I think its great that there is so many different opinions of manufacturers on here. I dont think any manufacturer is gonna get a 100% approval. My gripe is too many things coming out too fast to get some of everything. I remember years ago when I could keep up and get some of everything!
I have 28 FVM locomotives, and I'm pretty happy with them. I've had one that needed a little tweaking, but nothing your average modeller couldn't handle. If FVM does the GP60s in standard cabs in SP, that number will go up another 3-4. Or 5.
Mine was 'tweaked' by Matt himself. He even sent a new mech. It still wont pull over 10 cars. It now just sits on the turntable with its lights on. Sure looks nice. :-( I will wait untill after someone I can trust buys the GP60M and posts a review. Then I can decide for myself. My faith in FVM products isnt very strong at the moment. Time will tell.
George, FVM locomotives are like everyone else's. I have had Kato locos that couldn't pull as well as Atlas locos that couldn't pull. In many of those cases, neither Kato or Atlas really did anything about it. Matt has done a fine job bringing product to N scale. I have about 40 of his locomotives and have had no issues with them. For your one bad FVM, I can say the same thing about 9 Kato and 23-25 Atlas locomotives I have gotten. You shouldn't base your decision on one item. If I did that, I probably wouldn't be in the hobby anymore. But the truth is, anything coming from China is buyer beware anymore.
I'm assuming they will be the same as the GEVO and take any decoder with a standard NEM 6 pin plug such as the DZ125IN or TCS EUN651. The way plug-n-play DCC should be, no waiting for the decoder manufacturers to come out with a virtually custom made board for every new loco made, I give kudos to FVM this.
This is basically my point. If I had bought 40 and THEN got a bad one I could maybe shrug it off. But it was my first FVM !!! Kinda left a soar taste for more ;-) Matt did his best....I give him credit for that. I realize every manufacturer is gonna have a lemon now and then. But I dont wanna make lemonade with the first one I buy ;-) Just makes me a little leary to buy more FVM is all. Now...to get back on topic. I hope the GP60M is a winner for all.
Just posted on FB: "The long awaited N GP60M and B units arrived yesterday. The ATSF units will be processed first and all should be shipped by the end of this week. BNSF will go out next around Oct 1."
Got mine today (an M and a B unit)! Here's a shot of them lashed up as an ABBA set with my older, kitbashed units.... I was very happy to find out that my kitbashed units look fairly similar to the FVM units and look pretty good in a lashup. Once I weather the FVM units, they should look even more similar to one another... Sorry for the somewhat blurry photos.
Fuel tanks are in wrong place on the M's. The M's had them moved back to offset the cab. Looks like I'll have to flip the shell and the trucks to get it right for the M's. ;_;
NO... you don't! You just have to futz with the compressor tanks and somehow shift the spacer inside the tank! Picture attached. Matt must be pretty annoyed about this. The parts were clearly designed to be assembled one way for the Ms and another way for the Bs, but it didn't happen. I'm in the process of changing mine right now. :teeth: UPDATE: Okay, popping of the tanks was easy. Removing the spacer without doing damage may be impossible.
ah I see! That's a cool design actually. I hope you find a way to remove that spacer. How is the spacer attached? Pins, glue, press fit?
Unfortunately it's glued. After spending a few minutes trying to cut it out, I decided to sacrifice it completely and remove it bit by bit. Another 45 mins or so with a couple different blades (mostly chisel blade) and I have the spacer removed with no damage to the outside of the tank. The fuel tank fits back on tightly enough that replacing the spacer may not even be necessary. The new location of the tank looks fine to me, but the conductor's side compressor tank still looks like its too far back, so I will probably drill new holes for its pins to move it a little more forward. BTW the compressor tanks are also glued in, but popped out with just a little paint loss that will be completely hidden once they are back in place. I popped them out by pushing the pins with a needle nose tweezer from inside the fuel tank. By tomorrow I may have it all done to take more pictures.
Thanks! Completed grille blackening on my M and B units today as a first step with weathering. Doing this really stands out against the silver and really adds realism in my opinion... Going to have to figure out a way to renumber the GP60M a I hear 152 was wrecked and retired in 1990 (I model 1995-2005).
How did you go about blackening out the grills? Looks great! Want to lightly weather mine at some point.
Interesting advice and easy fix on the fuel tank on the M unit, thanks! Now for an important question to FVM! Is there any possibility of producing regular or Spartan Cab GP-60's since it appears that Walthers is only doing a token run of theirs, which are not DCC friendly?
