MTH S Santa Fe F3's

Very pretty Rusty but great googly-moogly - did they put an O gauge coupler on that by mistake?

Quick, hand me the dremel....

Nope... That's the Flyer compatible coupler. 

It will look a lot better after I scalify them. No Dremel required.

Rusty 

Beautiful paint, hope your other A shows up soon!

Ray

OK.  A brief update now that I'm at my PC and can type better.

As I mentioned, the second powered unit (19C, SKU 35-20020-1) didn't show up.  My dealer's going to contact MTH on Monday to see what's up.  Did they miss the boat?  Were they cancelled?  Inquiring minds want to know...

I am a little bummed out about this...

I'll be fully checking out and scalifying the ones that did show up over the weekend, but two things of noted at my LHS:

The A-unit correctly does not have a steam generator.  I was a little concerned about this even though I preach not to trust the catalog illustrations.  On the Santa Fe, only the B-units had steam generators, the A's used the space for extra water capacity.

The other thing I noticed was MTH has the Mars light in the door and the headlight in the upper housing. 

Wrong.  The early prototype Mars light mechanism is a rather bulky affair much better suited to mounting in the upper light housing:

To be fair, SHS did the same thing.  So, as I work on the A, I'll have to open it up and either swap the LED's or wiring to get the Mars light where it belongs.

One other thing I quickly noted this morning, the red is slightly lighter than the color used on the SHS Santa Fe F7's.  Not too far off, I'll get into more of the boring details when I do my review after scalification.

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

Well, I'm 3/4 happy.

3 of my 4 F3's came in.  Got a powered A and B, plus the non-powered B.  The other powered A is MIA.

More about this in the morning.  Posting from my phone and it's a bit awkward...

 Rusty

Hi Rusty,

    You are correct the 35-20020-1 is missing in action and is still in the hands of the China. MTH is publishing the expected delivery date now is April 2017. Good Luck for its delivery in April.

Don

Rusty Traque posted:

Well, I'm 3/4 happy.

3 of my 4 F3's came in.  Got a powered A and B, plus the non-powered B.  The other powered A is MIA.

More about this in the morning.  Posting from my phone and it's a bit awkward...

 Rusty

That is a beautiful model for sure, but for some reason that coupler reminds me of...

Scott Griggs, Louisville, KY

Those TOY TRAIN couplers are AMAZING.  Those tiny ones aren't.

Donald Payer posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

Well, I'm 3/4 happy.

3 of my 4 F3's came in.  Got a powered A and B, plus the non-powered B.  The other powered A is MIA.

More about this in the morning.  Posting from my phone and it's a bit awkward...

 Rusty

 

Hi Rusty,

    You are correct the 35-20020-1 is missing in action and is still in the hands of the China. MTH is publishing the expected delivery date now is April 2017. Good Luck for its delivery in April.

Don

Had a message on my answering machine from my LHS.

MTH confirmed that the 35-20020-1's do exist, confirmed my LHS order and is now expected in MAY!  ...

So, 4 years and now an extra 4 months after pre-ordering in 2013 to complete my consist.   I know things can get strange in dealing with China, but really.  I'm half surprised they didn't ship them one unit at a time.  Next they'll be telling us the F3's didn't sell well enough to expand the line.

They gave no reason for the delay, all I know is screwing up a one car funeral keeps popping into my mind.

I need a hobby.  I hear stamp collecting is nice...

FRustyrated.

Charles Ro just emailed a notice that a number of new releases are "just in." These include MTH F3s: New Jersey Central, New York Central, Seaboard, Santa Fe (both A units, Rusty--#18 and #19C although the unpowered A unit is already sold out), and Union Pacific. So the "5 or Less (sic; it should be 'fewer' unless they really mean missing parts)" bulletins probably refer to what is left in stock once MTH has shipped to its dealers. 

The Ro website, however, has a notice that Santa Fe #18 is back-ordered and not available until May 20. That may mean that the emailed notice is a bit optimistic and/or the website has not been fully updated. Since the Union Pacific locomotives are still listed as back-ordered on the website, it is likely that it needs an update.

My LHS again confirmed the May arrival for the 19C as I took my 18 back for repair today.

Rusty

banjoflyer posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

My LHS again confirmed the May arrival for the 19C as I took my 18 back for repair today.

Rusty

What was the problem with the #18? Nothing serious I hope. 

Mark

The sound cuts out, usually during the shutdown sequence.  Sometimes it recovers, sometimes it doesn't.  Sound seemed a tad distorted, too.  Otherwise, the engine responds to all DCC commands or conventional DC.

The B-unit's sound works fine every time.

