For your enjoyment a video we shot last night at the NYSW event at the NJ Hi-Railers. The Mega Motor City Express consists of 2 powered Legacy CSX SD80MACs and FORTY Lionel 89’ Auto Racks.
The video has several views of the train, one of which has a not so happy ending.
Some thoughts on the Auto Racks:
- They’re light for their size. Twenty-five ounces each. I added one ounce of sticky weighs above each truck to cut down on the bouncing. The first time I ran them (without the weight) they came around a corner, leaned out, snagged on a stanchion and ripped the stanchion right off the bridge. You can’t run these things too fast.
- They’re fragile. My first batch arrived with 3 door brackets broken off. See picture 1. The second batch which I just received didn’t have any. Hope that’s a good sign for their future.
- They don’t like to back up. The couplers are articulated to allow them to cut sharp corners while still be fairly close together. Twice I backup them up at more than a crawl and they derailed, accordioned and the coupler sheared off. Twice! You would think I would have learned my lesson after once. The coupler is held on with a plastic pin. Seems to be a weak point. And of course Lionel is out of stock on them. Maybe they replaced one too many already? See picture 2.
- I am glad they added some new road names with new colors. I was getting tired of yellow and brown.
- And finally the new boxes still say rotating bearing caps but they still don’t have them.
. Great video if I didn't know the layout I'd say the curves need to be wider!
