FYI to other O-gauge BR/CB&Q Fans:
Last Saturday I picked up some O-gauge models that I had on order for
my personal use.
The MTH E6 ABA are really nice. They have the E7 paint scheme with
silver smooth bodies, black nose stripes, single upper and lower red
side stripes, silver trucks, and road numbers #9996 A&B and #9997 A
(the Q never had any prototype units with these numbers, so they work
well with the E6, which the Q wanted but was not allowed by the WWII
restrictions to buy). The model has powered A units with flashing
Mars light and smoke. The ProtoSounds 2 system has neat station
announcements, including American Royal arriving at Galesburg (there
may be alot more that the new DCS control system can access, but I
have not have DCS). The DCS remote has a mike that lets you make
your own announcements if you want to buy DCS for extra $350 (not me
at this time). The dealer tested the set for me and found
a "lurching" in the lead A unit truck, so he swapped it out with
another one from another set.
I passed on the accompanying 70' SMOOTH side passenger car set.
These models have silver bodies with silver trucks and
with "Burlington" on the letter boards and various "Silver" names
under the windows. MTH used their SMOOTH side Pullman-Standard
streamlined molding instead of their RIBBED side P-S molding, which
look too un-Zephyr like for me (I could have lived with the RIBBED P-
S based Zephyr models). In all fairness to MTH, I did notice in Mike
Spoor's "CB&Q in Color" V2 or V3 a photo of CB&Q's former NCL smooth
P-S observation car repainted in silver (no "Silver" names) and
attached to silver heavyweights, so this does provide a reasonable
prototypical basis for these models. Anyone considering these should
look and decide for themselves. My O-gauge Zephyr fleet is just
getting large enough that I must get choosy before I run out of
space.
I also picked up MTH RailKing die-cast reefers for Banner, Century
Beer, Swift Silverleaf, and Chicago Macaroni that are right out of
the BB on billboard reefers.
Picked up a couple of FWD reefers from Red Caboose that are yellow
with brown ends/tops in only 2 of 4 road numbers. They look very
nice.
Also picked up 4 road numbers of the 12 available for the CB&Q
composite coal hoppers from Weaver Models. These are mineral red
(brown ?) with white lettering. Script "Way of the Zephyrs" on one
side and "Everywhere West" on the other. The standard plastic trucks
had the frames also painted red/brown (very nice touch), but I had
them replaced with the black die-cast trucks for smoother operation
and to add some more weight.
I am an individual BRHS member and am not in the either the model
supply or railfan supply business. I do show up at BRHS meets, train
meets, and hobby stores and buy CB&Q items for my own individual
use. I belive this post is consistent with the BRHSlist commercial
post policy.
Thanks,
Bill H.
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