Williams F Units

Williams F-3 are maybe nicer than than the Lionel version!!!

A recent Williams F-3 repaint of mine. 

Congrats on the B&O units....I think you'll like them!!!

AMCDave posted:

Williams F-3 are maybe nicer than than the Lionel version!!!

A recent Williams F-3 repaint of mine. 

Congrats on the B&O units....I think you'll like them!!!

"AMRoad" Ha!  From Silver Streak.  Great looking repaint.

Yes, they really are nicer than the Lionel versions in many ways. You'll note that all of the Williams F3s have the full compliment of detail that the early Post War ones did. Your B&O's look a lot better in that regard as you've seen.

John - Congratulations on the B&O F units.  I picked up a pair at York this past fall and really like them a lot! They are great runners!  I have many Williams and Williams by Bachman locos.  

One word of caution, as you said you will purchase more Williams by Bachman ... be sure to always have the retailer check to make sure the locos work before you receive them ... WbB quality control tends to be a bit lax ... about 40 percent of my WbB purchases have resulted defective units upon arrival.  I find it frustrating to have to send them back to the retailer for exchange for one that works.  Once of gotten a WbB that works properly, its definitely a real keeper.  Enjoy yours to no end!!

trumptrain posted:

John - Congratulations on the B&O F units.  I picked up a pair at York this past fall and really like them a lot! They are great runners!  I have many Williams and Williams by Bachman locos.  

One word of caution, as you said you will purchase more Williams by Bachman ... be sure to always have the retailer check to make sure the locos work before you receive them ... WbB quality control tends to be a bit lax ... about 40 percent of my WbB purchases have resulted defective units upon arrival.  I find it frustrating to have to send them back to the retailer for exchange for one that works.  Once of gotten a WbB that works properly, its definitely a real keeper.  Enjoy yours to no end!!

You must have the bad luck with WbB that I have with MTH!! I have never gotten a WbB that needed fixing on arrival.  I have bought used units sold as broken that were an easy fix....but never new units. MTH.....another story!

I have some of the older Williams F-7's and they run really great, no problem other then one didn't start in the direction I wanted but I fixed that after a few weeks. The older Williams Crown Edition engines are very easy to work on.

I only have 2 of the newer Williams by Bachmann items; an SD-45 and a Peter Witt trolley. Purchased these on line from Train World and got a much better price then Bachmann's website, almost one third less then Bachmann's price.

Lee Fritz

The WBB F7s aren't bad either. I recently bought a new UP F7 and am pleasantly surprised at how sturdy and heavy it is.  I already own two WBB F3s, but now I'm in the market for some more F7s after getting one.  I actually like the cab lines and bigger windows on the F7 a little bit better than on the F3.

Matt Kramer posted:

The WBB F7s aren't bad either. I recently bought a new UP F7 and am pleasantly surprised at how sturdy and heavy it is.  I already own two WBB F3s, but now I'm in the market for some more F7s after getting one.  I actually like the cab lines and bigger windows on the F7 a little bit better than on the F3.

But the uneven front windows on the F-7 drive me crazy!!! Great  mechanicals and runners......but hard to get by them windows.....but I do own 3 of them!!!  

I don't have a Williams F-3 as they look too small for what I want to run with them. The F-7's look better in my opinion. I have an F-7 ABA set for Santa Fe that has 2 powered A units with the QSI sound system in the B unit. Have a second set of F-7's an ABBA set of Reading RR engines, so far only one A unit is powered, might trade the Santa Fe shells for the Reading shells.

Another engine style that I like by Williams is the SD-45, I have 4 of those.

Lee Fritz

AMCDave posted:

trumptrain posted:

John - Congratulations on the B&O F units.  I picked up a pair at York this past fall and really like them a lot! They are great runners!  I have many Williams and Williams by Bachman locos.  

One word of caution, as you said you will purchase more Williams by Bachman ... be sure to always have the retailer check to make sure the locos work before you receive them ... WbB quality control tends to be a bit lax ... about 40 percent of my WbB purchases have resulted defective units upon arrival.  I find it frustrating to have to send them back to the retailer for exchange for one that works.  Once of gotten a WbB that works properly, its definitely a real keeper.  Enjoy yours to no end!!

You must have the bad luck with WbB that I have with MTH!! I have never gotten a WbB that needed fixing on arrival.  I have bought used units sold as broken that were an easy fix....but never new units. MTH.....another story!

Dave - I guess its the luck of the draw.  I've only had one MTH unit ( a Premier BL2 ) that didn't function properly upon arrival.  All the rest were good out of the box and continue to run very well.  I guess bad luck tends to pick its brands and buyers ... too bad it picked us

Not to get to far from the original post......but as the Williams F-3 are copies of Lionel the SD-45 are copies of the 1960's era Athrean HO diesels!! When I moved from HO to O and bought a Williams SD-45 I thought it looked familiar.  I pulled out a Athrean SD-45 and sure enough same details and proportions! 

A slightly reworked Williams 'BRUTE"!! 

