Now that these are showing up around the country. I'm curious to see what people think. I picked up two yesterday, but since I'm between layouts , I can only comment on the packaging - Atlas has added some foam strips that fit between the shell and hand rails to keep the rails straight. Ok that is my review of the new dash 8.
I picked up my 4 today, all NS units. They look just like the B40-8s, except the plows on these units are more prototypical than what was on the B40-8 units. They also come with wind deflectors, but they do not pivot. I will not be able to run these units for a few days, but they should be fine. The biggest issue I see is that Atlas used the EMD style paint job. Not a big deal, but it is noticable. Below are some pics. More shots here: http://bob.msiunix.com/webpictures/trains/c40-8/
I WENT RAILFANNING July 14-18 and i went to Horseshoe Curve in Altoona Pennsylvania and I saw many dash 8s It was Norfolk Southern who went through there. I also went to Fostoria, Oh. and I went to a famous spot called "The Iron Diamond Triangle" It is where thre double tracks cross each other withing a square mile. It is NS and CSX's terriotory but I am a UP fan myself and I was delighted to see a handfull of Ac4400 UP's roll through. I got all excited and started yelling and snapping pictures. It was so great!! I saw two UP's and one SP MUed. I saw many of class 1 trains. Even BNSF went through! I went to HArrisburg, PA for the last day and that was cool but let me tell you, by the end of the four days I was so tired of seeing NS! I litterally took 10 rolls of 24-25 pictures which is 240-250 and most of them were of trains. A joy for me to look at but no one else I know will enjoy like me ya know how that goes. Well I just wanted to share my trip to you guys BIG AL
