At 08:11 PM 4/18/01 -0500, M. Thayer wrote:
>That wasn't what I meant . . . I am concerned if Challenger is marketing
>their 4-car 9901/9902 as Twin Zephyr assignments. It just didn't happen.
I do see your point, Marshall. I'm just trying to think of the trains over
their whole service life. When Dick Billings and I were working on the
Fine N-Scale PZ, I brought up the point of 525 being in the consist
briefly, but we decided just to stick to the mostly-known configurations.
I do have the artwork for 9901, 9902 and 9903 drawn up, but haven't made
body panel etchings yet. But now that I've finished the CNC conversion of
my little Sherline milling machine and am working out how to machine the
innards for the Flying Yankee (having done all its cars in solid modeling)
the rest of the first-generation shovelnoses will be just a little
judicious stretching and different cutouts behind the window areas.
But when they're all done, it will be a little bit of a dilemma.
Mix'n'match the cars for specific configurations, or just sell the Twins
with both 525 and 100 and let the buyer choose which (if any) to include in
the consist? And 525 appeared briefly in 9902's consist, according to the
Shovelnose BB.
The Budd strip drawings do show 9901 (as "Sam Houston Zephyr") with 525 and
9902 (as "Texas Rocket Zephyr") with 100, which is where I'm sure I got the
impression that that was their definitive assignments...
The earlier trains look neat with their different car lengths, but the Q
finally got it right with the Mark Twain. All the cars with a consistent
64-foot wheelbase, and the car functions determined before building, make
it look that much more elegant than the other shovelnoses.
Best regards,
Randy (cuckoo about shovelnoses--I still want to do the shovelnose E5
eventually too)
Randy Gordon-Gilmore ,----.___________ ______________ _________________
ProtoTrains // = = === == || == == == = || == == == = == =|
Rio Vista, CA, USA /-O==O------------o==o------------o==o-----------o==o-'
zephyrus@r... http://www.rickadee.net/~zephyrus
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