Micro-Trains EMD FT

[1shado1]

Does anyone have any experience with these? Does Atlas make these for Micro-Trains? Does $100 for an A/B set sound like a fair price? Will they operate anywhere near as well as my Kato F7s? How about the FTs by Intermountain? I ask a lot of questions, don't I? [:D]
TIA for any info!

JEFF

[Anonymous]

I'd say $100 sounds like a fair price for an A/B set, so long as they run well. I've got no experience of these but having seen MT's freight cars I'd say they should be good - they have a reputation to live up to after all. At current exchange rate, $100 works out at around £60 - less than I'd pay for a used Minitrix German electric loco!

[brokemoto]

Either the MT or IMs are good.

The price for an A-B pair is good.

I like MTs better.

IM's customer service is better.
Some of the older IMs received overgreasing at the factory which ruins the electrical contact. It is an easy fix to disassemble adn clean out. IM has straightened out the matter with the boys in China on subsequent production.

MTs run better, but the detailing is not as good in some places as is the IMs. MTs come with diaphragms to be affixed by the modeller. You must put them on the back of each unit, not on the back of the A and front of the B so that they are facing each other. The instructions are not clear on this. If you mount them facing each other, they require at least an eighteen inch radius curve or they will bind and/or derail if you buy them in a road that has drawbars. If you buy them in a road that has couplers between A and B (ATSF, for one) they will go aorund a fifteen inch curve without problems. Anything sharper will cause problems for diaphragms mounted facing each other.

I like the paint jobs on the MTs better.

[Anonymous]

I have the Kato F-3s, the IM FTs and just got the MT B&M FTs. They all run great but I would rate the MT FT as the better of the trio followed closely by the KATO and then the IMs. That's not to say the IMs are not good runners. It's just that the competition is tough!

I have the B&M IM FTs and the B&M MT FTs and I think the paint job on the MTs is a little bit better.

One small advantage to the MTs is that you can replace the A-B coupling bar with a coupler and not run them as an A-B all the time. I don't believe you can do the same with the IM FTs. BTW, that coupling pin is not great on either set. The original MT F units came in a long package so you could keep them coupled together. The newest MTs are each packaged in a separate box so you have to couple and separate them each time you use them and put them away. I've already lost one coupling bar. MT should package a spare for us guys with over 50 eyes.

[1shado1]

Thanks to all that responded. Sounds like either would be a good choice. I'm somewhat spoiled by my Kato F7s, and want to keep all my loco purchases at that level. Thanks again, guys!

JEFF