I finally ordered mine. She crosses the bridge to the from Parts Unknown leading to the interchange with the GandG: Decending into the Grandure Valley: Having reached the valley she awaits passengers, (and a passenger station). Night run through the valley with the lights out for sleeping. Ok, it was at a dead stop.
Thank you Bob, I will. It is part of the motivation for the practise soldering I'm doing. I am actualy getting good. (but don't tell anyone).
I received my zephyr, installed a decoder DN143ip, added some seated passengers to the cars, and run it on my Peco Code 55 track. My wife who usually pays little attention to my layout said it was the most outstanding thing on my layout. I agree, nothing finer.
Poss, I select much of my equipment based on how women would react. I'd say this is right up there with 4-4-0, 2-6-0 and "Swallow" bullet train.
Welcome poss207. I think I'm craving this train more than ever now. I will repeat what Bob has said “Have fun…” guys.
It looks like the initial runs are now selling out. I would say that is good news for Con-Cor (rewarded for pushing their envelope a bit) and good news for us hobbiests (better chance that others will invest in producing models of the more obscure trains).
I've been watching this thread and trying hard not to buy one after reading all of the glowing complements posted here. Being a D&RGW fan, I was holding out for the new Athearn “Challenger” coming this summer, but then I read up on the history of the Zephyr and found out that the record setting thirteen hour and five minute run to Chicago originated here in Denver. At that moment a wave of clarity ran over me and I knew that I had to have one. In a moment of impulse I called my LHS and they had one left. Devine intervention? Maybe. I've had mine for a little over a week now and I can't stop running it on the layout. All the comments posted here are an understatement. This offering from Con-Cor is awesome! Great job guys. I am curious to see if anyone has installed sound or is thinking about it in the future? I was about to order the Digitrax DN143IP decoder for it but something was said about Digitrax coming out with a SoundFX decoder for it. I can't find any information about if and when on their web site and my LHS didn't have any information. Has anyone else heard anything?
I received mine last week and while I haven't had an opportunity to run it yet, I will say that it is an absolutely incredible looking model. At a time when money is tight, I do not regret making this purchase. It would be interesting if Digitrax did a sound decoder for it. I will get the 143 for now though.
I'm assumig that the Digitrax DN143IP is the drop-in decoder for the Zephyr. Stay cool and run steam......
I really do not need to hear all these gfood comments or see how beautiful that train is. Nope. Not gonna get one. Grrrr, I wish I could afford it.
By the way, it should be a no surprise to anyone that they do not like 8" and 9" radius curves. Mine will make it around them but only at very slow speed. As such they will only be able to reach the 2nd station on the GandG. ***** This just in: A letter leaked to the public today has made it clear to the Burlington RR that the management of the GandG refuses to make changes to the track. There was a veiled threat regarding the possible purchase of the Burlington RR by the GN. We all know that the GandG is in tight with the GN. [ January 31, 2006, 06:22 PM: Message edited by: Grey One ]
Man, Did these things ever run up to New England? Or anywhere on the Pennsy system? I am breaking the restraints my wife has placed upon my typing hands to prevent me from ordering this model!
Pete - to my knowledge and the safety of your fingers, _no_. The Pennsy never had anything like it. Pete, truth is, it's just a nice little train. The one part you _might_ get from it is how they did the articulation. You could use the concept for the twin engines you wanted to link. I'll be happy to take some close ups of how they did it. Correction: Ooops, please see Hytec's post below. [ February 04, 2006, 06:41 AM: Message edited by: Grey One ]
Grey One, Please do! I'm having a much slower work schedule this year. Well, I shouldn't say that: it's always slow until March, except for the last nine years. You've just reminded me of the project! I've been bored, and working on making my early ships better, but now I'm bored with them--who really wants to scratchbuild 18 winches per ship? They are about $5.00 each from the shipcrafter stores, and are inaccurate for merchant vessels. So I've started building my own winches--arrrughh! I build them 18 at a time--it's easier, really, than casting them--but arrrrruuuugggghhhh! So an articulated beast? Yeah, that would take away the boredom! It's a great idea. My mind is now racing! [ January 31, 2006, 10:10 PM: Message edited by: Pete Nolan ]
I believe it was Charlie Vlk that "leaked" a rumor that Digitrax will follow their HO sound decoder with an n-scale model. Time will tell... Meanwhile I'll probably just buy an existing decoder for it in the interum. Sound-wise someone would have to come up with the actual prototypical sound this unit made in real life. I'll have to get down the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago and do a detailed photo shoot of the Zephyr they have on display. Here are some more detailed photos - apologies for the lighting issues: http://homepage.mac.com/jamievondruska/concor_zephyr.html -jamie
Jamie - Nice photos, thanks for sharing! Pete - Building wenches would get boring for the most boring of us. For now, take a look a closeup Jamie took: The "acordian thingys", (sorry I was up _way_ too late last night), are molded plastic. What makes them look good and "realistic" is psychology: 1) It is like the open space between passenger cars. We accept it 2) The mind wraps around it and say, "Ok, works for me" 3) The "visusal 3 foot rule". 4) You are looking at the whole scene and saying, "Man is that sweet". I'll get more detail pics of the links by late today..
