Well I swapped out the engineer and fireman figures for the more realistic MTH style. Also added cab interior lights. Cab was made for a pair of lights and lighting board has extra plugs to add them so why didn't they??
Seems the USA FEF-3 smoke unit is a copy of the Marklin design or USAT had Marklin design the smoke system. Infact I wouldn't be surprised if Marklin made these FEF's as nowhere on the engine is it labeled as "USA Trains Malden Mass. Made In China".
These pictures I'm posting are of a KM BR50 smoke unit and comparing to the USAT smoke unit.
Marklin bought out KM. Besides the smoke units looking similar I seen where Marklin uses big thumbscrews to mount their locomotives to the wooden shipping shelf and this FEF uses same. The USAT Hudson and Big boy used hex head allen bolts.
Here's a KM (Kiss) 2 chambered smoke unit for stack & cylinder steam made out of plastic...
Here's the USAT 3 chambered smoke unit for stack, cylinder and whistles smoke made out of die-cast metal (Zamek). Note, I have the 3 heaters removed.
Here's the KM smoke unit fan end...This one has 2 fans.
Here's the USAT fan end..3 fans. Fan mounting looks identical right down to fan wire colors!
Here's the KM heater, wicking and fan motor.
Heater, thermistor and gasket.
Same parts from USAT smoke unit.
BR fan motor...
To me everything looks way to identical for just a mere coincidence.??
SILVIS, Ill. (Jan 10, 2022) – Railroading Heritage of Midwest America (RHMA) DBA: The Friends of the 261, will expand operations in the former National Railway Equipment (NRE) shop complex in Silvis, Ill. The 90-acre facility was once the main shop of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. The historic Rock Island Silvis facility has over ten miles of track. The main shop building is 400,000 square feet with multiple overhead cranes. The complex includes a wheel shop, warehouse space, a locomotive wheel drop table, multiple overhead cranes and several other smaller shop buildings. The complex is served by Iowa Interstate Railroad, BNSF Railway, and Canadian Pacific Railway.
Personally I see nothing but good coming from this! With Iowa Interstate serving this facility and with II being very steam friendly as they own the 2 steam J's and run them, I can see possibly some Railfairs in the future held at Silvis with high speed passenger excursion trains running to like Des Moines and back!
That complex is huge!
How it was in the steam days....
The erecting floor where the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific built their locomotives...
I'll get a video posted maybe later in the week as currently it's on the workbench getting a PS3 conversion/ install.
Good question about current draw! PS3 (and PS2) converted engines will actually reduce current draw as the electronics are more efficient. I've seen that happen time after time. My last test was comparing a RailPro to PS3. PS3 beat it hands down with the smoke unit on! RailPro had no smoke unit wired to it.
Jan, Don't count MTH being out of the picture yet as Trainworld is taking pre-orders for MTH One-Gauge tank cars for later this year. MTH has publicly stated that they'll continue producing a few One-Gauge items every year. I wouldn't be surprised to see another run of the SD70's as those things sold out at MTH rather quickly.
Sad news indeed. Over the years he bailed me out more than a few times with decals. Spoke with him a few times on phone and yes was always cheerful and helpful.
Mike in parts retired right after Sr. passed away which is bad as he knew where "stuff" was in that place.
I did talk to Butch at Ro yesterday and I'm getting a bit of a refund from them...or so I was told.
I also asked about whether or not they're going to re-stock all the depleted inventory and got a bullshit response of "we have some some big huge shipments that were due to arrive but because of the ongoing situations and the way things are that's all been pushed back until at least June 2022."
Yes some auxiliary water tanks would be nice! Back in my brain also want to make some nice DDA40X's in 1:29. Not some weird looking 3D printed thing with extended truck frames to fit USA drives into. That looks goofy. Aristo SD45 bodies are damn close and the AML GP60M cab is also close.
Also thinking of chopping up a USAT Big Boy and making a Challenger out of it...I'm not a 4014 fan.
Sean, You know I don't think Ro even showed at the TCA Eastern Division York, Pa. Show last October? Trainworld backed out of that show at the last minute because Ken Bianco Jr. claimed he got Covid but a few days later he made a video of him hosting some kids hospital train races...go figure?
Nick Jr, Yeah that's too bad that they jerk customers around like they do. Seems that since Sr. passed away the business is taking a dive.
I mean USA Trains inventory is very low. On Ro's site there's product pages that are blank. SD70's, 4-Bay Centerflow Hoppers & Modern Tank Cars pages are a blank. In the past there'd at least be artwork up with pre-order announcements and some random future shipping date.
Absolutely no mention of the Intermodal Shipping Containers.
Cabooses are very low stock along with most of the Ultimate Line.
Now I see passenger cars that are sold out being removed from listings.
Absolutely no new announcements at all this year. Seems all that's happening is decisions that Sr. made are being fulfilled and that's it. Is USA Trains winding down??
Like others said back some 15 years ago when Lionel was stumbling..."Lionel is a rudderless ship." I'm starting to wonder if USA Trains is a "rudderless ship?"
Nick, Remember years ago on MLS where some poor USAT GG-1 owner went round and round with USAT "Service"?? Seems that either the pantographs quit raising up and down or the QSI soundcard crapped out. Either way he got jerked around by them pretty good and they never did make it right.
