I picked one up and wanted to share a photo of it since there are few big photos of it on the web. This is out-of-the-box, no modifications: A quick review, in lazy man's bullet point style: Even though the hood is the same width as the GP35, it doesn't suffer from the wide-body look. I think this is mainly due to the length and the slightly wider trucks (different pickup than the GP). Detailing is pretty sharp, but some "features" are not rendered as faithfully as they could be. The handrails are nicely done. The fact that the couplers stick out so far is unfortunate. I will try the Chris333 trick of using Uncle Will's. The price actually makes this one of the cheaper Z scale engines. Performance is impressive. The engine started out nice, slow, and smooth and really creeps with hardly any noise. The light bleeds through the top of the cab - this can probably be fixed with black paint and the addition of air conditioner-type details. This is a nice engine. If you are on the fence about picking one up, go ahead and take the plunge.
Looks good Tom I'm just starting out in Z I have plans to get a pair of these in UP colors.... It's time to get it Dirty Now! :thumbs_up:
Well, it looks too new for my eyes, but I'm sure we don't need to wait much to witness a serious aging of this nice locomotive. My guess, it will look about 15 years older in less than a week.
Got mine today & she is a real beauty! Runs great but the first thing that caught my eye was the light leaking through the cab roof. Gingerly took it apart & placed black plastic on the cab roof to see if that would help. Only cut the bleed through about 50%. The light escapes through the top of the cab at the angles of the number boards.Took it apart again & painted the cab roof and the angle areas under the number board plastic & left the black plastic for good measure. Looks much better- cuts the bleed through down by at least 80%. The Santa Fe GP 35's have the same problem, must be the yellow cab.
Yep, and finally a color I like. Except Tom, that one and mine need some 20 years of road use look. Lets see what we can do about that over the next few weeks. (I'll be in Europe for 10 days so don't get a head start on me). .
Jeff, It needs real weathering, before you leave to Europe leave it on the porch, While you do that you should also leave the challenger. You will be surprised. Kim
Thanks for the welcome shamoo737! You were one of the lucky ones- CSX was the first one out of the gate!! Happy to hear that you are still pleased with it.
Kim, Lajos get's it first. A second motor in it. Then you can add some more micro-automation, like coal depleting in to the cab area. After that, I'll probably forget were I left it .
Hi Zeefanatic, welcome to Trainboard! I see you are from Shamoo737's area, now you and John can start a Z-Bend Track club!
Hello Robert, thanks for the welcome! A Zbend group would be nice but the logistics would be problematic as shamoo737 lives on the east coast of Fla & I'm on the west. We are about 2 1/2 hours away from each other.
Yea Robert. 2 1/2 hours away. Five or six hours from San Diego to San Jose. Twice for me. Six or seven hours to Sacramento. Once for Don F. and me. Just go to train shows to put your modules together. Thats what we do (ZoCal and Baz Boyz).
Got mine today. I have to say it is a fine locomotive. The wheels seemed a touch out of gauge for me, but with a slight adjustment it is purring around my 195mm curves. It is much quieter than the other MT loco's and it seems like the throttle response is similar to my AZL gp 7. I haven't tried to run them together yet. Mine is in UP and looks very good. The plows really make the model look complete. It has a classic split frame mechanism like N scale. I don't own any other 3 axle so I cannot compare to others, but this is an impressive loco.
Sure thing Alex. Here is what I noticed. First it would hang up on my street crosssings. I found this odd as all my other loco's naviagated them without issue. So what I did what take an MT hopper popped out the wheel and put it against the the SD 40. What I found was it was slightly narrower than the plastic wheel set. So i used a jewlers screwdriver and pried it out to size. Easy peasy and no hangups.
