By now some of you should have received the upgraded LL GP18's. I'm still waiting for mine.. probably should get mine next week. Are they as good as the LL GP20's? Do they have magnetic couplers(Accumates) pre-installed?
They just shipped from the distributor on Tuesday or Wednesday so it will be mid week before we see them.
Check out N Scale Supply's website, they have pics. I think FRTS has them in stock now as well, but he is at a show this weekend. NSS does a good job at showing closeups of locos, that is cool.
Are we going to combine a GP18 and a GP20 and get an original EMD low nose GP9 out of all this? Looks like it might be doable. I am not so sure about the fans.
Guys,Not to pick a good looking model to pieces as that is not my style.Sadly I must make a comment on those fans..The GP18 had flat 48" fans not the pan type 48" fans found on the GP20.BTW the Phase3 GP9 and the GP18 shared the same carbody.
Hmmm.... This photo of a NYSW GP18 seems to show a pan style fan... even though its difficult to see them around those mushrooms on top ] I think the pan style fan may have been a late version of the GP18 because I see other pix with the flatter dome style used on the earlier versions. [ 22. August 2004, 14:52: Message edited by: Calzephyr ]
Interesting picture.. Hers a N&W GP18 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=5324 And the one the B&O had. http://www.trainweb.org/chessiephotos/photos/GP9/6599b&o.jpg GNR http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=54891 --------------------------------------------------------- Now we see these http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=68591 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=6409 ----------------------------------------------------------- It appears these fans was a railroad option or was added later?? At any rate one would need to either replace the fans for a specific railroad or not worry about them...
So back to the subject - anyone have one yet? I also noticed that one of our vendors is showing LL doing another run of GP20's next year. I must have missed that announcement.
Arrived, & shipped. Gorgeous. They now have knuckle couplers. Those we tried were smooth and quiet. Paint & lettering is very nice. Yes I'm biased as they have done a Rock Island scheme severely under-represented.
But sadly not a high-hood version yet. Would love for them to do the highhood instead of having to kitbash one... Western Pacific orange/silver . I think it was OC Engineer that did one in WP green/orange.
Almost all L-L announcements come out in Europe roughly 45-90 days earlier than in the U.S.A. We expect the "formal" announcement here in about another 6-8 weeks.
OMG I had hoped I could avoid buying more engines but.... Looking through the N scale supply site I nearly feinted when I noticed LL is doing a Ill. Central in orange and white. After begging Atlas for this paint scheme and having them tell me It was not a high sale product I figured I'd have to paint my own which I did very poorly. Life Like is really gonna get my money from this one. I don't know where life like got the idea to do these schemes but I have to say even the Rock Island scheme is really tempting. Lots of nice colorful stuff. I also noticed that the lights sit on what seems like a drop in decoder type analog board. Is this a correct assumption that a drop in decoder will be made for this engine? After posting this I got all worked up over seeing IC diesels are coming so I went top this place here: http://www.illinoiscentral.net/rosters/roster9000.html And I looked up the numbers to find out that IC had had 29 Gp18's in their roster. 9400-9428 Very cool ! [ 26. August 2004, 22:52: Message edited by: traingeekboy ]
I'm really happy to see how well represented N&W is on this model. Wow, two paint schemes! I've also noticed the abundance of the older N&W GP18’s on eBay. Funny how that happens... Too bad LL seemed to have dropped N&W on their GP20 re-release. They probably didn’t need them as the “older” GP20’s are fine (and N&W only had (inherited) two of them anyway). Now if they would only do an RS11!
Not a big deal for most N&W modelers, as the N&W only had them about a year before joining with Southern to become NS. If ya really want them though, they can still be found new.
Some had flat: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw927.jpg Others had the pan style: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw933ags.jpg
What am I missing? The GP 20 was delivered ca. 1960-62 +-1. And you are saying the NS merger was in 1963-64? I didn't think they merged till much later.
What am I missing? The GP 20 was delivered ca. 1960-62 +-1. And you are saying the NS merger was in 1963-64? I didn't thik they merged till much later. </font>[/QUOTE]Allow me to explain. N&W never bought any GP20s from EMD. The only GP20s N&W ever owned were a few units the N&W inherited when it acquired the Illinois Terminal in 1981.
My two NP units arrived a couple days ago. Smooth & quiet. I'm pretty impressed. Careful with the bell though. It's quite delicate. (No, I didn't break one. I noticed it right away and handled accordingly.) Mike
