bought it from replied back and stated it was 3 volt. I should have checked the websight first. I may have gotten a 5 volt model. I really did not want 5 volt boards and would have passed up the sellers offer. this model was offered in 2005 so maybe it has the 3 volt system and the maual is not up to date. if you have or had this model can you chime in here and tell me wich on it is 3 or 5 volt. thanks.

According to email inquiry I sent to MTH a little over a year ago the RailKing Line covered to the 3V boards around 2004  Catalog  Volume  2. Like GRJ stated the charging port will be the tale tell of what you have.

guys thanks, GRJ I thought you may be right that round hole looked like it in your photo.  so I investigated further. I just had too. So apon examining the photo closer of the under side of the engine. the one provided buy the seller on ebay. Carefully enlarging it and looking at it slowly.I found it I belive. it is hard to spot,but you can just barely see it and it appears to be the 3 volt jack. see attached screen shot. It is in the same place as tayco's photo indicates.

I also thought the release date of 2005  RJR was a good sign also. thanks guys I belive the mystery is solved. I am probably just over  reacting here. I just dont always trust that the seller knows for sure what ps2 version he has. I may have miss judged this one though. should have done more home work before buying just to be safe,but my emotions,the limited time offer and the price got the best of me. 😅

It looks like you're right, that's in the right place for the charging jack on the 3V model.  You'll know soon...