I gave up on USAT "Service" when I had a problem with a #6 switch that wouldn't change frog polarity. Service guy told me that switch frogs don't change polarity. He also said that all switches that went in for warranty work were returned as a manual switch. That told me all that I needed to know about their excellent "Service Department"!
I do know what you're saying about it being a crap shoot whether get a good one or bad. My USAT Big Boy arrived in perfect shape years ago when they first came out. Ray's first one had one side of smokebox paint touched up with an airbrush and the paint didn't match! So that one went back. His second one made it about half way around layout and went up in smoke as electronics fried. That one went back. His third one is excellent!
I've had a couple of Hudson's thru here over the years that were excellent runners!
For me a very big part of the hobby is working on this stuff so this FEF is a interesting project albeit an expensive one!
Nick, That's what I had initially thought was some kind of suspension but then after taking a good look seen was loose screws. Personally I think that this was a returned engine that Ro's "service" department went thru and put back in stock but USA Trains Customer Service told me that NONE have been returned...yeah whatever a-holes!!
Oh longer screws up front worked out just fine. If they didn't hold then would have drilled and tapped for M3.5mm screws as plenty of material in there. All 3 mount screws now have lockwashers on front and start washer on rear with blue threadlocker.
Here I'm checking out the new and improved electrical power pickup system on the USAT FEF-3.
This all started because my FEF was flooded with smoke fluid when I received it. Infact so much fluid floating around in it that it soaked the speaker and the cone and surround started shriveling up and sounded terrible but that's another story and I'm going around with USAT Customer Service about it. I replaced it with another.
Here's the original speaker.
The USA Big Boy is a friggin' nightmare "downstairs" in the power pickup wiring spring loaded brushes rubbing against drivers die-cast metal brake shoes and rigging rubbing wheels and shorting out department.
They did learn from that fiasco as the new FEF-3 is virtually bullet proof "downstairs"!!
This shows that the FEF uses a split driver axle design that is joined together with a black plastic insulator.
Bearing housings are plastic.
Power is picked from drivers at the bearings hopefully from the inner bearing races. I didn't tear it down any further to investigate.
Also the crankpin screw inserts are insulated from the drivers so valve gear isn't "hot".
Also all brake shoes and brake rigging on trucks are made out of plastic.
Virtually "bullet proof" in this department with excellent fit and finish!
Here's another pic showing typical USAT design bronze drive gear.
Not really any "grease" on it...more like gear oil. I coated it with Hobby Lube Molybdenum grease before buttoning up.
When rolling this whole beast back upright I noticed that the chassis is loose on the boiler sub-frame??
WTF? No wonder why it seemed to be a bit wobbly on the rails.
So roll upright and start checking for the screws that hold all this together.
Here's the front 2 located under the smoke unit. Easiest is to remove the front boiler support tower 2 screws, then speaker 2 screws them smoke unit 3 screws.
Here's with the 2 screws removed as threads are stripped out. Holes are the upper right and lower left.
Here's the screws. The ones the manufacturer used measure M3 x 6mm long. Why they used such short screws as die-cast metal is thick? I'll replace them with M3 x 10mm long along with a lockwasher as the longer length bottoms out before it tightens but I can work around that. Ideal length would be say like 9mm but good luck finding those.
The rear single screw was just loose but it's buried under electrics.
First remove the 2 switch board screws and the rear boiler mount 2 screws and kinda fold over out of the way.
Next is some power boards. Again remove the 2 mount screws and fold over out of the way.
Under that board is the Phoenix sound board. Remove the 2 mount screws and pull out of the way.
Behind the start "delay" board which is nothing more than a board with 5 diodes is the rear boiler sub-frame to chassis screw.
Can see thru hole as I have the screw removed.
To the right of that can see another speaker and enclosure that I added. They have provisions for it so why not? Why didn't they install 2 at the factory??
So to sum it all up is it USA Trains fault for all this with smoke fluid ruined speaker and stripped/ loose chassis to boiler sub-frame screws??
I say yes and no. Shipping vibrations can loosen screws. There's industries devoted entirely to the subject. Then again USAT is not new to building trains. Sometimes a .02 cent lockwasher and or a dab of Blue Loctite Threadlocker eliminates many headaches.
Far as smoke fluid oil soaked speaker? Well these things are tested before shipping. USAT told me so in an email. Whoever tested it should have drained the smoke unit and then burned it out of smoke fluid before packing. I do with all engines I work on or sell. Then again the shippers didn't follow the upright arrows on outer brown shipping box as the only way for smoke fluid to run out and drench everything is to have box upside down, or on it's end whatever.
What worries me and should worry Charles Ro Jr. is how many of these are in this condition out there with owners not having a clue as how to get them right?
Brian, The 2-tone grey with yellow stripe was my second choice as it's gorgeous!!
Production numbers. I have no idea but do remember when the USAT Big Boy was first cataloged they showed the numbers and was like 100 of 2 versions and the other 2 something like 150 each. But those numbers don't mean much as they had a 2nd production run.
So much for Lewis Polk's declaration that there is no market in g gauge for large heavy steamers that need gigantic layouts to operate on.
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New USA Trains Locomotives!! (UP 4-8-4 Fef $3799.95, Heavyweight cars, etc)
in General Discussion
Posted
Oh, the color is black but the flat clear really dulled it. I think the lighting and the camera makes it appear more grey than it really is.
Yes about the size of real ones! 844 was the very last steam locomotive that the U.P. bought.