Kline/Lionel SP GS-4 Daylight... Thoughts?

I got more of the impression from his comment that because they're toy trains, we shouldn't be comparing mechanical and cosmetic features with the prototype they're based on.

 

Well, without a doubt the absolute BEST model of the SP GS-4 available within the last 6 months, has been, and still is, the Sunset/3rd Rail model! Yes, it even has the CORRECT whistle & air horn, plus is 4-chuffs per revolution. Although I never use smoke, since it screws up the weathering and scenery, I did test the smoke on the 3-Rail model, and it produced smoke very well. However, since this model is SCALE, you better have large curves, i.e. 072 or LARGER.

 

Concerning Daylight passenger cars, the ONLY correct passenger cars produced for 3-Rail within the last 2 or 3 years, have been the Golden Gate Depot full Daylight passenger train set, plus add-on articulated chair cars and regular chair cars, thus able to have a 12, 13, or 14 car truly scale Daylight passenger train.

 

For what it's worth, Sunset/3rd Rail offered their GS-4 models in both black, and red & orange, and in different road numbers. I elected to go with the black version since I model in the mid-1950s. I had to have some paint & lettering changes done to the tender, but it is a spectacular model! 

Gentelmen, please clock in and get your company hat and overalls please. Then meet me at the round house in front of old # 104 as we call here.Bring your lunch and a cool beverage cause we will be working all day till about dark.With all the set outs and pick ups. plus the brewery run we have quite the tight schedule ahead of us. Lets just say it's going to be a long hard day.pay? What pay! Were not getting payed today. Sorry guys. Thats friday. Hey has anyone seen our fireman? Oh buy the way make sure you follow company policy. Bob was caught running between two cars while one was moving backwards and they docked his pay and put two points against his safety record. Just saying! Work smart out there ok! IF this sounds like work to anybody and not just having fun with some model trains in your man cave train room. then(ding! ding! ding!) your right!! I for one like to leave work at work. I do not want my hobby to seem like I am at work! I just want to escape real life if only for a while and be a ten year old again. playing with his lionel trains! I understand some like to emulate prototypical rr practice in there so called operating sesions. But some times we adults take this hobby way to seriously!! I 1950 when we were kids did we care if the lionel gg1 had the write shade of green or that the drive rods of the semi scale hudson were correct. Probably not! We just couldn't wait to bug dad to buy us one for our birthday or christmas. Or take us to the train store to buy it with our lawn mowing money. Now were all grown up at look at what we have become!

Sounds like fun to me. That's what I do with the other part of my hobby--running trains (for free) all day long as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a railroad museum.

Keeping in mind that the GGD cars (which I do own and love) are missing the unique flush diaphragms of the prototype.  I understand the engineering challenges to replicate that on the GGD cars, although last I heard (which was quite a while ago) that Scott Mann was looking into contracting that out to another 3rd party and offer it as a customer add-on upgrade.  Never did hear what happened to that one way or the other.

 

Other than that, you've got it right.  You're not going to see a more accurate, mass-produced Daylight passenger car set in recent history.

Scott did come through with the full-width diaphragms for all the articulated cars (the diner and the chair cars), which really look great when in place. If you didn't get any of those, you might want to contact Scott.

Thanks for the update on that Hot Water, I seemed to have missed that.  How well do they work from a functional perspective?  Any significant constraints to be aware of, including if it possibly impacts O-72 operation?

They work just fine on my layout (072 minimum). I had been experimenting with them first, by just placing them in position between their respective articulated sections, i.e. I didn't peel off the protective covering on their "sticky tape". They worked very. I did discover however, that if you install them by using the "stick tape" on BOTH front & back of each diaphragm, which then attaches them to EACH articulated car section, you then can NOT take THAT particular articulated off your layout. Since I keep various passenger train car sets packed in special long Rubber Maid tubs (long enough for 10 to 12 21" long cars, for traveling to shows, I did NOT attach BOTH sides of the diaphragms. I let one end float freely against the face of it's respective car end, but since the "sticky tape" on the other end keeps the whole diaphragm in place, it all works out pretty well. 

I would offer that most scale discussion take place on this sub-forum, not the 3RS sub-forum. This sub-forum serves as a general catch-all forum.  It also is the most read of all the sub-forums, so when folks have something to post, regardless of model size, it usually ends up here.

 

This comes from the sticky at the top of the 3RS sub-forum, "The very basic that separates 3RS from 3 Rail is the concepts of fixed pilots and scale couplers."

 

Thus, folks with scale engines who can live with either the "lobster-claw" couples or swinging pilots, usually post of this sub-forum not the 3RS one.

 

Jim

 

p.s. Anyone looking for a semi-scale engine, the K-Line looks pretty sweet!

I have the K-Line K3688-4449CC, I'm pretty happy with it, and it has a nice level of detail.  I use it with my MTH Premier SP Daylight passenger set.

 

I don't think it compares to something like the 3rd Rail model, but it's a pretty nice locomotive.