In response to the recent unveiling of the 2020 Volume 2 Lionel catalog, I'm overall impressed with what's being offered.
As a fan of excursion steamers, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see more of the light Mikes, especially no. 4070, ex-Grand Trunk Western that ran on the Cuyahoga Valley Line predating the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. I know these engines are kind of the sleeper steam items in this catalog, and more people are probably going to focus on the new Southern 4501 model instead, but I think it's worth talking about this particular locomotive.
One thing I noticed is that these locomotives will have road name specific details like the 2017 releases did, including different trailing trucks. Though I'm not sure if the trailing truck for the GTW model is the correct. Going by photos of the real 4070, the other trailing truck design (pictured with other road names in the catalog) is the correct version.
The second thing I'm curious about is how they approach the whistle on this locomotive. The last version of the GTW model in 2017 had the more generic Mikado whistle. I understand this locomotive is kind of small potatoes in comparison to Nickel Plate Road's 587 and Southern's 4501, but it would still be great to have it come with a whistle that sounds really close to the 5-chime used on real 4070.
Hopefully, with Lionel going in the direction to update LEGACY RailSounds this year, one of the five different whistles included will match the real locomotive adequately.
