I was at the train show in Columbus, OH today. So some good and not so good modulars. Picked up a few items that I normal don’t see in my LHS. There was one vendor in particular whose stock seemed way overpriced. He was asking about $190 for the same sound equipped E8s that Walthers just offered at $109. Other stuff was 25% above what my LHS sells it for. What caught my eye was a set of Stewart F7 ABBA, DCC READY, for $249. Two powered, two dummies. Stewart is one brand that I am totally unfamiliar with. Where would they fall in a lineup with BLI, P2K, Atlas, and Athearn, brands that I am familiar with. Appearance wise, they didn’t look all that great. And looking through the portholes, it appeared they had the same kind of weight that the old Athearn BB F7s had. If they are of similar quality as the old Athearn BBs, I would say they are way overpriced.
In short, detailing=merely OK, but they run like swiss watches. Some folks say they run as good as, if not better than Kato. They (at least mine) are considerably heavier than an old Athearn BB (pick up one of each, you’ll feel the difference), so they’ll pull more. For that price, sounds like a good price to me.
Brad
John,
I don’t know how old that set of Stewart ABBAs were that you looked at. It is true, Stewarts are not going to be as nicely detailed as the Protos or Athearn Genesis. Detailing wise, I think they are decent.
Where Stewart really excels is that their locomotives run VERY smoothly - assuming that they are equipped with either the older Kato drive or the newer Buehler or Cannon drives. I have a newer Stewart FT A-B that literally crawls at speed step 001.
Stewart also makes a super-detailing kit for the F-units that does make them look better. The kit includes windshield wipers, hand rails, grab irons, MU connectors, etc. Stewart leaves tiny indentations in their shells so that you don’t have to guess where to drill the holes. Worth the extra effort to me.
Tom
Stewart F-units; detailing, much better than Athearn BB, but not quite Genesis.
Operationally, they are the best F units in HO scale.
Stewart is now owned by Bowser.
http://www.bowser-trains.com/Stewart/Stewart%20Locos%20Main.htm
John:
I have a Stewart D-S-4-4-1000, and like it a lot. The detail out of the box is fair, but comes with plastic detailing kit(grab bars, wipers, horn, smoke stack)–they’re pretty small, so have your Opti-visor and tweezers ready(also #66 drill bit/pin vise, etc.). Having said that, I’d have to agree with the above. I’m happy with the finished product as far as running smoothness, detail, etc.
Jim
I concur with the others. Their detail was amazing compared to the Athearn Blue Box kits when they first came out, and for a while powered units with the Kato drive were selling for $250 EACH. But by today’s standard of detail on the top line brands like Intermountain, Kato, and P2K they are pretty poor. However, having said that, that is still over priced unless all the units were powered. I pick them up on e-bay and swap meets for $35-$75 for a powered unit. Usually one can get the cheaper price when they are in sets.
As far as running goes, I’ll take a Stewart (with any of the drives Kato, Buehler, Canon) over any of the other brands. They are quiet, smooth, and strong. In fact, I went through my fleet and de-powered every third unit (only two powered units in an ABA or ABBA set). It was just stupid to be running with that much power.
I have several of the stewart baldwin swicthers and love them. They are smooth and quiet to run. Slow speed performace is awesome.
I believe when the Stewart Fs were originally designed, the idea was to build a great running and prototypically accurate loco with a nice paint job. They certainly succeeded.
Details were always meant to be added later by the modeler. It’s relatively cheap and easy to add lift rings, grabs, antennas, etc. Getting an engine to run extremely well can be another and expensive story.
Jim
Stewarts are excellent runners. No regrets on any of the ones I’ve purchased. The F units have great drives, but don’t have all the lift ring and handrail details. There are kits with allt he parts to add those. I do question the price, even for a 4-unit set. That has to be near full list - I’m sure you can do better.
Other Stewart models DO have all the detail. Not sure of the philosphy behind the way they offered the F units, but my DS4-4-1000 switcher has PLENTY of detail, right out of the box. And a fantastic Cannon motor, crawls at speed step 1 and draws about .01 amps.
–Randy
Stewarts are VERY SMOOTH runners.
They just glide the moment you think about getting it going. Made my other engines look like a badly welded plate that needs a shove to get moving.
Stewarts were state of the art in 1990 and I puchased a whole bunch of those F units at that time. The drive system of the early Kato drives were the best then and the later replacement drives are among the best today also, but the shells which are faithful to the F Prototype are poor by todays standards in detail.
I have detailed some of the Stewarts with the open fans and many other details including the Detail Assoicates grills and handrails which really make a great difference. This is the kind of detail that is standard on the Genesis units.
Depending on how much you want to spend or your type of operation, both the Steward/ Bowser and Genesis have their place. If I operate on a large club layout, then I prefer the running qualities of the Kato/Stewart Chassis drives.
If I want the best looking units available today, I use the Genesis F units. I have installed some of the Genesis shells on the stewart drives since I did not use the Stewart shells after the first Highliners and then Genesis shells came along. The Genesis shells are absolutely the best you can buy today for the F units.
The highliner and Genesis shell fit on the Kato built Stewart drives and solve many problems with the early Genesis drive problems. The later Genesis run much better after the gear sets were redesigned and upgraded about three years ago.
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