I took delivery of two Walthers Proto E7 units in the A-A formation. Numbers 1424 and 1428 for the B&O Railroad.
I found both units to be packed to the max in each of thier boxes. Combination of tabs and foam inserts along with plastic overlay covering the spare parts ensure that these things dont move during shipping.
There were a number of parts, instructions etc included with these engines. Im pleased overall with the presentation. It will be quite some time before I will examine those small parts and learn where they go.
I dropped each of these units out of the cases, easily slipped the A bodies on via the front cowcatcher (I know… be gentle) where the coupler passes thru the hole. I found that the red and yellow fuel tank caps are actually small pins that fit thier holes on the body and makes a good fit.
The QSI Modules indicated version 7 which I think is the latest availible as of 2006. I will have to cross check it against the QSI Industries upgrade list but am pretty sure that these QSI modules are the most current availible. Version 6 is pretty good as well, Im not particularly worried about software versions right now.
I whipped out a section of Kato track connected to my Super Chief and it had a number 6 Kato Unitrack switch on as well. The diverging route has a 34" Kato curved section before running parallel to the main. The frog on the Kato switch was also powered. The switch itself was controlled by a DS-64 via loconet. The DS 64 had a PS12 power supply on it.
Enough about the stuff let’s have the locos.
Number 24 and 28 ran well, they need about an hour’s worth of run around time before breaking in I suppose.
Coupling the two units back to back and mu’ing them revealed a slight surging problem that will eventually destroy the middle coupling. I did a quick and dirty MU and will try to define one unit as the lead engine and the other unit as the number two engine and get them to work properly with change of direction headlight
I have a question about the new E7. The old P2K E7’s nose near the windshields didn’t quite have the right contour. If you look at the side of the front near where the side starts to wrap around the nose nearest the wind shield there was almost a slight indentation there. I’m just wondering if that was improved.
I’d also like to see the E8’s windshield improved. There was a sizable lip around the edge that was suppose to be the gasket but it stuck out and didnt look quite right either.
No, they have not retooled the E7 nose yet. It is rumored to be redone this next spring.
The E8/9 nose is still the same except the tooling was “cleaned” a few years back. The lip around the windshields is gone, the doors are tooled shut, the side louvers behind the grilles were tooled in and a few other small changes were made.
Being dissatisfied with the action between the two units I brewed a pot of coffee and immersed myself into the online PDF manuals availible from QSI Industries. I used the Version 3.1 PDF’s because I was not absolutely sure if the chips in my units are Q version or Q1a version (Those PDF manuals are version 4.1 and beyond)
The manuals that came with the Proto units showed a exploded diagram. They also inlcuded a warrantry card although I have no idea what the serial numbers represent on them. The two warrantry cards had a serial numbers of: A084 and A038. Now I can think… oh those are numbers 38 and 84 in a total run of… how many? In the past you recieved information such as unit number 5 in a run of 300 particularly in brass years ago.
I think they left the total run out to keep us from knowing how many total were produced or something.
Anyhow.
Back to the two units fighting each other. I settled down and did a CV reset on them. The Proto Packing came with a tiny Reed Magnet which will be familiar to previous owners of QSI Reed engines. I dont do reeds.
The CV Reset values were:
CV49 = 128
CV50 = 255
CV56 = 113
when completed you need to hear the spoken word “Reset” when finished.
Discovering the provided proto manual for DCC programming to be rather thin and model specific, I turned to the online PDF manuals from QSI and dug out a old BLI desiel manual for QSI engines as well.
Both engines were confirmed to respond to address 03. Then one engine at a time set on the program track and the DT400 sent into program “Po” mode on the display and I entered the values 24 for engine 1424:
ad2 = 24 on the DT400 throttle display.
I did the same for engine 28 (Engine 1428)
I selected 24 to be the lead engine and 28 to be the end helper. They are to always run together with the passenger train.
I broke out a index card and wrote values down as I programmed them. I learned the hard way to always writ
Ah good, at least they seem to have acknowkeged the issue with the E7 nose and the E8 windshields. Windshields are such a noticable feature that they really need to be done right like Athearn Genesis and the new P2K F7’s.
The Headlights dim and brighten properly when the consist programming listed in a previous post is done. The actual turning off of the rear facing unit’s headlight is by the throttle when it’s time to depart or changing direction.
I discovered this when running the units in a dark room. The headlights threw a beam down the track and against the wall 12 feet away. I think that is pretty durn good for a small LED light.
I ran the units some more today breaking them in. The more they “Run-in” the more I think that these units are outstanding. I dont know anything about the nose molding or associated points that were brought up; it might bother a rivet counter but not me.