Brian,
You can check the number of hours by pressing the "display" button on the remote. This will display a menu with around 7 items in it. down towards the bottom of the list you wil see "HOUR METER".
The hour meter on its own can not be taken as indication of tube condition. If the tubes have been run with the contrast too high the tubes will wear prematurely. When I bought my machine it only had around 2000 hours on it but the tubes were showing signs of wear and had to be replaced because in my setup I used far more phosphor than the previous owner which resulted in brighter edges on my screen.
Check here to get an idea of what to look for
CRT wear images
At around 2000 hours my wear was between image 3 and 4. I suspect my projector had been run with contrast set slightly high.
As far as I know 601e is just the European spec for the projector. In other words 240V rather than 110V.