Skip to main content

I have some comments about the 2nd run Burlington E7's:

 

1.  The side windows have been corrected and they are not painted.

2.  All the things that bothered me about the units like the number boards and the interior not going deep enough into the cab, stopping to the front of the side door, etc do not bother me having one in hand.

3.  I love the single motor drive.  I can't believe how smooth it is.  I have not operated a TMCC engine that runs this smooth and it is mechanically much smoother than Legacy.

4.  I'm very pleased that the headlights are not the horrible plastic lenses that all the other 3 rail (not 3rd Rail) engines have installed.  3rd rail did an excellent job on that.

5. White classification lights, I'm shocked.  It's about time.

6.  I really liked the sound set in the 2 rail version and was prepared to be disappointed in the RS4 sound set.  Luckily one of the better RS4 sound sets is the EMD E unit set.  It did not disappoint.  3rd Rail did a great job executing the sound installation and I was pleased. 

 

The only thing I was slightly disappointed in was that I thought the cab light went out after starting out.  I guess that was only the 2 rail versions.  Since I don't use the smoke units on diesels, I'll disconnect the smoke unit and wire the cab light to the ERR board using the smoke unit connection and control it that way.

 

All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase. 

 

I hope 3rd Rail decides to do more 1st generation diesels like the EMD FT.  As I posted, I'm very happy with this engine and will now have to consider picking up a WP FP7 set for my CZ passenger cars.  For the time being I will be very happy to use the Burlington E's.

 

 

 

 

Last edited by marker

5. White classification lights, I'm shocked.

 

Yeah, I thought something was wrong when I noticed them, I'm so conditioned to see them red or green from what's been put out by so many others.

 

I thought the cab light was suppose to go dark too, I guess it is a 2-rail thing like you say.

 

I ran my E7 thru a couple of RCS 054 switches and curves without it derailing, but it was tight.  Does fine on 072.

 

Side-by-side with the WBB E7 I can see the 1/2" shortened length of the WBB unit (the side window "wind screen" is absent).  Now I have 2 E7s, #3029 and #3039.

 

I have a SAL FTA/B in HO scale, nice engine but I think my next purchase will be a steamer (that N&W K2a sure is nice).

 

Now that 3rd Rail has done some nice plastic diesels, maybe they can do a steamer in plastic.  I wonder if there would be any cost savings?

I have my B&M E-7A unit.  Very pretty.  Do any of you guys know if or where there is a on/off slide switch for the smoke unit?  The manual says it's under the frame on the left side, but there is none that I see marked as such.  Thanks.

 

I have O64 curves.  According to one of the posters above, theirs ran through an O54 switch without derailing, so it should go around through my O64 curves.  I was debating whether or not to remove the front coupler and swap out the pilots.  Should I or shouldn't I?

Bob, I finally got down to the trainroom long enough to play with my E7 and fire it up.  It did go around my O64 curves, but barely.  I wound up removing the front coupler (it's ugly anyway) and installed the solid pilot.  I am now running it on my layout heading up a string of streamlined MTH B&M passenger cars.  Other than that little inconvenience (and I know 3rd Rail would have taken heat from the scale guys if they did the E7 with the swinging pilot), I think 3rd Rail did a nice job. 

I removed the smoke unit.  It was a waste of good space.  I put the project aside for while, but because you can seen in the side engine room windows, I plan to use the room to do some engine room detailing. There are some engine room braces that should show through the windows.  Possibly I will go a bit further.  

 

There are a couple modifications that can be seen in my picture. 

 

I installed sun shades.  

 

I removed the 3rd rail cab light. I used two micro LEDs, locating them on interior cab roof and placed them where the prototype cab lights would have been.  The interior cab lighting is much more natural now. 

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×