I've had it for a while and I thought that I would perhaps do a review on this wonderous trolley. I apologize for no photographs as I lost my camera over a year ago. I'm still looking for it. But we shall proceed. The subject in focus is the Custom Run (Out of Production) CTA Green Hornet(s) #22 Wrigley Field (and Field Museum). I am refusing to mention the custom run people because they teamed up with a forum that I dislike. But I digress. The first thing that I noticed right away was the cream and the green were incorrect for the Green Hornet Paint. They seem too dark and too light, depending on the angle. Being that the Last Surviving True Green Hornet is at Illinois Railway Museum (The one in Kenosha, WI is a former Toronto Unit), I was very disappointed at the paint. However, it is still very clean and very crisp. My subject that arrived was #51 Wrigley Field. This is the one that I wanted to add to my collection, even though I model the Pacific Northwest. One of the major flaws that sticks out to me, but may not be noticeable to most people is the body. You see the Aristocraft Prototype was based on the Phase 1 Body style of the PCC when they first came out. The only CTA Units to be Phase 1 in the prototype body was painted Green and White, not in Green Hornet colors. The True Green Hornet was a longer style body with 3 sets of doors. One in the Front, 2 in the middle and 3 at the back. I have been told that this was supposedly the "Phase 3" style body. However only someone like me, or a PCC fan or a CTA fan will take notice of that. So I shall not hold it against Aristocraft. The windows are very well done, but I would like to have seen the bar ridges painted. Another visual drawback is the trolley pole. Now, yes, this does function for overhead power (Switch between overhead and track power is underneath the unit), the string that represents the wire.... lays flat. It's fabric. It's not even retractable. This to me feels like a visual cop out. Something Aristocraft is good at in these past recent years. Next we move onto the doors. The doors are misaligned. Paint stripes are not matching up. On mine it's not as noticeable as it is on others. The doors, which are sprung with an awkward spring system, do not open fully due to hitting the steps inside the car. They also do not close properly either. So becareful when opening the shell to install figures. We move from the outside in. To begin, we start with shell disassembly. This is very easy. There are 4 screws, 2 near each truck. You unscrew and CAREFULLY seperate the shell. The back of the trolley has a pigtail wire plug that plugs into the frame. Carefully disconnect the plug and remove the shell fully. I would like to note that out of the 6 screws on the bottom (2 for the DCC port cover), 4 of them came from the factory with stripped heads. I had to have my local distributor strip the screws and install new ones. But inside we see metal hand poles and rails. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT stand the trolley on these metal poles, they are not strong enough. http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips12/pcc_tips.html shows you how to flip it upside down on a set of 2x4's for easy maintenance. Inside is a little disappointed with the seats. I found that my LGB Figures, even if I sawed their legs off wouldn't fit. So you have a couple options here. 1:30 or 1:29. I wouldn't go 1:32 scale on figures as they wouldn't look right. Aristocraft and the seller of my custom run sells a bundle pack of figures for the trolley. Or you can search for 1:30 figures on everyone's most "favorite" auction site. Up underneath the shell is the lighting system for the interior along with the tail/brake lights for the trolley. The only complaint here is the super bright/blue LED lights. To Aristocraft, I ask you, What were you thinking? Cool Warm LED Lights is the way to go here. However, you don't have to replace the LEDs, especially if you're a really bad solderer like I am. I took the hint from GIRR and a few others regarding how to change the lights over: Orange Tissue Paper tucked over the circuit board and just under the windows. One of them went so far as to paint the upper portion of the window edge black to prevent light from seeping in. It gave the desired effect. But that is for interior, not for the headlight, which also is way too bright. So now we flip the unit upside down and remove the cover that covers the DCC Port. Again, Aristocraft is given a negative mark. They have a policy regarding keeping spaces large enough for aftermarket DCC systems. They broke that rule here. I have experimented with the Train Engineer Revolution Decoder in my larger GP40's. But on the trolley, I decided to just use a standard QSI DCC/Sound Decoder. It wouldn't fit. Not without modification of the port, anyways. Just to big. Why Aristocraft would do what they did is beyond me. A standard Train Engineer Revolution Decoder system fit perfectly, but I still had to wiggle some room around to make it fit. Problem is, I like the QSI/GWire setup. Because of the ability to mix and match sound effects via my computer. I can simulate an F3 with a 645 Prime Mover upgrade if I like. But on this trolley, well, Aristocraft didn't think this one out. And performance has it's woes too. Yes, lets discuss "Performance." The PCC utilizes a brand new power truck system. It's loud and noisey. To me it sounds like it's power surging which can burn out the motors. On the real PCC, sound was quieter because of a noise reduction and shock system they used (Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do remember reading about that somewhere). Here the model feels sluggish. It only tops out around 45 Scale Miles, which is okay for a PCC. I've had no struggles on radii. The trolley took 2 foot to 6 foot no problem. It can turn tight, although the swing out on anything smaller than 6 foot leaves a lot to be desired, but I've never had an issue with bumpage of adjoining tracks. When you slow the trolley down, the brake lights are supposed to come on. I rarely get it to happen even at the correct speeds, but it's not something I'm going to nit pick. Overall. I feel that the Trolley's Negatives Outweight the Positives. I want to sit here and tell you to save your money. I know as one of the many people who waited patiently for their PCC (Me a little more because of the roadname and number) that the ultimate disappointment when our PCC's arrived made the joyous moment a tad bittersweet. But I will not sit here and say "Don't buy it." Because it is, despite it's flaws, a solid rendition of a prototype model. Yes the headlights are wrong in color and the doors don't function, but attention was paid to the actual PCC. So overall they did do a fairly decent job. I will make the decision to purchase one up to you, the reader of this review. Do not take my positives or criticisms as seriously as if they were life and death. In fact don't think of them as criticisms or positives. Think of them as a guide. A guide to help you make the decision on whether or not you want this little gem to run down your line. I know that through it all, I still enjoy my PCC and it's got a welcome spot on my roster and will forever run around my Christmas tree annually as of this year. I will say this in closing, however. I do intend to pickup the last of this custom run, Field Museum. I was going to collect every road name that had a Chicago trolley name on it, but overall, I don't think for the money that I will personally be doing that anymore despite some of the flaws. I will finish my custom run collection, however, and have a pair of them running around the Christmas Tree in 2012. And if you're all lucky, and I find my camera, I will take some video shots of it running around said tree. -DragonFyreGT aka Snowball aka Nate
