The feature set seems a bit visionary to me and it seems like they are moving in the direction of "behavior" ... which makes sense to me as well.
I really like the features on this engine. The water scoop effect is going to look so cool at high speed. Kudos to Lionel!
Years ago I bought a CD titled "Living With Steam - The Sounds of Railroading in Buffalo & Western New York". One of the tracks that I was particularly interested in was of the pacing of train #78 and its Niagara locomotive #6018. The recording paces the train for a good while as it accelerates. Eventually the car pacing the train has to stop for a road crossing. Can you imagine my disappointment when a HORN was used to blow the road crossing!
Enjoy the steam whistle on the new Vision Line Niagara. However, I wonder if the new Niagara will also include the ability to change over to the horn sounds?
PS - For all of you guys that think the NYC Niagara was the cat's meow, the N&W Class J would have left the Niagara in its dust accelerating to that road crossing! 
Big Jim posted:Years ago I bought a CD titled "Living With Steam - The Sounds of Railroading in Buffalo & Western New York". One of the tracks that I was particularly interested in was of the pacing of train #78 and its Niagara locomotive #6018. The recording paces the train for a good while as it accelerates. Eventually the car pacing the train has to stop for a road crossing. Can you imagine my disappointment when a HORN was used to blow the road crossing!
Enjoy the steam whistle on the new Vision Line Niagara. However, I wonder if the new Niagara will also include the ability to change over to the horn sounds? It should as the TMCC verision had it.
PS - For all of you guys that think the NYC Niagara was the cat's meow, the N&W Class J would have left the Niagara in its dust accelerating to that road crossing!
Big Jim posted:Years ago I bought a CD titled "Living With Steam - The Sounds of Railroading in Buffalo & Western New York". One of the tracks that I was particularly interested in was of the pacing of train #78 and its Niagara locomotive #6018. The recording paces the train for a good while as it accelerates. Eventually the car pacing the train has to stop for a road crossing. Can you imagine my disappointment when a HORN was used to blow the road crossing!
Enjoy the steam whistle on the new Vision Line Niagara. However, I wonder if the new Niagara will also include the ability to change over to the horn sounds?
Very good observation. In fact, not long after the Niagara's were new, The New York Central Mechanical & Engineering Depts. conducted extensive test on a 6000 class locomotive. One of the little bits of information learned from those tests was, how much steam was "wasted" by the use of the steam whistle. Reportedly, all the whistles were removed from the 6000s, and the Engineer was left with only that horn to blow, which was mounted right in front of the Engineer's window!
PS - For all of you guys that think the NYC Niagara was the cat's meow, the N&W Class J would have left the Niagara in its dust accelerating to that road crossing!
Absolutely!
Big Jim posted:
PS - For all of you guys that think the NYC Niagara was the cat's meow, the N&W Class J would have left the Niagara in its dust accelerating to that road crossing!
Maybe if running light but how would it do pulling mile long freight train? Kinda like a gas powered pickup vs a diesel. Put 6 tons behind them and see who wins the drag race.
Pete
The strain gauge coupler -- that is the idea that there is pull feedback into the engine behavior is of most interest to me. I have thought for awhile that it would be nice to have a programmable variable for that -- so you can simulate different loads -- and the engine will behave differently. And I've also figured that would be tiresome or annoying, and so a flick of the switch -- and that feature is turned off. I wonder if this feature on the new engine will be selectable or not. Perhaps it's two items together -- the strain gauge and programmable variable to scale the strain. Given that up - slight uphill rise on the track, more strain on the gauge ... and also simulating a very heavy load because of variable setting ... or maybe not, that was fun -- let's try empty cars -- adjust scale value "down" there, etc...
Or ... this is getting too complicated...
Norton posted:Big Jim posted:
PS - For all of you guys that think the NYC Niagara was the cat's meow, the N&W Class J would have left the Niagara in its dust accelerating to that road crossing!
Maybe if running light but how would it do pulling mile long freight train? Kinda like a gas powered pickup vs a diesel. Put 6 tons behind them and see who wins the drag race.
Pete
Well, that happened too! The J's were reduced to freight service at the end. The J would still beat the S-1.
Thrilled for the offer & the new features, assuming they're as cool in reality as on paper (er...digital video). Unfortunately, though, I'll probably have to chose between getting this & a 3rd Rail NYC Mohawk. Wish they could've waited a year. Got bills to pay as it is....
