AMong the other goodies that were int eh mail today, I had a TCS DP2X decoder for my Stewart AS16. So naturally I plugged it right in and tried it out. I was not disappointed, liek eveyr other Stewart I own or have owned, it was super smooth and quiet. TCS’s well-executed autoamtic BEMF allows it to absolutely creep, totally silent.
I still need to swap out the yellow LEDs for some Yelo-Glo golden whites. That’s the only complaint I have about the Stewart locos - the LED lights they use are out and out yellow, not a white varient. Clear packages, but when turned on they are yellow. This one will be easy - just unsolder the existing LEDs and put new ones in their place. The VO-1000 needed some fancy bends in the LED leads.
Pictures after I get all the detail part in place.
I agree with you, Randy… Stewart lokeys are 1st rate runners, but i don’t care for the “yellow” lights either. I have one of their first run VO-1000’s (with Empire Builder colors) but I’m waiting on one of their 2nd run VO-1000’s at present (another GN model, but this one is the all black unit). I have a Lok-Sound decoder in mine, and it has awesome sound!
I have purposely waited to see these units before I buy any more F units. The old Kato drives are fantastic motors, only thing to complain about with the Stewart F units was that they are from the old molds and have minimum detail. I was so looking forward to seeing the new F units.
Over the last 8 years I’ve upgraded all my F units (via Ebay) to Stewarts for my ATSF collection. I’ve managed to put together a passenger F3, F7, FT, and freight F7 and 2 FT - all in ABBA consists with all units powered.
American Limited diaphrams (spell?) and KD coupler kits have been added, and they ran absolutely beautifully on my DC layout. Today, they await decoders (NCE DASR & D13SRP) and the final track laying of the new DCC layout.
I may pick up some of the sound decoder/motor chassis for them, but am not at that point as of yet.