California Zephyr Dreamin'

Beautiful vid!

 

Also like the degree of superelevation in the curve - how much is that outside rail elevated?

 

...gregg

Golly - those are pretty.  Thanks Erik.  Can you post some stills of those 'Aspen Leafs'?

       

       


Hopefully tonight!

Need to get them off the D4

Here are some iPhone snap shots...

Looking at the most recent trends on Atlas-O's shipping matrix, it appears Atlas-O ships to their dealers approximately 6-8 weeks AFTER the products ship from China.

 

6 weeks for stuff shipping from China last June-September, but 8 weeks for the shipment on December 21st.

 

If the CZ observation shipped from China on Feb 17, 2015... let's assume 8 weeks to account for the West coast backlog of incoming containers.  That puts us at April 17 for Atlas-O shipping to dealers.

 

In my case, I pre-ordered one of these jewels from The Public Delivery Track... which means mine may come from a shipment racking up extra miles by being routed BACK to California... then back here to PA.    Some days I wish the importers would just drop-ship from their warehouse (in this case NJ) to consumers.  That would save almost an extra two weeks in transit time for this scenario.  

 

So I'm betting an early-May ETA when an Atlas-O CZ domed observation car officially makes its way onto my roster.    That's assuming everything else related to shipping goes smooth as silk.

 

Beautiful video and pics, by the way! 

 

David

THANK YOU DAVID!

California Zephyr in all her glory, "The Silver Lady" exactly as her designers intended her to look!

Rio Grande's "Aspen Leaf" was the California Zephyr paint scheme and a very short lived one for sure; impossible to keep clean but truly interesting. Seeing it with the cars is a remarkable sight.

The Atlas O cars are very okay. I am not totally thrilled with the dome; it is chunky somehow and to Atlas's credit they tried very hard to correct the test shots a blown up HO BLI model. I sent them a Midland dome casting (never got it back despite asking)..I am grateful they worked out the kinks for sure! Still the dome is a complex compound curved nightmare that is not easily captured. I wish the stirrup and some other detailing would have been a little finer and not so "thick, heavy" HO blown up to O scale size? With some modifications and I think they are exceptional models.

Thanks to Jeff I once again for the 2nd attempt to photo an Atlas CZ I used a Midland Reproductions kit.

Who let that one in here!

Those pesky Kadee's!

Jeff's factory is a sight to behold; steals the show towering over the trains running below on the mainline.

Were Midwestern's throughout and enjoy anything Iowa to Colorado; even some Chicago action too. Both Jeff and I are from the same region. I was born and raised in Western Iowa near Souix City and Jeff was from Lincoln, Nebraska. Mike is from Washington, the real Washington in Cascadia.

Both Jeff and I have the exact same interest in era and roads. Often times we connect with one another to create models the same but differing road numbers and or paint work. So far we have both covered a lot of ground; a rare task in O scale.

Prototype photo courtesy: (c) Neil Miller

Erik, thanks for the well-shot videos and photos--that is a LOT of train!

Your welcome Carl!

Glad you enjoy them.

       
       



Thanks Gregg

Awesome stuff Erik!

Always a treat!  Thanks

Great Howard! Wish your son would stop in a meeting sometime. Busy guy!

Looks like you run these under DC, I've always wonder why not install DCC to such amazing engines?

 

Nice to see you come back to the zephyr posts! Keep them coming! 

 

Can't wait for Atlas' observation car!

       
       


Too expensive for me man! DCC big bucks!

Not a very discerning modeler here - I like the Midland Repro cars better than the Atlas.  The railroad and factory are of course world- class.

       
       


I think I prefer the MR cars too. Atlas are nice too. Keep in mind the MR cars are too wide. Ron was telling me what a headache that was back in 1984.

Eric, as always, I enjoyed your shots and trains.

 

Ron 

Eric - Great pictures and videos from a confirmed Zephyr fan.  I too am from northwest Iowa and spent 4 years in Omaha watching all the UP power parade going west.  Spent time in Wichita also, but even though I love the Santa Fe, you can't beat Union Pacific.  Time spent on their mainline west out of Omaha has made me a UP fan for life.

 

Art

Thank you Art-

I need to do this more often.

Too wide, huh?  You mean too wide because the track gauge is also too wide, and that's why the trucks look better?  

 

Mine are all Mac Shops, Kasiner, and K- Line - never thought to measure the width. 2 5/8"  would be about right for 17/64 scale.

The real O scale

Bob your an excellent friend and master of the hobby

Hey, all these beautiful trains are missing the third rail

You know it! Third rail or bust!

I say convert these things to high rail!

Thats right, you two rail guys got all confused with your "model railroading" and realistic operations. The third rail powers the FUN!!!

       
       


Yeah! The entire model railroad industry is on its head! "T" through "G" gauge heck even 7.5" gauge, HO, N, S, they all missed out by leaving out the 3rd rail!

A little review but worth adding to the post. My 4 stripe units are awfully pretty too.


R.I.P.  "Colorado Midland Model Railway" 1935-2013

What a pretty train!

Anybody want to add to this post Western Pacific, CB&Q???

Erik. This post and your others been great to follow. Not only have I been learning things. But you been planting many ideas for projects.  Although I am planning a new layout that will be in my garage that doubles my current space and will retire carpet central from hell layout. You really have me seriously considering changing from 3R scale to 2R now. Its a good thing I have kept all the 2r wheel sets from conversions of rolling stock to 3RS. This place can be a bad influence, but keep it up.

 

Doug

Bob Meyer sent these over..

Thanks Bob for adding in some WP CZ action

Wow a beautiful train. Sometimes I think the WP F's look the finest on the CZ.

Bloopers Reel
More trouble with mixing the Midland kits with Atlas. 35 plus year old model does sit way high. Not sure if that's a truck thing or not.. The CZ Midland kits I have used Roger Lewis's Wasatch trucks and I am certain they sit at NMRA height.

You can really see the lighting upgrade on my ATSF PA set. Look at the interior; 16 bulbs per unit just like the 1:1 prototype! FM only installed 4 in each engine room on the regular production models. Thanks Gary!

I just love PA's!

More of Bob Meyer's spectacular Western Pacific CZ!