Check out what I just saw in the Micro-News! This is fantastic news! I'll be pre-ordering some SP, ATSF, and GATX. http://www.micro-trains.com/publicfiles/monthly/MN1706.pdf
I just noticed the UP "Desert Storm" loco at the bottom - holy cow. This will be amazing in Z. This is going to be an expensive couple of years.
Look at the dates, you'll have a year or so to save up. I think it would be nice if we could get Joe to comment on the locos beyond the newsletter. I like that they are new, but I'm wondering if they are improved? Mark
And furthermore an undec !! A lot of possibilities for remote railroad/ shortline modellers ! Congrats to MTL !! Dom
Oh good, they found a more affordable motor. Bring back the GP35 next. Then that Z SW1500 they said they would like to do. Matt.
Good news but I hope they will be better as the last one. Also produce more trucks, so I can change the bad one at my older SD40 (second cgarge, the first charge was fine)!!
I am glad MTL is doing a Z loco again, but my experience with the previous run of SD40-2's was not great. At least if I do bite, I have an abundance of spare parts. Trey
I so wish MTL would do this locomotive in Z. It would be a game changer. This is my biggest takeaway from this announcement. I mean, if they said they were completely revamping, changing the tooling, and doing a narrower shell then yeah that would be huge. But I really don't expect that to happen. But short of that, the fact that my two existing SD40-2's might have parts for repair if needed is nice. The announced roads don't do much for me. Very remote interest in the UP and BNSF, and I really would love to have the Desert Storm UP loco even though way out of era....might be the one exception I make to my strict era mandate. I wish they would do the FURX green and silver, EMD Lease, BN whiteface, and especially BNSF Heritage I would be cool.
I also still hope for a SW1500 eventually. Seen their couplers, it would be a logical step for MTL. But they will never be able to sell as much as the GPs and SDs....
Well, once I can get the chassis again expect a plethora of U.K class 66s in different color schemes Hmmm Maybe MTL could consider doing a 66 bodyshell to fit the chassis? If your'e into doing different color schemes and opening new markets up to z look at this lot! List of operators Owner Operator Countries Designation Total Comments Beacon Rail(15) Halifax Assets finance Ltd.(33) Eversholt Rail Group (85) Porterbrook(60) Lloyds TSB(4)[25] Colas Rail DB Cargo UK Direct Rail Services Freightliner GB Railfreight Great Britain Class 66 455 Main article: British Rail Class 66 60 EWS locomotives lent from EWS stock to EWSi subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail.[26] 13 units exported to Poland for Freightliner Poland.[25] Angel Trains Euro Cargo Rail(ECR)[26] France Class 66 Class 77 120 60 loaned from parent company EWSi 60 further locomotives during 2009 designated Class 77 Freightliner PL(FPL)[27] Poland Class 66[28] 7[29] Part of Freightliner Group Ltd. CB Rail[30] formerlyPorterbrook Rail4Chem Benelux (R4CB) Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg) 26 Heavy Haul Power International (HHPI) Germany Dillen et Le Jeune Cargo Railway(DLC) Belgium Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln(HGK) Germany Class 266 ERS Railways(ERSR) Netherlands Railion Nederland(RN) Netherlands Deutsche Leasing[30] Rail4Chem Benelux (R4CB) Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg) 1 Egyptian National Railways (ENR) Egypt[4][31] 2120[32] 40[31] First non-European customer, for passenger use. GM/Opel leasing[30] Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln(HGK) Germany Class 266 2 GM/GMAC leasing[30] Heavy Haul Power International (HHPI) Germany 1 HSBC Rail[30] TGOJ Trafik(TGOJ)[33] Sweden T66 713[34] 1[34] Leased to IKEA rail AB, from 2012-07 to Rush Rail source CFL Cargo DK[35] Denmark T66K 714 "Krudthornet" 1 Transferred to CFL Cargo DK in Padborg in 2010 (SE,DK ATC) CargoNet (CN) Norway CD66[36] 6[37] Problems with driver cabin conditions(see above) Named Di9 as per Di series in procurement documents,[38] in practice also called CD 66 To be replaced by Vossloh Euro 4000 on the Nordland Line[citation needed] Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln(HGK) Germany Class 266 5 ERS Railways(ERSR) Netherlands 5 KBC lease group[30] Dillen et Le Jeune Cargo Railway(DLC) Belgium 4 MRCE[30] Dillen et Le Jeune Cargo Railway(DLC) Belgium ~5 ERS Railways(ERSR) Netherlands ~6 Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln(HGK) Germany Class 266 ~2 Afzet Container Transport System(ACTS) Netherlands 1 Dortmunder Eisenbahn (DE) Germany 1 Veolia Cargo /Connex (VC) Netherlands & France 1 Trainsport AG (TS) Belgium 1 Rail4Chem (R4C) Germany 1 NedTrain 1 Setrag Gabon 2 Units shipped July 2011.[39] Food for thought eh? Kev
.. just read this posting.. Yes! Thanks, Kev, for the listing and great suggestion indeed! I would surely order one or two of MTL class66 if available in any of these European, i.e. Benelux / Germany, operator's colors. I think that a z scale model of this locomotive would surely open up a huge market in Europe for MTL, with Germany being the largest market of course, but with smaller markets (that add up!) in UK, Benelux, Scandinavia - this is where such a generic locomotiv is the obvious choice, most certainly if a chassis is in fact available. @joe? Matt
Nice, but I am not very hapy with the one I already have. That thing has never run, and the problem can't be identified: it seams that the whole engine is just rubbish :-(
