The good news about this post is that Model Train Stuff is back and a pleasure to deal with. They recently had an Amtrak sale. I saw a pair of Amfleet cars that included a cab control car sporting marker lights, head light and strobe light. Even though it would not be a total match to my MTH and Atlas O fleet I though running a push-pull consist would be pretty cool.
The car body looked nice enough, but I immediately had trouble with one of the wheel sets. Even after multiple lubrications is was not turning correctly and kept de-railing. In push mode... forget about it. This was a cheap plastic truck with the wheels set too far back from the front to be able to lead a consists. My email to Model Train Stuff was answered immediately. Their customer service guy (John) lamented about Lionel's recent lack of quality control (I might also add that this plastic sealed box had no warranty card, no instruction sheets). We both knew doing an exchange wouldn't solve the problem so I was sent a pre-paid return label (hold on to those shipping boxes until you are really sure!). Not what you would expect for a product whose MSRP is $399.
Lew
