Certainly there’s no shortage of prototypes. Electro-Motive sold more than 6,500 A and B units in all its models.
Considering that EMD committed a bewildering number of changes over the production run – number boards, headlight placement, side panels, grills, doors, and rooftop fan designs varied considerably, often on railroad-by-railroad basis – model manufacturers have always found the F unit a challenge.
In the past, most manufacturers were content to model a different F model by simply slapping a new paint job on existing tooling.
Atlas O is taking a much more ambitious approach, planning to represent all types of the F unit sold, not just a generic F unit that fits all road names.
Atlas O has produced an amazing line of O gauge locomotives, and there was great anticipation of how well the firm would execute the iconic F unit. I have to say that Atlas has done very, very well with this model.
Opening the box
When the Boston & Maine A-B set arrived, there was chaos in the rush to get the boxes open. The heft of the model is striking, and the underappreciated B&M paint scheme elicited praise from guys who normally wouldn’t look twice at a B&M locomotive.
Boston & Maine 4257 was an EMD F2A built in 1946 and retired by 1964.
The model features a coil coupler on the pilot with a simulated uncoupler arm (and a brake line feeding through with the coupler).
If you have a hankering, you can replace the front coupler with a non-operating scale coupler. I must confess that this alteration looks pretty sharp.
The graceful compound curves of the bulldog nose looks spot-on, and the curved B&M nose stripes – which must be a bear to get right – accentuate the graceful lines. The front hatch has a door handle, but it doesn’t open. It is, however, a separate piece to accommodate versions with a second headlight/strobe. The B&M Minuteman herald is expertly applied. The model also comes with a number board that can be applied to the nose. Number boards and marker lights are positioned on both sides of the nose.
The cab features two crew figures and interior illumination. I will be the first to say that I’ve always thought opening cab doors on an O gauge diesel are a pretty useless gimmick.
That noted, I was a bit surprised that the cab doors of this model are cast-in and do not open, but that just means the F unit is like 99 percent of my other diesels and electrics.
No big deal, just a surprise.
The doorways are framed well with grab irons bracketing them and silver-painted kick plates matching the cab steps. Next to the bottom kick plate you’ll find an EMD builder’s plate.
Grab irons are also located bracketing the rear side doorways and at the rear corners (for tiny O scale brakemen). The door at the rear of the model is solid, but it has a sprung plastic diaphragm.
The rear coupler is a dummy with a short shaft. This allows for very close coupling the A unit to other F units.
The body has a pleasing degree of cast-in rivet and seam detail, and all the screens along the side are see-through.
Topside, the rig has two horns, see-through screens, see-through radiator exhausts housing white fan blades, and six lift rings. The two narrow, short exhaust stacks serve the smoke unit. Unless you take care, adding smoke fluid is a messy proposition, so keep some paper wipes ready!
The B unit has similar construction (save for the lack of a cab) and possesses an extra set of screens and four pairs of grab irons on each side.
The B unit has the close-coupling dummy couplers on both ends.
Paint and decoration are first rate. The striping of the B&M paint scheme is clean and crisp. The A unit also comes with a number plate that can be mounted on the nose, though I thought the model looked fine without it.
On the test track
We tested the locomotive using Lionel’s new Legacy command base and CAB-2 handheld controller. Performance was fine, and I was pleased with the ease of building lash-ups (essential with powered A and B units) with the system’s LCD screen. It was eee-zee.
Our A and B units each have four pickup rollers. One pair is about 2½ inches apart, the second pair about 1 inch apart, with both sets roughly 4 inches distant. No tether is needed, so if you get fired up, you can run that B unit on the front of your train with ease (though explaining how the engineer can see may be tough).
The low-speed average on our F unit was 3.5 scale mph, and our high-speed average was 73.2 scale mph.
I believe you could get it up a bit higher, but I was confronted with the self-imposed “don’t send it off the table” speed limitation. This Atlas O diesel responded well to Legacy’s Real Railroad Speeds commands.
Drawbar pull for the A-B was approximately 1 pound, 12 ounces per unit, or 3 pounds, 8 ounces for the lashed-up four-motor A-B duo.
Coil coupler operation was fine. I did seriously consider replacing the functional pilot with the scale (dummy drop coupler) pilot, but decided that the functionality of having the coil coupler on the front outweighed the esthetic appeal of the alternative. But, ask me about this next year.
The Atlas F unit gets two thumbs up from me. Whether operating in conventional, TrainMaster, or Legacy CAB-2 mode, the Atlas O powered A-B duo delivered good running and a great EMD sound package.
The first run of F2/F3s is a commendable product: well built and good running. I’ll be watching with interest as Atlas O produces the models and variations of this venerable diesel.
Price: $479.95 (powered A or B units), $199.95 (unpowered A or B units)
Features: O-36 operation, two can-style motors in powered A or B units), coil coupler, Lionel TrainMaster and RailSound systems, speed-control
Staff comments: Well-built, good puller. Surprising the cab doors don’t open – Bob
Scale front coupler is nice, but wish powered B, unpowered A and B units had at least one functional coil coupler – Kent
Made in China for Atlas O
Just unpacked the Lackawanna version ABC locomotive with A powered and the B and C unpowered. Using Legacy controls on layout. At first running had a short in the C unit caused by sloppy wiring from the pickup through the truck to interior wiring. Fixed that, but noticed one red wire snipped off and going nowhere. With the short fixed, still had trouble pulling 6 lighted passenger cars, as the circuit breaker would pop. At Atlas' suggestion turned off the EOB, and slowly it seemed to get better with fewer overloaded episodes. Now turned the EOB back on, and seems okay, except top speed seems slow, as does the acceleration. I'm pleased with the appearance, but not so much with the performance. Any of my Lionel Legacy locomotives can pull the same consist at high speed, and lashing up a TMCC to the Atlas also permits it to run high speed. Running the Atlas A unit alone also has a limited top speed. May be something in my settings?
Seeing this video gives an extra dimension to the review that words cannot describe. Fantastic