It looked like a problem with the inline plug on the speaker wires, every time I would press the connector the sound would start up again.  I replaced the connector in hopes I wouldn't have to send the engine back, but the problem continued.

Probably kissed the warranty good-bye replacing the connector...

My LHS say it'll probably be back in 4-6 weeks, about the same time the 19C's supposed to show up.

In the mean time, I've boxed the powered B and assigned the unpowered B to my conventional DC F7's for the El Capitan:

Rusty

For what it';s worth, I picked up the final Santa Fe F3 last night, the 19C. (A week before it was scheduled to arrive!)  This means all the current F3's have now been delivered.

Everything seems to be OK with it, still have to scalify it. 

I'll have a concluding post about the Santa Fe A-B-B-A set when my lead F3 (#18) comes back from repair.

Rusty

sgriggs posted:

Rusty Traque posted:

Well, I'm 3/4 happy.

3 of my 4 F3's came in.  Got a powered A and B, plus the non-powered B.  The other powered A is MIA.

More about this in the morning.  Posting from my phone and it's a bit awkward...

 Rusty

That is a beautiful model for sure, but for some reason that coupler reminds me of...

 

 

Scott Griggs, Louisville, KY

Rat fink?

Rusty, that sure is a nice motive power set and passenger train. I would take off the front coupler and install the cover.

Rusty, I picked up one of my Santa Fe powered F3 # 18 and a non-powered B-unit  at the T.C.A. meet at York, Pa. on 4-28-17. I help Bill Parr sell in the Orange Hall every April and October. I am still waiting for a powered  F3 # 19 also.

I ran my new F3 yesterday for the first. The F3 ran good yesterday using my MTH DCS on my layout. Today I ran it again and the sound keeps cutting out! I take my fingers and tap on top of the F-unit and the sound comes back on and off again. There is a bad connection inside. I am going to have a L.H.S. check it out.

I have the MTH DCS and the Legacy set-up on my layout.

Ernie

I just sent my powered A back to Charles Ro - all the way across the country.

It powered up OK, but then, when cycling the E-unit, it put a dead short on the track. That short circuit cycled on and off every 1/2 second or so.

Weird.

efh posted:

 

I ran my new F3 yesterday for the first. The F3 ran good yesterday using my MTH DCS on my layout. Today I ran it again and the sound keeps cutting out! I take my fingers and tap on top of the F-unit and the sound comes back on and off again. There is a bad connection inside. I am going to have a L.H.S. check it out.

 

Ernie

That's pretty much how my 18 acted.  With the shell off, just touching the in-line speaker wire connector the sound would come back on.  Same thing even after I replaced the connector...

I've been testing my 19C which arrived last week, so far, no issues.  Haven't scalified it yet, just in case.

No word from MTH on my 18 yet...

Rusty

RoyBoy posted:

I just sent my powered A back to Charles Ro - all the way across the country.

It powered up OK, but then, when cycling the E-unit, it put a dead short on the track. That short circuit cycled on and off every 1/2 second or so.

Weird.

Just got an email from Charles Ro yesterday, 5-29, that they are looking at it. Hopefully they will fix it.

When I was a teen, many moons ago, I was an avid American Flyer Lover...I always wondered why they did not make F3's like Lionel...Well, looking at those new Sante Fe F3's in S Guage makes me very Happy. They are nice...MTH did Great...

RoyBoy posted:

RoyBoy posted:

I just sent my powered A back to Charles Ro - all the way across the country.

It powered up OK, but then, when cycling the E-unit, it put a dead short on the track. That short circuit cycled on and off every 1/2 second or so.

Weird.

Just got an email from Charles Ro yesterday, 5-29, that they are looking at it. Hopefully they will fix it.

My LHS told me last Friday (5-26) according to MTH, my Santa Fe 18 is also on the repair bench.

Rusty

Rusty, Did you ever get your Santa Fe  #18 back yet ?

I sent my Santa Fe #18 back to MTH, Columbia, Md. on 6-08-2017, they received on 6-09-2017. I only live in Hagerstown, Maryland, not that far away from Columbia, I haven't heard anything yet. I was talking to Bill Parr and he said they where backed up with repairs. It sounds like they are only having trouble with the #18 Santa Fe units.

I received my Santa Fe #19C  from Bill Parr on 6-29-2017. I tested it , it runs good so far.

I just bought the two power A units and one dummy B unit. 

Ernie

Hey Rusty - That ABB you posted certainly looks great with the shiny side panels. Which model are those?

c.sam posted:

Hey Rusty - That ABB you posted certainly looks great with the shiny side panels. Which model are those?

S Helper Service F7's.

Rusty