I recently bought two PCM F3 AB sets from Factory Direct Trains. I had bought a BLI F7 set from them last month which I was very happy with and since PCM and BLI are sister companies and the selling price was the same, I was expecting them to have a similar configuration. Boy was I wrong. First of all, the A & B units cannot run stand alone. A cable runs from the end door of the B unit to the door of the A unit. This cable is hidden inside the diaphrams when the engines are joined. This was not too big a negative for me since I intended to always run them together with the same address anyway and often, F3s were coupled with a drawbar so having them permanently coupled is not unrealistic. The instructions even said to connect them with a drawbar but in reality, they connect with knuckle couplers. Maybe the instructions were written for an earlier version. I like the fact they couple close enough for the diaphrams to almost touch, unlike my P1K F3s which have a hideous gap. They seem to be excellent runners and are apparently programmed to start and stop gradually no matter how fast the throttle is turned up or down. The sound of the brakes being applied is synced well to the decelleration of the locos. I haven’t yet run a test of their pulling power. A section of my layout is down right now precluding such a test.
I have two major complaints. The first is the quality of the sound. It seems relatively weak in comparison to other sound equipped diesels on my roster, especially the P2K E units. The sound is what I would have expected from an MRC unit. The other is a cosmetic issue. The “chicken wire” side grills do not lay flat. They were installed with too much slack. On one set it is so bad I am considering returning it. The other options would be to reinstall it myself and save myself a 6-8 week turnaround or live with it. I haven’t decided which is the least of the 3 evils.
The PCM book shows the F3’s to be a set and not separate units. I listened to the sound byte they had on the web page early on and thought it was sub par for sure. The reason they are so low priced now is the fact they are not selling well.
The chicken wire screen type were early F3’s. The first F3’s had three port holes.
How do the number boards compare between the BLI and PCM F units. Do both A units have illuminated number board? I noticed the BLI inserts were not recessed and did not look correct so I skipped them also. I did get one F7B unit with sound and it is nice.
I recently bought two PCM F3 AB sets from Factory Direct Trains. I had bought a BLI F7 set from them last month which I was very happy with and since PCM and BLI are sister companies and the selling price was the same, I was expecting them to have a similar configuration. Boy was I wrong. First of all, the A & B units cannot run stand alone. A cable runs from the end door of the B unit to the door of the A unit. This cable is hidden inside the diaphrams when the engines are joined. This was not too big a negative for me since I intended to always run them together with the same address anyway and often, F3s were coupled with a drawbar so having them permanently coupled is not unrealistic. The instructions even said to connect them with a drawbar but in reality, they connect with knuckle couplers. Maybe the instructions were written for an earlier version. I like the fact they couple close enough for the diaphrams to almost touch, unlike my P1K F3s which have a hideous gap. They seem to be excellent runners and are apparently programmed to start and stop gradually no matter how fast the throttle is turned up or down. The sound of the brakes being applied is synced well to the decelleration of the locos. I haven’t yet run a test of their pulling power. A section of my layout is down right now precluding such a test.
I have two major complaints. The first is the quality of the sound. It seems relatively weak in comparison to other sound equipped diesels on my roster, especially the P2K E units. The sound is what I would have expected from an MRC unit. The other is a cosmetic issue. The “chicken wire” side grills do not lay flat. They were installed with too much slack. On one set it is so bad I am considering returning it. The other options would be to reinstall it myself and save myself a 6-8 week turnaround or live with it. I haven’t dec
The very first first Phase F3’s had three port holes like the F2’s on the side and chicken wire like your model where the later grills cover. The so called second phase used the chicken wire covering for the side panels also. MR had a great article last year on the four phases of the F3’s along with most of the other F units. The last group of F3’s looked just like the F7 except for the dynamic brake slots on top instead of the round fan that was used on the F7’s.
I was going to get an A-B set of the PCM F-3’s for my CZ (Rio Grande black and yellow) until I read about the sound quality and detail issue. So instead, I settled on the Genesis Rio Grande units (not the color scheme I wanted–it’s the later single-stripe Rio Grande gold and silver), w/o sound. Now I’m no diesel expert–as I’m just grudgingly coming around to using them on my Yuba River Sub, which is just about 95% steam–but the Genesis units seem to be beautifully detailed, and VERY smooth and responsive runners, to boot.
I’m hoping that PCM can get the ‘bugs’ out of their F-3’s in a later run, I’d sure like to have those black and yellow units. But until then, I’ll make do with the Genesis.
I was at the WGH Tour in Pittsburgh last month and PCM had some silver (I’m guessing) F3s circling a small oval. Although very nicely detailed, if these were the same F3s, I would agree: The sound was pretty feable and anemic.
Do the PCM F3s only come with both units powered AND with sound? I would prefer to put the sound in myself, if that’s going to be the quality that they come out with. Sounds to me that you don’t have that option with the PCM versions.
Factory Direct Trains lists units with Loksound and others as sound upgradeable, whatever that means. I thought any loco that has room for a decoder and speaker would be sound upgradeable. You can browse what they are offering now:
I like the Loksound and you can update the decoder with many, many different sounds as well. Check out the Loksound website for more info and why not play around? They made these decoders upgradeable so you can alter them if you want to.
I have several PCM F3’s and have not had any problems with the grilles…