Thanks all for the comments. Am totally enjoying these.

C.Sam - Thanks for steering me to the Williams. I had posted in an earlier thread that I was looking at the MPC versions and it was your suggestion to take a look at Williams.

Now I have my eye on a set of Williams Canadian Pacific A-As that I can grab for a nice price. 

I'm a fan of the Williams F-3.  I've got the Santa Fe blue and silver, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific. They are very well done models that run well once wired in series. 

Does Williams or Williams by Bachman make any standard scale or Hi Rail engines?  Or are they all "traditional sized"?  I've heard their decent engines and are priced well.  I'm looking to add a few conventional loco's to my lineup. 

I'm new to this hobby and have just purchased a brand new Lionel SD60e (veterans).  I love this thing but my first locomotive was a PW Lionel NW2 switcher.  That little switcher is nearly 60 years old and is incredibly fast; it's almost twice as fast as my brand new SD60e.  I kind of fell in love with that loud Pullmor motor.  It reminds me of working on my old 75 Firebird. 

Can someone that owns some Williams F units comment on their speed/pulling power?  I'm just really curious about them.

My experience with Williams dual motored diesel engines in general, is they'll pull anything you put behind them. 

They are fast. Too fast for me. I wire the motors in series, and that gives them great slow speed performance while retaining their pulling ability. 

TrainGuyMcGee posted:

Does Williams or Williams by Bachman make any standard scale or Hi Rail engines?  Or are they all "traditional sized"?  I've heard their decent engines and are priced well.  I'm looking to add a few conventional loco's to my lineup. 

I'm new to this hobby and have just purchased a brand new Lionel SD60e (veterans).  I love this thing but my first locomotive was a PW Lionel NW2 switcher.  That little switcher is nearly 60 years old and is incredibly fast; it's almost twice as fast as my brand new SD60e.  I kind of fell in love with that loud Pullmor motor.  It reminds me of working on my old 75 Firebird. 

Can someone that owns some Williams F units comment on their speed/pulling power?  I'm just really curious about them.

 

They pull great!  Pretty much anything and long trains too.  They do not creep along though.  They are pretty fast.  Just barely moving the transformers throttle they pretty much take off quickly.  As another poster has already mentioned, if you want slow its best to wire the motors in series. 

I've got four sets of Williams F3 ABA's.  Two sets have ERR CC's installed.  Considering the weight of the non-powered units, the power units will still pull anything I can couple to them.  RICH

Re: Wiring the motors in series for slower running. Anyone have a quick tutorial or steps to accomplish this?

Thanks.

WBB GP30 is scale.

There have been numerous threads on wiring the Williams motors in series, several with diagrams. Try the search function and they should come up.

Do the dummies have cast frames on these?

johnstrains posted:

Re: Wiring the motors in series for slower running. Anyone have a quick tutorial or steps to accomplish this?

Thanks.

Cut and tape off the wires to one motor.

Wire as above(green wire as supplied by you).

Done.

I love my Williams by Bachman power units. They all run and pull great and I have never had any problems with them.

I have the Santa Fe Midnight Super Chief  2333 F3 POWERED  A-A SET with the B unit.

 Burlington Northern SD 90 Locomotive # 9587

Union Pacific NW-2 Switcher # DS1315

Roving Sign posted:

Do the dummies have cast frames on these?

yes....I made one powered with parts from a A unit.

ADCX Rob posted:

johnstrains posted:

Re: Wiring the motors in series for slower running. Anyone have a quick tutorial or steps to accomplish this?

Thanks.

 

Cut and tape off the wires to one motor.

Wire as above(green wire as supplied by you).

Done.

Rob, Many thanks!

Hello JOHNSTRAINS

I have a older Williams F-3's ABA set and they are GREEEEEAT !!!!! . Be sure to check the wormgears inside the power trucks for grease before running them as my didn't have barely any so grease it first before running it.   I like them fast as it is !!!!

"All I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from death.  I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death" Philippians 3:10 ERV (Easy to Read Version)

Tiffany

They are easy upgrades too if you want command. Either ERR or PS-3. G

johnstrains posted:

Thanks all for the comments. Am totally enjoying these.

C.Sam - Thanks for steering me to the Williams. I had posted in an earlier thread that I was looking at the MPC versions and it was your suggestion to take a look at Williams.

Now I have my eye on a set of Williams Canadian Pacific A-As that I can grab for a nice price. 

My first Williams engines were CP Golden Memories F3s. They became my first TMCC install using Digital Dynamics products. Now running ABA with two powered A's pulling 12 15" cars. I added to the Wiliams 7 car sets using various other Williams and Lionel cars including RPOs, SS Diners, and combines adding CP name bands from Jeff Kane.

Pete

I really like the Williams F-3s and have many sets.  I have seen an issue with some Williams and WBB engines.  The grease used at the factory was very waxy and after a few years turns to a solid mass.  The engine must be dissasembled and this mess cleaned out before they will run, but after with re-greasing they run great!

Rolland

I have run them in TMCC Conv., and I can get them down to a crawl.

