Yesterday picked up my Lionel UP FEF with Legacy. I choose the black one number 844. I got it home unwrapped it, and sat it on the tracks just checking what it had. The first thing that caught my eye were those elephant ears. I am a big fan of them and that is probably the biggest reason I bought this engine. Next is the mars light, neat light. Then the drivers with there spoked wheel look. Then its back to the tender which is an enclosed tender nice detail in the hatches and the back 3 do lift showing the volume control and a switch for the sounds. A On the tender are dust covers for the wheel bearings that are painted silver. Also painted silver is the UNION PACIFIC name sort a looks cool, not a shiny silver sorta dull.
I then took my engine to the engine cradle and gave it a good oil job to all the linkages and added grease to the grease hole. I allowed a little time for all to soak in and then wiped any residue off before placing on the tracks.
I placed the engine on 0-54 tracks. I have been reading another forum and GIZ were asking if it would run on 0-54 tracks? So I figured why not try it out? So on the 0-54 tubular track she went. I changed the prog-run switch to prog. Powered up the layout and got the lagacy out, switched the engine number to 84 then set new number, shut down power put switch to run, turned on power, placed module in Legacy downloaded module, all is good. Powered up the FEF and first thing I noticed was the Mars lite flashing, cool look all be it wasn’t red like the real ones but oh well. Then adressed the tower, clear dialog with tower, back and forth nice and clear. Turned on smoke to low, started out at a crawl great plumes o smoke one at a time coming out of the double stack. Nice 4 chuffs per revolution, good volume and steady sound. Next hit the bell nice sharp clang. Now for the whistle,first a qui
Very nice. I have the FEF in HO and the Rivarossi excursion cars. I want to put together an excursion train in O but haven’t come up with the passenger cars for it yet.
Wow, what a big 'un. The elephant ears sure are distinctive. I thought the Mars light would work whilst it moves. That must’ve been some train with the BB and GW cars. Thanks for the photos too.
I also just received my UP FEF-3 in grey. I’m VERY happy with it. I did not get the Legacy command set also with it, yet. (I just ordered it). Tell me, Is it normal for it to have a very basic whistle with just having the TMCC remote control? Because I can’t play with the whistle, it’s just basic. Will it act different with the Legacy control? And second, does your engine have a light in the cab where the engineers are at? Mine doesn’t. Thanks,
On the real UP FEF’s, the RED light only comes on in Emergency Stop. The light should be red. It was ordered red from the vendor in China. Jon Z. the Lionel Chief Technical Officer recommends replacing the white LED with a red LED. On the prototype the lens is also red, and this can be achieved with red stained glass paint from a craft store.
The whistle quilling is a function of the Legacy CAB-2. Unlike your CAB-1 which has a simple on/off, the Legacy remote has a spring loaded whistle slide that acts like the chord in the cab of the real engine.
As KOOLJOCK stated you’ll need the Legacy handheld to do the quilling of the whistle. When your FEF is stopped your Mars lite should be fashing and the interior lite in the cab should be on. When the engine is moving the mars lite and interior light goes off. Hope you like yours? Mine is just great, like TONY the TIGER would say.
Thanks FJEROME, yes I was suprised at the lashup difference during my running the lap test. At YORK they had the FEF and a GP30 running together. I don’t know why this occured. Might have to get in contact with JON, from Lionel.
Hi Laz 57 and Kooljock. YES! I’m very happy with it. In fact, I can’t keep my eyes off it. When I was into HO 28 years ago, I bought an inexpensive AHM (remember those?) plastic grey UP northern FEF. And ever since I’ve liked those. NOW I GOT THIS. Just like a kid on Christmas morning. THANKS you guys
laz, another favor to ask. i am still concerned that this guy might be too big for my layout, despite its ability to negotiate O54 curves. could you please measure the distance between the front driver axle and the rear driver axle? i would appreciate it. thanks.
I have a thought on the lashup I think they need they need to be coupled together. I tried a small test with a Lionel with Od and a Atlas with EOB. Uncoupled the Lionel Od ran faster than the Atlas EOB. Coupled together they did not seem to be fighting each other. Also the speed difference was much greater before I set stall. Just some thoughts I had.
