"Quantity Has Its Own Unique Quality" This quote, one of my favorites, is often attributed to any of several historical figures going back to Napoleon, but most often to Joseph Stalin, who said something like this - the exact words are lost - to his generals when they complained to him about the quality of the (many) tanks they had early in WWII.
I posted last week about the pair of new MTH Premier Santa Fe Warbonnet SD40-2s I had pre-ordered from Pat's Trains and how great they were: quality in every way, and with their shiny plating, just spectacular to watch run. As I ran them that that day, I kept thinking that four would look so cool. I managed to get another - his last as it turned out - from Pat early the next morning and spent most of the rest of the day, even with the helf of the "find it" feature on MTH's website, striking out with one retailer after another before locating and buying my fourth unit from Grand Central in Nebraska.
I've seldom seen a better example of how quantity is a unique quality than with these SD40-2s. Two look really good, but four look incredible, and to me, more than two times as impressive as two of them. I'm not sure why, but a long line of identical locos just looks wonderful, at least when they are individually this good. And I have to say that if one is going to have four units, its great when all four have dual motors, when all four have sound, and when all four have smoke. And the lights: what a light show these four big diesels give! This is a most spectacular and impressive set to run. I love them!!!
