Friggen Awesome! That is a great Photo! Seeing what the layout looks like makes the the photo that much more interesting. Love the scenery! You are a natural when it comes to scenery and natural scenes! Hobo Tim
David, Excellent photo of a very cool scene. I have to admit being partial to Pennsy. I'm not totally sure about this (I have to get home to my books and pictures), but I think the Pennsy ran its GP7s and 9s long hood forward. Not that it makes any difference. I'm actually just hoping that someone will confirm this or set me straight, since it is driving me nuts and I can't find any good pictures on the web to put my mind at ease. Dan S.
Thanks--I have this nagging feeling you're right. I didn't come up with much after a quick search. The first one is not conclusive, since it looks like a switching move, but it's a start: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=77162&PHPSESSID=b6737086d41cb4c8a7f9b3c4a1069413 This one turned up searching for GP9s: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_prr7157.jpg This one offers good evidence based on markings: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1510855772057949509MgejAV
Erie ran theirs long hood forward, but hey who cares they were just pulling a cut out of the tipple right? Yeah and here is my wife Morgan Fairchild... yeah that's the ticket. Really David it looks great, just image when you place the scenery in a strategic manner!
you are correct according to my sources (books) and if you look closely on your model there is letter F at the correct end of the loco :thumbs_up: Chris ps mine has just arrived today - haven't run it yet, just examined under microscope. I don't know about yours but from few photos I've seen on the forums they are all like mine - handrails are bent and twisted all over the place:angry:
Yes, mine were bent up as well, but thankfully it is an easy matter to straighten them out. More challenging was getting the pilots installed without causing damage.
Chris and David, Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I'm staying at a hotel, and all of my books are back at my house. I checked on the web, but only found locs without trains, or else in consists with newer locs in the lead. I thought that I remembered seeing photos with long hood front, but didn't fully trust my memory. Dan S. P.S.- My handrails were actually pretty straight, until I started pulling the shell on and off to work on the trucks. But, as David said, at least they are easy to straighten. I also have to trim one slightly (side opposite the antenna at the cab), but my flush cutters are also at home, so I am patiently awaiting my return home in a week or so.
MTL Chris, I'm sorry you feel MTL's attitude is take or leave it...it may seem that way because like any manufacturer we can't be all things to everyone. I'd love more options, but many times I find myself going nose to nose with tooling and production and in the end, I'm only the Engineer. Other issues are presented and I go home empty handed. It's my job to dream big, and theirs to remind me of the reality of production...hopfully we meet someplace in the middle...and usually do. There are plenty of reasons we went to truck mounted couplers. One is the cost to us and then to you. Doing body mounts cost more and we would have to charge more and everyone would complain cause I had to charge more. Funny how that works. Also there's the mechanical reality of it all. If you have the weight of the car on the trucks and are pushing and pulling near the center line of the axle, you gain the ability to track with large numbers of cars. You get less derailments, less complaints and l get to spend less time on the computer making excuses ) When you body mount you overide the the weight of the car and are adding a new mechanical dynamic to the process when you go around a curve. Pull a truck and your center of gravity is lower, pull a body and you are going to pull the wheels off the rail as the end of the car swings out. There's even some math I'm not clever enough to figure out that proves this point...so you will have to take my word on it. We do offer the option of trucks without couplers and 905's for the purists. I prefer them to be honest and am willing to live with my cars coming of the rails from time to time...but that's me and any one who knows me knows I don't know a lot..ask my kids.. At this point I'm planning on having the center wheel a traction tire without a flange so it operates on flex track better. Nothing worse than an expensive loco hopping the track and hitting the floor below...I don't want that headache. So, I hope I laid your fears to rest, no grand plot to force you to do things my way...they don't usually work for me, why would I force you to do the same ) Cheers Joe
Hi, Joe I hope you didn't take my comments personally - they were never meant for you. More for "decision makers" in the company you work for. I really appreciate your efforts and the position you find yourself in. As an engineer, I have spent my life being brought into line by bean counters and marketing types I can also easily understand the reasons why MTL makes some of the decisions - it is just that I don't necessarily like all of them :zip: but hey, I don't own the company :teeth:, just buy their product and have few alternatives ... Chris
Chris No harm no foul...never take this stuff personally. I now know what it feels like to be a Salmon swiming upstream sometimes!! ) Joe
Joe, I'm with you. For the past eight years, I've been a salmon at the base of the Niagara Falls. Half of the time, I feel like the majority of an engineers job is just to get other peoples bad decisions to work. Dan S.
I got my gp7 yesterday! The first thing i did was to add the "dummy couplers". The mounting patent of this was not too clever. One of the small "dot`s" that should snap right into the side of the engine brake, so i had to apply some glue to make it stay secure. Then i had to straighten the handrails. The next thing that i noticed was the ugly look of the truck`s, my conclution: the truck`s need to be painted! Another problem with the truck`s is the fact that when the engine comes out from an curb the truck`s stay in a turning posistion! That look`s weird! The truck`s also seems to be a future problem when it comes to mantenance, but i`ll deal with that when the problem occurs. Next step: DCC. As far as i could se, this engine was "DCC ready" by the means of 6 soldering point`s. Conclution when i installed the decoder the AZL way. I got a runner. I compared my installation with the instructions and it was installed right? So i decided to DCC it my way, that worked just fine untill i managed to destroy the decoder (my bad ) i got some time to test run it on my track before i broke the decoder. The engine is SMOOOOOOTH!!!! WOW It is so silent! Exept for when it short on my curbed M turnouts:embarassed:, but i guess that is my fault ( or märklin ) It is a strong puller, and i tested it with 11 cars up my WERY steep grade! Almoust no wheel slipping! Some other notes.. It seem`s to be some small chip`s of paint on various plases, but i don`t mind that:shade: GOOD ENGINE!:shade:
henrikH, About the trucks wanting to stay curved after a bend, do you think this could be the wheel gauge being too narrow? Do you have a MT gauge to check it? Just curious.
No i don`t have a MT gauge but i will get one, because i think the reason it short in the turnout`s is that it is out of gauge. But that don`t cause the truck problem. If you see the pic`s that Robert have taken you will understand what i meen.
Or acually the pic`s that Robert have taken don`t show the problem too well. I will take pictures tomorrow
