Hello everyone:
Santa arrived a bit early and gave me a chance to post a quick review of the observation car for the new Santa Fe Set. Below are some pictures of my set, with the rest of the cars to be posted later.
1, Overall, nice look. I think this is a much better finish than the first "1937" set. I know getting the stainless look is very difficult and I think this is one of the better efforts from anyone so far.
2, Ride height is nice, not sure how correct, but looks pretty correct for me. The GGD heavyweights do ride high, so this was a nice change.
3, There are a few cosmetic errors that should not be present, but I will let others decide on how or if they want to correct them. In this case, (and in most every other three rail effort), the observation end has been a challenge, and it looks like it was for GGD as well. My sample has very rough finishing around the end roof area. You can see that there was some attempt to cover the blemish, but the silver finish is very unforgiving as you can see in the next few images. The area above and to the right of the light has been filled and painted.
Included Kadee Claw coupler will be UP graded to a scale coupler. This will be an easy, and much more visually pleasing change.
Image below shows, in my opinion, the most offensive visible seem. Not sure how I will fix this.
Nice dome and rear light action. Also the interior lights do work nicely.
The other small cosmetic error is in the "S" and "E" in Vista Valley. If you look closely, the top of the letters are missing or simply did not get printed with enough pressure. It is the same on both sides. In any case, it is a small blemish that I will probably not mess with.
Here are the rest of the images:
The diner with additional add on roof detail as well as interior decoration. I like the varied blind heights in all the cars.
"Palm Loch" left and right view.
Comparison view of the RPO vs. the sleeper.
The RPO is very nice and shortened as well. Except the observation car, my next favorite car is the RPO and GGD did a bang up job. The truck detail, windows and decoration are perfect.
Overall I am pleased with the cars. I only purchased the "B"set so that is why I don't have a dome car to post images of.
Other then the problems with the observation car, which Scott Mann has already made request to have sent back to the office, the rest of the cars are fine and I look forward to running them soon.
Charlie
