3rd Rail Presents the SF 2900 Class 4-8-4

I received an email last Thursday, by request, from Sunset/3rd Rail, as I had some travel plans and wanted the locomotive shipped when I would be home.

The locomotives were to have been delivered last Friday, and the plan was to ship them out to customers this week.  Sounds good to me.

Tom

WOOHOO.

My CC was just charged!   They must be shipping!

I just got an email from 3rd Rail that says "IN STOCK NOW"!

Did you Santa Fe boys catch this from Alan H on the 2 rail board?

3rd Rail posted some new projects.  The only one I remember (as the other ones involved lesser railroads) is the 1953 Super Chief.  I sure hope that Scott gets lots of support for it as it is not an easy project with three different (Budd, Pullman and ACF) cars in the mix.

I sent my payment to Scott today.  My invoice just arrived on the 12th.   I can't wait! 

Does anybody else keep checking the forum to see if anybody else has received theirs first?

I am!

A shipping notice will do.

Speaking of the devil!!!!!!  I just opened my email account to find a shipping notice!

Woohoo!  I just got a shipping notice too!

UPS is threatening to deliver mine on Tuesday.

My email said that the shipping label was created on the 16th.  By now, if it had been picked up, it should have been scanned at the inbound sorting, so I would say the brown truck will get it moving on the 17th.  Maybe it'll be in a piggyback trailer out of North Bay (Richmond, CA) on the evening of the 17th and will follow the prototypical route.

Tom

Departed San Pablo at 3:15 this morning.  Not sure whether San Pablo on UPS translates into North Bay on BNSF, but I will keep my fingers crossed that the 2929 is currently flying down the Valley on Clear block signal indications, aimed straight at the Tehachapi mountains.

After nothing but silence since departing San Pablo, the 2929 came up for air, finally, at Albuquerque just after lunch today.  That makes it almost a certainty that, over the weekend, it was raising dust while speeding through Boron, Cadiz, Seligman, Holbrook, Fort Wingate, and Grants  I can't think of anything more appropriate.

It's 5 hours by Interstate 40, from Albuquerque to Amarillo, so I'll be standing at attention with a box cutter tomorrow.

Hi Everyone,

Please guys, some photos and a brief review of these new models would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

Well, the 2916 made it to the East Coast.  Must've used the Erie out of Dearborn.   If anyone has any suggestions for an accurate passenger consist, please share.  I will try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

Well, the 2916 made it to the East Coast.  Must've used the Erie out of Dearborn.

I think mine is on the NYO&W.

The truth is there is no accurate passenger consist available for any Santa Fe engine in 3 rail.

That is why #90, and I and others from time to time try to get 3rd rail to produce and accurate Santa Fe heavyweight coach.  If you could have some of those and mix them with some accurate Pullman cars, you would have a representative consist.

Two of the telling traits of a (there are others and it depends on the car) Santa Fe heavyweight coach are the channel along the bottom and steam ejector air-conditioning equipment on the roof.

That said, here is a compilation of the consists of Santa Fe passenger trains.

http://www.atsfrr.com/resource...t/Consists/Index.htm

Mine is due in tomorrow. Anyone get delivery yet? Or is that why no one is posting, to busy running the 2900?

I posted some pics of mine in the 2-rail forum.  Unfortunately, I have to repair the coupler on the tender before creating any more pictures or videos.

So my wife just called me at work saying a box arrived from Sunset/3rd Rail and  it looks like it's been run over by a truck.   Says it is crushed right across the middle.

After about 5 min of me going OMG what am I going to do, she says "KIDDING!  It looks perfectly fine!"

So not nice!   And it isn't even April Fool's Day.

I'd love to see the gigantic flanges of yesteryear go away...far away!

Just think how much better looking all those steamers would be, and I'm

not even a steam guy anymore.  Anyway, I'm running a MTH 2/3 FM

Train Master on Real trax 072 with NO issues.  Let's get rid of the huge

flanges NOW!

I always love it when my UPS tracking info says:

"An exception in the sorting process has occurred.  UPS has taken corrective action."

Tomorrow?

Marker,

I logged into UPS with your tracking # and re-routed your engine to my house! 

So what's the next ATSF (or SP)steam locomotive we can petition 3rd Rail to produce?

