I don’t have the Bachmann one, but it actually looks pretty nice. The choice of gloss paint wasn’t a bad one. I have seen the DCC and sound one for like $130. I would buy one, but then I have a second GG1 that I wouldn’t use.
3 NJT E60-CPs (Walthers)... one shell is cosmetically fudged with "fudge"? There are 2 decorated for Amtrak somewhere. While Walthers seems to have used Athearn's old SD-9 chassis for the CFs, the CPs look like custom jobs. Finding this stuff is double edged. Nice to find but remnants of dreams deferred.
Fabulous collection, Mr. Trainiac. I owned an Acela for a couple of years, had my fun with it, but sold it off eventually. It held it's resale value very well. Here is a video I shot of it, at full throttle. Two nice surprises with this set: 1. it cantavaleers going through curves, apparently the trucks had little cams built in, and it was very effective. 2. I found the set ran much more reliably, eg. not derailing, when the powered unit was used as a pusher rather than a puller! I suspect this has much to do with the unique couplers. The short video opens with a very nice sound equipped American Type by a friend, who goes by "Crusty," and was filmed on the El Paso Model Train Club Layout. I was trying to give a visual sense of how the state-of-the-art went from American wood burners to the Acela.
Per the title on the video, ATK's first day was 05/01/1971, not 04/01/1976. 04/01/1976 was CR's birthday.
I see myself not as a catenary fan, but a catenary victim. Being from, and modeling, Italian railways I am in the same situation of our Dutch friend: I have to have wires, unless I model a desperately small branch line and limited myself to a very few models (that fortunately until a few years ago). That said I will have to live with it as stringing wires between modules is even harder, being in HO unfortunately I do not have the option of limitng myself to poles only. Fortunately some companies make Italian style poles, I will use the SOMMERFELDT ones that even if they reproduce the old style poles, are the most rugged. I just add a picture of one of the Italian most famous EMU models, an ALe 601 modeled by LIMA in the late 80s. I have more tha forty (40) electrics in my roster..... Details on the real one on my Italian Regional train thread.
And another very old LIMA model from my childhood. A 4MW electric 6 axle articulated locomotive E646, to which I replaced the panotgraphs with better looking new ones from Hornby Rivarossi, that sit flat and are better looking, compare with the ones on the EMU, (they are not fit for really pick up power from the wires though). New model have flush glazing and many more details, but this is running since the mid eighties and does not really need much effort to be kept running.
I've traveled a bit in Europe, including the U.S.S.R, but never Italy, so I can claim no relevant attachment to Italian Rail, other than to remark it looks like a fabulous way to travel. Those articulated electrics are quite an ingenious engineering solution. I tried to place a little dummy catenary on my 4x8 layout, using some rather elderly Marklin equipment, but found it to be a lot of trouble in that it made getting to the tracks below quite more complicated than I anticipated. A couple of us wanted to install some dummy catenary on one of the Club's three main lines, to give our GG1's and Metroliners a little context, but met with brisk opposition from those who wished to maintain a American Southwest ethic, so "air" catenary it shall have to be. Very fine looking pieces, there, and seeing an "Italian Job," is most interesting.
I'm one of those who would like to reproduce in miniature the Pacific Electric Lines under the wire. Catenary is one of my favorites and I don't get to see a layout with it very often. Here's the catch. You don't want my hands anywhere near a Catenary line. Unless you want me to demolition the operation. For those who can, do enjoy.
