*WARNING!* - Do not do this!
Some of you have expressed a concern about the Class A footplate not riding on the tender deck. DO NOT go forcing the footplate down! You can see in the photo below (okay, it is a little fuzzy) that there is a nub on each of the hinges that keeps the footplate in a horizontal manner. If you go trying to force the plate down, you are probably going to break something that is not easy to fix!!!
If you really want to have the footplate ride on the tender deck, you can remove the two screws that are holding the footplate on the locomotive and then you can file that nub off of both hinges to where it is round. Then it should be able to go below horizontal and ride on the tender deck.
A couple of other things that I found when unboxing my A. I noticed that at the turret, on top of the boiler just in front of the cab, some of the piping was missing to this casting. I thought that this was odd.
Then as I turn my engine over, I noticed that lying there was one of the missing pieces that had broken off. Looking in the box, there was the other piece. So, at least I have both of the valves that should be on there.
One other thing that I notice was that on the scale front coupler the link from the front cut lever to the coupler pin was flopping around. Looking it over, This piece of rod just slips back into a hole in the cut lever bracket. It needs to do this in order that the scale coupler can be removed and replaced by the big coupler.
Overall, I am very pleased with this model. As I have stated before it is missing a few details that would make the model stand out even more. Cab curtains, I wonder how they missed those? The rod that needed to go to the whistle in order for it to be blown and the water gauge that belongs on the fireman's side of the tender in order to check the water level.
Lionel did get the injector outlet routed correctly through the beam of the frame.
