Hey all, so the other day, the club got in a donation that included a pair of these Mehano/Mp F40PH locos from the very early 80s. I initially mistook them for late 80s-90s life likes, because the mech is the same, but with a 3 pole motor instead of 5 pole. The give away was that the front pilot was integrated into the truck assembly. So my question is, given these weren't paid for. Are they worth messing with just as a tinker's project? I'm thinking of getting a nice low price chinese CAN motor (likely, but not for sure coreless) as recommended by repower/regear groups.io and either replacing the pilot or at least cutting it off and gluing it too the shell. Anyone (besides spookshow) have any experience with these?
I would price out any potential modifications before committing to anything. Kato makes a very respectable F40PH, and even with a lot of modifications, the Mehano probably won't reach that caliber. Dimensionally, the Mehano model doesn't look right. The bodyshell sits too low, and the trucks look too small. The cab geometry or nose contour doesn't look right either, but it's hard to explain. Compare the Kato and Mehano pictures on the spookshow pages. The ride height difference is pretty obvious. It might not be too noticeable on its own without another model to compare it to, but I think it's something to be aware of if you're a rivet counter. Based on what I'm seeing on spookshow, the chassis is nothing to be excited about. If you're replacing the motor, you may want to replace the drivetrain universal joints too. It looks like they used a torsion spring design, which I have seen on one or two HO locomotives, also from AHM/Mehano. It introduces a bit of slop, and even the old rubber tube that you see in brass locomotives would probably work better. The main issue I always run into with project locomotives like this is buyers remorse or regret over the project. That money could have easily gone toward saving up for a new modern model that would have avoided all these problems to begin with. If you like projects, I would say go for it, but I think you have to have realistic expectations. I always go into projects expecting Athearn Genesis level of detail, and then get frustrated when I can't get something to look totally professional.
There is only one reason (in my opinion) to do anything with these. The Kato F40PH is a phase 3 locomotive. The Mehano is a phase 1. For that reason, a good project would be to take that shell and place it under a modern mechanism. You can also replace the poor quality fan tops with BLMA tops.
I've been itching for an excuse to mess with some of these smaller Chinese motors. To be clear here. This just came in a donation. The club isn't desperate to use them. I just thought it might be an interesting project. My biggest concern is the pilot. Since the bmla fans are available. The pilot becomes the biggest visual issue. I was hoping to find an old lifelike. Which has nearly the same design as a test bed.
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Does your club have a collection of "club equipment" that it uses for public shows as a backup in case no one signs up to run on a given line during a given time period? If so, I would leave those things as they are, assuming that they do actually run. If you have some AMTRAK passenger cars (assuming that this is the road for which it is lettered) in this "backup" collection, you can put them behind it and just run the things until the wheels fall off of them then see if someone will pay the club five dollars for them as donors for a bashing project. Even if it is not AMTRAK or you put freight cars and a caboose behind them, most of the public will not know the difference. The modellers and rail fans might notice the difference, but, I have seen all sorts of things on N-TRAK layouts, such as an old C-C Hudson lettered for the New York Central that was pulling a freight train that included Evans fifty foot boxcars next to wood cars and an Illinois Central Gulf caboose that was bringing up the rear (the usual ATSF steel caboose that several manufacturers have sold over the years). I assumed that this was a club equipment train that was running to keep a line covered as no one had signed up for that time period. You would be wasting your time trying to do much with that mecnanism; there is not much help for it. If you were to operate it at home, you would be better off using another mechanism, as others already have suggested. For a club layout on public display, especially N-TRAK, the mechanism will run at N-TRAK public display speeds until the wheels fall off or the wires come unsoldered and no one wants to be bothered with re-soldering them.
So, the club does have club cars and we do need an F40 for our ops plans, BUT, we're going to get a Kato for that. Again, in this case, Running them into the ground on the mobile T-trak is an idea, but the purpose here isn't really the end product, it's more about the process. I sort of disagree on the mechanism. I mean, I don't know the particulars of the MEhano version, but the Life Like Version of this mechanism was a sea change in quality for N-scale when they came out. Springs and all. My interest is using it as a platform to muck about with some new motors, but I'd like the end results to be ...not terrible looking. Since it's a plastic frame, it's much easier to do this, than say, an old junky bachmann which would require milling. I was kind of hoping someone knew enough about it to be able to compare/contrast it to the Life Likes. Like, are the gears of similar quality? I know from Spookshow that the motor is not. The complete intention here is to try to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse...or at least into a vaguely functional wallet. Don't need any of it. The joy is in the journey. Just trying to see who can provide knowledge of the loco so there are fewer surprises.
