You'll need to open the cars to replace those LED boards with something better and add a few more passengers otherwise your railroad will go bankrupt from lack of passenger revenue and you'll have to paint them in Amtrak
Except in the O universe, passengers don't produce revenue but rather are a capital expenditure of about a 60¢ each. Maybe if you carry enough, you lose on each one but make it up on volume.
My 2005 K-line 21" Santa Fe Hi-levels are now officially superseded.
Laidoffsick said:
Maybe cuz mine have a little dust on them now, but these look super nice.
Try swifters for removing dust on passenger cars. They are anti-static and absolute safe over fine details and windows. If they don't clean, there is more than dust accumulation.
Woodshire Bill posted:My 2005 K-line 21" Santa Fe Hi-levels are now officially superseded.
Laidoffsick said:
Maybe cuz mine have a little dust on them now, but these look super nice.
Try swifters for removing dust on passenger cars. They are anti-static and absolute safe over fine details and windows. If they don't clean, there is more than dust accumulation.
That was just a little sarcasim on my part. My stuff gets dusted off quite often. I meant because I have been waiting for the 2nd run for so long. 
Jeez Doug, stop being so offensive
Mine come Tuesday, I'll have to bust out some of the new haulers to put em in. I guess I got 6 more cars for some reason I thought it was only 5. That puts my hauler situation off kilter. I think I need to order a set of Alcos from 3rd Rail too
Laidoffsick posted:Gweedo posted:My El Capitan came today. Wow really nice cars. The vestibule has come off on a few of the cars. What would be a good glue to use to put them back on? Man these cars are sweet.
I wouldn't glue them on. If you ever need to open the cars, they have to come off.
Oh not actually the vestibule came off. It was the rubber part on the vestibule and a few of the silver things on the end of the rubber parts. Just used a little super glue and all is good. Had one of the LED boards hanging loose in the baggage dorm car. That was quite an adventure getting the car apart to get at the board to put a screw in and put it back up on top. Now kind of wish I would have ordered a few more cars. Three cars short of a twelve car set.
Finally got the chance to open the boxes and take a look at my first ever Sunset/3rd Rail purchase. This post reflects my initial thoughts, as I haven't yet removed the styrofoam in the trucks and diaphragms or run them. I'll do a fuller review at some point in the near future.
First impression:
Optics have a way of making an initial impression. From the outer packing to the individual boxes in which each El Capitan passenger car is carefully packed in styrofoam and plastic wrap tied with red string, the whole thing screams 'quality.'
Each car exterior is a work of art. True, much of this can be credited to the looks of the prototype. But the proportions and details seem right. The vents, the hand-applied details and everything about the sides and top make these cars seem like Sunset found a way to shrink the real cars down from 1:1 to 1:48. And, the weight of these cars is very nice. Overall, very nice looking while sitting on the rails. Turning the cars over, however, I was a little surprised that the undersides have almost no detail. Undersides are, for the most part, flat smooth sheets of metal. I'm not someone who gets overly concerned about the underside of a car, so I'm not out-of-sorts over it. But by the same token, cars at a much lower price point provide some level of underside detail (from Lionel cars with some, to Atlas cars that are incredibly detailed), so this was unexpected.
One small concern I had before this set arrived was that it would basically "blend in" with my Atlas GSC CZ cars, such that my Western passenger fleet would amount to a large monolithic or one-dimensional silver fleet. Well, I set the El Cap cars on the outer main next to my Atlas GSC CZ cars and they are obviously different fleets - even from a distance where you cannot readily see car detail. The metal color of these two fleets are different and, to me, the El Cap set has a more "real metal" looking color.
In terms of the interiors, the varied colors used on the upholstery add a very nice quality touch. Again, it reminds you that these cars are special. The overhead lighting looks like real overhead light fixtures to me, although as someone else noted, the interior lighting doesn't stretch out from end-to-end, leaving the passengers in the last several rows on each end of each car in the dark - maybe this allows them to get "cozy" on long trips? Not a deal-breaker, but certainly an area that could stand some improvement. Overall, this is a very nice set.
