when these were first announced, i was interested, but wary of the wheel arrangement. i had the PA's with the blind (flangeless) wheel on the interior of each set. this caused the trucks to overhang in my O54 curves and switches so much that the blind wheel visibly and audibly left the track and then rerailed when reaching straight track. my E6's from lionel had the blind wheel in the middle of the set and behaved wonderfully on switches and curves.
i could get no data on what these E9's would have, so i did not preorder.
once they began to arrive i was able to get a read on the wheel sets (all flanged!) and made the decision to get a UP set to head my City of Portland.
alas, by then all my usual sources were out of UP's.
the forum to the rescue. in response to a post asking for sourcing help, TRK pointed me to Nicholas Smith. I had never done business with them, but the online process was clean. i ordered on a friday and had them by the following wed. great price, too. family visitors kept me from doing anything with them until now.
i am not as particular (nor as peculiar, LOL) as lee willis, so the detail looks fine to me and the sounds are good. i probably rode behind them as a kid on the City of Portland, but i can't remember horn details. what is there works for me. as lee points out, the smoke is good.
TRK asked me to post photos and video if i got them. there have probably been enough photos, but i did produce a quick video. it is in HD, so clicking through to Vimeo will probably produce a better experience.