I have several Williams Crown Edition engines and have never seen a need to re-wire the motors in series. I could very easily re-wire the motors, but why? The Williams engines run slow enough for me as is.

On my layout if I wired the motors in series even a snail would pass the engines like they were parked. I have found the need to use 2 powered F-7 A units together like with my Santa Fe "El Capitan"  6 car passenger set. The transformer I am using is a post war ZW(275 watts) so I have more then enough power to run my engines. On my 2 Santa Fe engines I have removed the circuit boards and installed a bridge rectifier in each engine for direction control, no more starting in reverse or neutral.

Lee Fritz

Norton posted:

johnstrains posted:

Thanks all for the comments. Am totally enjoying these.

C.Sam - Thanks for steering me to the Williams. I had posted in an earlier thread that I was looking at the MPC versions and it was your suggestion to take a look at Williams.

Now I have my eye on a set of Williams Canadian Pacific A-As that I can grab for a nice price. 

My first Williams engines were CP Golden Memories F3s. They became my first TMCC install using Digital Dynamics products. Now running ABA with two powered A's pulling 12 15" cars. I added to the Wiliams 7 car sets using various other Williams and Lionel cars including RPOs, SS Diners, and combines adding CP name bands from Jeff Kane.

Pete

My  Williams Canadian Pacific AAs are on the way and have already starting looking at various passenger car sets.  The Williams four car set -- the one that duplicates the Lionel PW cars -- look pretty nice. Have found them at some of the usual online dealers that still have a good supply of  Williams in stock.

johnstrains posted:

Norton posted:

johnstrains posted:

Thanks all for the comments. Am totally enjoying these.

C.Sam - Thanks for steering me to the Williams. I had posted in an earlier thread that I was looking at the MPC versions and it was your suggestion to take a look at Williams.

Now I have my eye on a set of Williams Canadian Pacific A-As that I can grab for a nice price. 

My first Williams engines were CP Golden Memories F3s. They became my first TMCC install using Digital Dynamics products. Now running ABA with two powered A's pulling 12 15" cars. I added to the Wiliams 7 car sets using various other Williams and Lionel cars including RPOs, SS Diners, and combines adding CP name bands from Jeff Kane.

Pete

My  Williams Canadian Pacific AAs are on the way and have already starting looking at various passenger car sets.  The Williams four car set -- the one that duplicates the Lionel PW cars -- look pretty nice. Have found them at some of the usual online dealers that still have a good supply of  Williams in stock.

Save a little bit of money and order your Williams from a large online vendor instead of Williams/Bachmann website. I saved almost 66% on an online purchase compared to WBB website.

Lee Fritz

 

 

 

My  Williams Canadian Pacific AAs are on the way and have already starting looking at various passenger car sets.  The Williams four car set -- the one that duplicates the Lionel PW cars -- look pretty nice. Have found them at some of the usual online dealers that still have a good supply of  Williams in stock.

I bought the Williams cars with the engine and at the time I was just back into three rail and traditional trains. Since them I discovered both K-Line and MTH made 15" CP cars with interiors and figures. They also made longer cars with these details. Williams has also made 18" streamliners with sillohuettes that can be had at reasonable prices. If you have the room the engines are close enough to scale to run 21" cars and not look out of place.

Pete

Norton posted:

 

 

 

My  Williams Canadian Pacific AAs are on the way and have already starting looking at various passenger car sets.  The Williams four car set -- the one that duplicates the Lionel PW cars -- look pretty nice. Have found them at some of the usual online dealers that still have a good supply of  Williams in stock.

I bought the Williams cars with the engine and at the time I was just back into three rail and traditional trains. Since them I discovered both K-Line and MTH made 15" CP cars with interiors and figures. They also made longer cars with these details. Williams has also made 18" streamliners with sillohuettes that can be had at reasonable prices. If you have the room the engines are close enough to scale to run 21" cars and not look out of place.

Pete

Thanks, Pete. I've got a medium size PW-style layout using Lionel tin track (O-31) so space is a bit of an issue. While I do like the Williams 4-car set I will look around at other options before buying. 

Will the Rio Grande f7s look good pulling my K-Line 15 inch passenger cars?

My Lionel FT Diesel (ski Train) looks small pulling the "15" cars.

Santa Fe VA posted:

Will the Rio Grande f7s look good pulling my K-Line 15 inch passenger cars?

My Lionel FT Diesel (ski Train) looks small pulling the "15" cars.

I think they do!!! the WbB F-3 are big enough, near scale, that work. 

I don't have a FT so not sure how scale it is. 

I have a Rock Island F AA which I'm very happy with. It is a Williams before Bachmann. I also have a PA-AA Lackawanna, U33C LeHigh Valley and a BL-2 Chicago & Eastern Illinois. All very smooth running engines. Two of them have ERR boards in them and the F units has a True Blast ii. The PA has a Railsounds board. All Williams.

The Williams F3 units are sort of addicting to collect.  Value prices allow for adding numerous sets of these.  They are generally bulletproof and will run decade after decade.