In terms of initial issues or questions:
- Several cars have "loose" undersides. The bottom plate is either level with or hangs below the car's side walls. In one case, the plate is so loose, the side walls flex like the car is half-together, as if it were boxed up before they finished putting in and properly tightening all screws. I tried tightening a couple bottom screws but using reasonable torque, the screws do not turn. Not something I'm planning to mess with - not risking screwing things up on a set at this price point.
- I didn't inspect them all, but one of my couplers is problematic. The metal spring thread (sorry, don't know the technical name) seems to be too long or not wound properly and is sticking through the coupler knuckle area. And, this coupler just doesn't function.
- I think the marketing material stated each car has 6 passengers. I have a few that only have 3 or 4 or 5.
- The set comes with two step-down cars, where the diaphragms are high on one side and low on the other. One of these cars obviously sits right behind the unique car, but where in the set would the other car be used, given all other cars have high-level diaphragms?
I'll do a more thorough look when I get the chance and after I speak with Scott about these issues.
Peter
The second step down chair car has s drumhead in the vestibule diaphragm that car goes at the end of the train. These cars were frequently run in mixed consist with the single level Super Chief cars hence the need for 2 step down chair cars
2nd step down is your rear car
If building a combined El Cap/ Super Chief, the SC section couples to this car. I have modified mine so I bought another step down car to use for the combined train.
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Then you can add your PV or RR business car at the end!
Matt and LOS - thanks!
Here are a couple quick photos of the El Cap set, and it happens to be next to the GSC CZ so you can see the color difference.
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The detail (or lack there of) on the underside is correct. With the exception of the head-end cars, the El Cap Coaches, Diner and Lounge cars were flat and smooth on the underside.
Jim, that's good info. As I mentioned, undersides don't mean a whole lot to me - but these seemed odd, only because I don't own any other cars with such nondescript undersides. Thanks for the fact check!
Charlie your answer is yes.... no problem.
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PJB posted:Finally got the chance to open the boxes and take a look at my first ever Sunset/3rd Rail purchase. This post reflects my initial thoughts, as I haven't yet removed the styrofoam in the trucks and diaphragms or run them. I'll do a fuller review at some point in the near future.
First impression:
Optics have a way of making an initial impression. From the outer packing to the individual boxes in which each El Capitan passenger car is carefully packed in styrofoam and plastic wrap tied with red string, the whole thing screams 'quality.'
Each car exterior is a work of art. True, much of this can be credited to the looks of the prototype. But the proportions and details seem right. The vents, the hand-applied details and everything about the sides and top make these cars seem like Sunset found a way to shrink the real cars down from 1:1 to 1:48. And, the weight of these cars is very nice. Overall, very nice looking while sitting on the rails. Turning the cars over, however, I was a little surprised that the undersides have almost no detail. Undersides are, for the most part, flat smooth sheets of metal. I'm not someone who gets overly concerned about the underside of a car, so I'm not out-of-sorts over it. But by the same token, cars at a much lower price point provide some level of underside detail (from Lionel cars with some, to Atlas cars that are incredibly detailed), so this was unexpected.
...
Peter
Peter,
I used to collect old magazines & specifications on the real Santa-Fe Hi-Level cars before Scott imported the first run of these cars & the lower floor on the real cars were only supposed to be 17 5/16” above the top of the rails. That would mean that the underside of these cars would be even closer to the top of the rail. That must not have left much room on even the real cars to have a lot of equipment (or details) on the underside of the cars. Budd used the space above the trucks, under the upper level, at either end of the car for weather-proof enclosures for the air-conditioning equipment, electrical, air-brake equipment, water storage tanks & Caterpillar diesel generators, on each car.
These are just my opinion.
Thanks,
Naveen Rajan
Thanks Doug! Just saw this thread and the video of the northern looks really nice, thank.
"Charlie your answer is yes.... no problem."
Charlie
