This review is on Bachmann's newest version of the F40PH. The new Spectrum F40 is a huge improvement over the old one. It uses an all new shell and chassis that are good enough to make it's price seem inexpensive. It has see-through roof vents with seperate fan blades inside. it also has flush fitting windows and seperate windshield wipers. The cab interior is all black, except for the crew, and can hardly be seen. I painted my interior a lighter brown with gray for the floor and seats. It also comes with optional wind deflectors for the sides of the cab, but they are over-sized and delecate. I broke both of mine.[:I] All the grab irons are shiny polished steel, or some other silvery metal. The rear deck has safety tread molded on, and it looks very good. The pilots have seperate MU hoses and coupler lift bars, but the lift bars are upside down. The coupler boxes hold the shell to the chassis, but they are also put in upside down. They can be fixed by prying them open, flipping the coupler over, putting them back together, slipping them back through and screwing them into the chassis. The fuel tank is very detailed with seperate detail parts and a pipe going to all the parts on the left side. It also comes off very easily, but it can be screwed into a couple holes coming from the motor retainer through the bottom of the engine with 2/56 screws. The grills on the sides of the engine are all black, but I painted the bottom halfs of mine silver to match a picture of a real F40 in the Amtrak Phase II paint. The paint on the engine is very smooth with sharp seperation between the colors. The lights are directional blueish LEDs. The nose and cab lights both light up along with the number boards. It also has VERY bright flashing strobes that will blind you if the lights in the room are off!![:0] The F40 started moving at 2.3 volts and kept moving steadily at 2.1 volts at around 5 scale MPH. At 12 volts it went between 90 scale MPH and 100 scale MPH. It operated very smoothly and quietly at all speeds, with a little noise coming from a growl in the gears,(which are now a more durable black plastic instead of nylon) but it's not loud enough to cause any irritation. The motor turns extremely freely and can coast very far with the flywheels helping. It's drawbar pull is strong enough to pull from 30 to 40 free rolling cars. The LEDs start shining at 4 volts, but they're not noticable until they're shining at 5 volts. The strobes started flashing at 6 volts. The circuit board is the most complicated one I've ever seen in an engine, and it DCC ready (no more split frames!!) with a socket for a DCC decoder, and it comes with a jumper plug installed for regular DC. It's current draw at 12 volts is around 0.08 amps. While slipping, the current is around 0.25 amps. Stalled, the current is from 1 amp to 1.1 amps. The wheels are blackened nickle with RP-25 flanges and are very smoothly made with very few imperfections like all metal wheels have.(even Kato wheels) The trucks are made of metal to add weight. All the wheels are driven and pick up electricity. The new Spectrum F40PH is a very impressive engine in both detailing and performance. It can look good next to the highest quality brass and Kato engines. And it is also affordable to almost anyone, with a retail of only $95.
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"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
QUOTE: 3 brands yes. Yet none of them are making a MBTA version!
Acelacrazy3 wrote:i'm about to get a set that has this locomotive in it and three of the amfleet cars for my layout. anyone know how i can install sound for DCC?
These locos are now discontinued, so if you want it get it now! (Walthers still has some in stock)
Also there is a version without the strobes that is even newer. (Unfortunately the one I have )