Joe, It's great to hear that BN will be one of the roads for the SD40-2. I think BN had more of them than any other loco. John
(I do agree with the above request!) Do you plan to release undec units? I'm thinking about Ferromex/FNM/NdeM paintschemes.... Dom
Mike, The drop in decoders for the MTL GP and new SD series are very simple five minuet opperations. If you plan to order your locos from Loren, ask him to do it, or have him ship them to me and i'll drop them in for you for free, then forward them on to you. It's really very easy. Tony B... Wasatch Z Club
Thanks for your generous offer Tony, I have the loco's just need the push (and time) to DCC, I'll give it a go. Mike.
Hi A question for Joe D’Amato, mainly. Will the MT SD40-2 trucks be put together similarly to the MT F7 ?, ie pressed onto central insulated axle gear muffs ? Is it proposed to use a stepped axle stub on the wheels or a flush one ? How easy would it be to change the wheels for other larger diameter wheelsets ? I’m thinking of the mechanism’s applicability for Nn3 use, in which case the 4.9mm diameter Z wheels might be a little small. Regards Ben
Ben, The Gear Tower is simular to the GP 35-9, so if you have one of those you can see how we did that. As for putting larger wheels in place...it might work, but no guarantees. ) Joe
Thanks for the advice, Joe The critical thing might be the diameter of the axle stubs. I would have gotten a GP35 or 9 by now if I could have worked out what those are (otherwise I will have bought myself a very expensive ornament). ;-) Cheers Ben
July Delivery? The MTL website now has the SD40's for July 2009 delivery?:mooh:laugh: MTL Z Amtrak GP9 locos delayed till next month?
Note that Anthony's site is showing that Motor Springs for the GP35 and GP9 are now available. ...don
I had hoped the SD40-2 would come out sooner, but I'm sure there are factors beyond MTL's control at play. I just ordered some motor springs from Anthony since all too often they fly off into some void or alternate universe. John
Yes John, The factor beyond MTL's control is called China. China does as China wants, when China wants. End of story. MTL is on the end of the whip. They will only move when the whip finally moves. MTL has long been ready with all parts except the chassis,(China's ball) Loren
It mustn't be a problem with China, Joe was just lecturing us about how all MTL tooling is done in the States, and that he keeps local folks employed... and that his competitors send their work overseas at "a fraction of the cost"... so something isn't adding up.
Joe was referring to their injection molding and pad printing operations as well as final assembly. This includes all of the tooling for the injection molding. I believe that their design and engineering is still done in the states. Dan S.
Boy, what ever horrible thing MTL did to you in the past, I'm sorry. It's obvious you're distressed about something. If I closed my eyes (of course I couldn't read your post) it would sound like I was over on the Atlas Forum ) Joe
you said, joe, what i was thinking. WCL is really aggressive with his charges against Micro-Trains. what gives? some people do seem to have a predisposition or loyalty to certain brands or products and thus feel compelled to defend that turf by criticizing what a competitor does. perhaps we should go with a letter designation like they use when interviewing congressman and senators -- putting their party affiliation in parenthesis beneath their name (R - Republican) (D - Democrat). we could use (M - microtrains) or (A - azl) or (F - Freundenriech) or (T) full Throttle) so at least we'd know how to figure where they are coming from. dave f. (M, A, T)
