Today I received my new MKT SD70ACe from Charles Ro.
If you think you might want one of the beautiful engines run don't walk to your usual place of train purchase and get it done. I had all but given up hope to have Lionel make this engine in this paint scheme but when I saw it listed in the 2016 catalog I ordered it immediately. This is the only UP Heritage paint scheme I had an interest in and after a very long 11 month wait it has arrived.
The paint is perfect. It appears to be either a matte or satin finish...not shiny at all. Perfect. The smoke unit produces what I think is far more volume than any other AF SD70 or ES44 I own. Maybe it's a new version smoke unit. The sound recordings are outstanding as you might expect from Legacy Railsounds. It seems to me that the 5 chime horn recording differs slightly from my earlier SD 70 horn recordings. It seems slightly more "distant?" but still sounds great. The volume control is set at max. I'm not complaining...just noting a difference. One difference from the above catalog artwork is that the radiator exhaust fan round grill covers are painted black and not red like shown in the illustration. Who knows...maybe the 1:1 engine has black fan grills? All functions work as designed and I had it pulling a train of 15 cylindrical hoppers and an AM MKT wood-sided caboose (it is my railroad) with ease.
Again, if you are a Katy fan or just want to own all of the UP Heritage engines ( the WP is also available now) do not fail to order this engine. I'm sure they will never be run again! Tomorrow I'll take some pics and post them on this forum.
Mark
