About three weeks ago I posted pictures of the Intermountain FT A/B locos in the newly released ERIE livery.
I finally got to put theme on the test track last night.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the headlight. The light is a bright white, instead of the customary yellow looking beam. Close-coupling is accomplished by a snap-in drawbar between the A and B units which makes a lot of sense because most railroaders would never use them in any other configuration so why bother with couplers?
I bought two sets so I also tried them in a 4-unit consist of A-B-B-A and Diodes in the A units cause only the lead loco to have the headlight on. Reverse the direction and the new lead unit lights up. The headlight comes on at full brilliance at around 5-10 scale miles per hour.
Starting was smooth and the locos are fairly quiet until you get into the upper speed ranges which I would estimate to be over 70mph.
Just for a comparison, I also had two Lifelike Alco FA/FB sets that had never been run before so I put one FA unit and one FT-A unit on the track. The Lifelike FA started to crawl before the Intermountain FT-A but once they were both in motion the speeds were almost identical.
In a 4-unit lashup the Lifelike Alcos had a smooth synchronized sound all through the speed range.
In a 4-unit lashup the Intermountain FT's were a little bit more quiet up to around 60-70 and then they made some odd noises.
In all fairness I will check lubrication and try again in the near future.
I finally got to put theme on the test track last night.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the headlight. The light is a bright white, instead of the customary yellow looking beam. Close-coupling is accomplished by a snap-in drawbar between the A and B units which makes a lot of sense because most railroaders would never use them in any other configuration so why bother with couplers?
I bought two sets so I also tried them in a 4-unit consist of A-B-B-A and Diodes in the A units cause only the lead loco to have the headlight on. Reverse the direction and the new lead unit lights up. The headlight comes on at full brilliance at around 5-10 scale miles per hour.
Starting was smooth and the locos are fairly quiet until you get into the upper speed ranges which I would estimate to be over 70mph.
Just for a comparison, I also had two Lifelike Alco FA/FB sets that had never been run before so I put one FA unit and one FT-A unit on the track. The Lifelike FA started to crawl before the Intermountain FT-A but once they were both in motion the speeds were almost identical.
In a 4-unit lashup the Lifelike Alcos had a smooth synchronized sound all through the speed range.
In a 4-unit lashup the Intermountain FT's were a little bit more quiet up to around 60-70 and then they made some odd noises.
In all fairness I will check lubrication and try again in the near future.
