Just returned from the store and purchased another legacy locomotive. This is the Lionel Legacy SD70Ace in the New York Central livery. Right out of the box she is one beautiful looking locomotive. She has a shiny coat of paint and those NYC graphics are clear and crisp. As most know in here, the Lionel Legacy locomotives have allot of features that can be activated through the 990 Legacy Control System. Presently, I do not have that system. Thus, I run her on my MTH track in a more or less conventional mode.
She has many of those features we have come to expect from Lionel. Including various grills and grab irons as well as coupler cut bars and highly detailed trucks. She also has moving fan blades and a nicely detailed cab roof with the GPS mounted on top. The fuel tank is also nicely done and rest just above the track as the real one does. Operating ditch lights when you blow the horn as well as various crew talk when you blow the horn with one short blast. The locomotive sounds almost exactly like the real SD70Ace. I like that because it adds dimension and realism to the layout.
I ran her with my auto racks and one GATX tanker and she looks incredibly realistic. The sound is awesome. I really think this locomotive is better then the MTH SD70Ace. Why? Honestly, the paint job and the graphics as well as the sound system bring it all to a level that makes her allot nicer and more realistic in my opinion. I realize not everyone will share in my opinion here, but I thought I would share my initial impressions of this really fine and beautiful locomotive.
I don't believe there are ground lights on this particular locomotive, but if not, that is okay by me. I decided to run her with NO smoke at all. She will be a true Clean burning modern locomotive on my layout. Again, once I get some pictures, I will of course post them up in here. I will not go in any great detail about her because I am sure many in here already know the Legacy locomotive features and how nice they are when running these locomotives. For me, this is it as far as collecting active diesel locomotives. My budget is about dried up, but I have enough left to purchase a CSX AC6000 Non Operating (dummy), diesel. That will be lashed up with my CSX Chessie AC6000 to make a really nice train with those auto racks.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the information and if anyone has any questions of me, please feel free to ask.
Thanks, Pete
