As some of you know, I bought a pair of Stewart Hobbies F 9’s around a month ago. A unit is powered and B unit is a dummy like me! I did ask what people here thought of them before I opened the box, in case it was a bad buy, and they got a good review. What I was hoping for was a engine that was good as my Proto 1000 F 3’s. After a month of running my thoughts on the Stewart’s.
First the paint is good, paint lines are straight and no over spray. There are details that can be added to the trucks and you add the air horns your self. I have not added the details yet, will in a few weeks. Body snaps on like the Protos F-3. On the A units, front coupler pocket has to come off first. You all so need to use a drop knuckle coupler to get to correct coupler height.
Pretty much on par a the Proto 1000 as far as paint and detail. PK 1000 have all the details installed.
Side vents(right term) on the Stewart’s seem a little better.
Mounting the couplers, the Stewart’s are different.
You have to line up the post and holes and push on to the mounting point on the chassis. It fits like a C Clip, snaps on. Not hard, but the front pocket on the A Unit is little harder than on the Proto that use a screw.
Chassis and electronic and decoder installation, Stewart’s are much better!
If it will clear on your curves, Kadee has a conversion for the Stewart F’s that gives you closer coupling between the A and B units. The 450 or 415 I think.
The yellow LED is the only annoying thing about Stewart, but I suppose it’s no worse than the bright bluish ones Bachmann put in some of their locos. I replace them. On the F it’s probably a 5mm LED, a golden white one from Miniatronics will directly replace the factory one. The clip is SUPPOSED to come off, you slide back the outer housing to release the tension on the contacts and pull out the LED. Takes a little dexterity, pulling back the clip an dholding the loco with one hand while trying to slip the LED leads into the holes. I might save the yellow ones to make signals…
Looks liek that particular P1K uses the small board like in my P2K Geeps, meaning a DH163L0 would make for a neater install as it could be screwed to the frame in place of the original board with the diodes. They are all over the place with P1K locos when it comes to wiring.
I have several Stewart Fs (with Kato drives) and FTs (with Stewart drives). All have the KD conversions (450?), and diaghprams. Conversions to DCC are fairly easy (for me - a DCC “newbie”), and I consider them to be some of my best F locos.
I personally take those plastic C-clips as you call them and throw them away. I drill out and tap the hole for inserting a 2-56 screws to hold the couplers on.
