Just got a powered and dummy of the RDC models just produced by Sunset in the latest batch. Our train club did a custom run of the British Columbia Railway with a good # of units produced for local modelers. Overall a great model very well detailed, sound is good; though speaker rattles at the higher volumes just turn it down a bit. Good horn and bell, engine revs up nice. Runs fairly well though derails at a couple of locations where nothing else on the railway has problems, stalls a bit when slow through the longer Atlas turnouts. The overall finish of the models is good and very well detailed under-body.
On the dummy unit it would have been nice if they left out the engineer from the cab. There is a switch under the exhaust hatch on the roof to turn the lights on and off. There are the 3 led interior roof lights 2 front 1 rear, red marker lights either end and 2 bright LED headlights either end. Would be nice if there was some way to turn off the headlights on the dummy and still leave the marker and interior lights on??? Interesting that in the powered unit the interior LED lights are a white and the dummy interior lights are yellow??
The powered unit has directional lighting and the red markers always lit looks good. ??? The motors look a bit bigger then in the RDC's that were released a few years back by Sunset. It has been reported in the earlier versions the motors would over heat with long running. But these are best to run a few stations and regular stops and not have just looping around the layout for long periods of time.
Looking at the sides of the model it looks like the body arches up not a straight line on the bottom. Just a few passengers in the interior. Anyone know how you remove the body to add more figures? There was no paper work instructions or details in either box for operation or how to access the interior. Both dummy and powered have a small section in the middle of the car with silver walls that hide the electronics I guess, not that noticeable. The center rail power pickups 4 on powered 2 on dummy have silver sides and are very visible from the sides of the train; may try to paint them black or see if I could cover then in black electrical tape to be less visible.
I have also posted photos of an earlier CP model that Sunset produced a few years back. These models are a bit different, both looking great though. Overall pricy but a very nice model great addition to the fleet. Brings back some memories of many rides on these cars.