Why....  the Prairie of course!

Put me down for a Prairie.

ChipR

Sounds good to me.

Prairie ..... Prairie ..... Prairie

Well....  I just got home and opened my loco...

My wife was correct.   What started as her being funny turned out to be sadly true.   My 2900 was destroyed by UPS.

Not to mention the now baggy filled with broken brass bits that I've yet to find where they broke off from.

Wow!   Scott rocks!

He's already informed me that a replacement is on the way!   

Wow, that stinks. Scott puts all that effort into making a beautiful locomotive only to have it destroyed by a careless shipping company.  But, as usual it seems, Scott is on top of it and taking care of his customers.  The worst part is that you have to wait that much longer to enjoy your locomotive.

Ouch, Trevize.  That engine really did get a brutal Wabashing.  And it had to happen to you, of all people, who we all know really appreciates Santa Fe.  At least it was ordered from the right company.  That is genuine customer service.

Santa Fe repaired a very similar 3776 Class 4-8-4 that turned over at high speed on the Arizona Division in the 1940's, and nobody would ever have known that it was wrecked.  I'll bet Scott and the Sunset/3rd Rail wizards can do the same on the one you send back.

Tom

Well Trevize, you had me sweating it out.  I had to put on Otto Perry's Santa Fe and watch a few 2900 Class runbys.  I fell asleep only to waking up at the end of the video, to the sound of UPS at the door.  The box didn't look bad but I held my joy until I opened the box and inspected the engine.

Seeing the 3rd Rail Santa Fe MASTERPIECE in front of me, I then felt so bad your engine didn't survive.    Oh well, you'll really appreciate the next one!

Oh wow that is sad to have such a nice masterpiece smashed up.

That is horribly disappointing. I had a guitar amp I bought shipped from Texas. It was basically brand new before it left. When it arrived it had a 1.5 inch hole through the box and through the back of the speaker baffle. That was disappointing too. Shipping insurance paid for it, and I got a new amp. Scott is a great person with which to do business.

Now I have a question. Just what diameter must a curve be before a larger-flanged engine Pony truck can swing without banging into the cylinders?

The replacement arrived today and it is perfect!   Huge smiles!

Good to hear Trevize.  A GREAT engine I'm sure you will enjoy.

So take it to the club and break it in, with videos of course!

Very good news, Trevize.  It's a testament to Sunset/3rd Rail/Golden Gate customer service.

The proof is in the performance.

Tom

BMHRC moved :-(

It used to be a solid hour plus drive before they moved and now it is nearly 2 hours away.  It also made sense that we are finally settled in our new house and I'm building my own layout now too.   So no more BMHRC videos of Santa Fe invading the Boston themed club!  :-)

I've got a good mount of the main yard track down now and am about to start the main line around the walls.   Soon as I get a mainline operational I'll certainly put up some vids.

I try be a reliable source of information on this Forum, using precise terminology and avoiding shooting from the hip, but I must take my foot out of my mouth over a hasty reply.

I previously replied to a post about the color of the smokebox front on Santa Fe 4-8-4's that a few were painted black, right at the end.  However, I subsequently consulted the preeminent living authority on that subject and he assures me that none of the 4-8-4's ever received a black smokebox front while in service.

A few of almost every other class still active in 1951-57 did, but not the 4-8-4's.

It was just money.  An engine being painted that was going into storage but would be used again later often received black on the smokebox front, because the painter could just keep spraying and it only took a few minutes.  The intention was to graphite the smokebox front later, when the engine was being prepared to be put back into service.  Sometimes that never was done, because the graphite had to be mixed and applied with a brush, and was labor intensive, adding expense to a marginally productive engine that would never again work year-round.

The graphite coating did not wash up well, and often was dirty enough to look black, especially in photographs.  Santa Fe kept its passenger steam engines pretty clean right to the end, but began to slack off on washing the freight steam as its service time neared an end.

I apologize for the misinformation.  Hope nobody sprayed black paint on the front of their 4-8-4 because of it. 

Tom

I just saw mine at Engine House Hobbies. Looks nice, sounds great, err tmcc works well, smoke was excellent and in sync.

The only issue was pilot missing its screws and a small part was broken into 6 pieces; however, I could not identify what part had broken. still a beautiful engine and I am very pleased  with it.