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I preordered the Sunset 3rd rail GP7 about 2 years ago and recently got an email about a month ago that the Sunset 3rd rail GP7/9s will be arriving soon. This will be my first locomotive from this manufacturer so I'm pretty excited to how it looks and runs. Has anyone else on this forum ordered one of these locomotives or have you purchaced diesel locomotives from sunset? How do they run compared to Atlas. Up till now I've only bought Atlas Master series locomotives in O scale 2 rail.

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Here's what it's like for any of our  large shipments:

Pallets are being devanned, meaning they take out the several shipments that share a container. Then it takes a few days to be released from customs, then to schedule a truck to pick them up and deliver them to our warehouse.  I hope for a Thursday or Friday arrival then we can sort them over the weekend and run the UPS tags.  We shift from software orders, to hard copies of invoices and shipping labels placed on each box. Once all are set aside, paid orders, layaway, holds, delayed shipping, internationals, which require an inhouse inspection, special road number requests, multiple orders needing different road numbers,  then we can see if there are any discrepancies in what should be left, which is very little in this projects case. This is why we want all paid orders completed before the models arrive to be sorted.  Customers that request processing only when ready to ship are last to be shipped for obvious reasons. If we see a shortage in one road 2R or 3R, it tells us they either marked the box wrong, made an error in the packing list or just plain shorted us a model and we have to search all boxes of that type to discover the pattern of the error. I've seen them put 2R in in 3R marked boxes, one road into another road, but they follow a pattern which is uncovered when all of that segment of boxes opened.  We don't want to have to open 500 boxes with the few people we have. It would take weeks. Their packing list is sometimes messed up a little too. But it all comes out when we pull the orders and place the invoices on them. Then we know what segments of the shipment have to be opened and inspected for accuracy. I know the people that pack these at the factory, and they occasionally mess up. I've often begged them, threatened to charge them for their errors, but they are human as human can be. So I generally keep my frustration to myself.  It's never 100% and it's very costly to return ship models just because the labeling was wrong.

I know this sounds backwards to conventional thought, but most of the errors in packing or invoicing are discovered this way before we ship.

Once we feel confident that most all is correct, we release them all at one time to UPS.

So when you get the notice from UPS of a shipment from us, we haven't actually released it to UPS for 2-5 days, depending on the task at hand. When the tracking shows an updated arrival schedule, then you know it's been picked up and is on it's way.

I wish it was simpler, but after all these years, this is the process that seems to catch 99% of these errors.

Thanks for your patience. I am anxious as well and want everyone to be happy with what took over 1 and 1/2 years to bring to the market.

“Thanks for your patience. I am anxious as well and want everyone to be happy with what took over 1 and 1/2 years to bring to the market.”  Scott Mann

1 1/2 year to bring to market. Wow !!!  A long lead time considering this became a “Hot” offering. I have to guess this Very Popular offering was slowed by its massive size and number of different roads.

Last edited by TrainBub

How long has it taken Atlas or MTH to deliver a totally new Model?     It seems this project went relatively fast.   Has Atlas even done a new one in a few years?

I prefer the single motor Sunset drives to the dual motor drives.    I have Sunset E7s, FP7, F7, SD9, and PA/PB models.    I like them all.    The mechanisms have improved over the years too with addition of Ball bearings throughout.

@SANTIAGOP23 posted:

I ordered a single CB&Q GP7. IMO 3rd Rail is better than Atlas in almost every respect. Can’t wait to see them.



E9BEA301-3E50-4124-9614-FEDD81F41D3AFAF9615F-A24D-40B7-AD33-56152768960C252A129F-B22A-48CA-B616-1279515B7C7F99870969-AEAD-49E4-B59B-BFCCFA696264

Santiago,

You are right about 3rd rail offering a better loco but remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Atlas attracts a wider market because of cost, approx $200 a unit less. I have a few Atlas, 2 Rich Yoder, a couple MTH 2 rail, and a pair of 3rd rail CB&Q E8s.

Dick

@prrjim posted:

How long has it taken Atlas or MTH to deliver a totally new Model?     It seems this project went relatively fast.   Has Atlas even done a new one in a few years?

The last NEW model at MTH was the MTH 44tonner done 11 years ago. [2011]! The last new model at Atlas O was the F7 done in 2016. IDN if the Atlas O RS11 and VO1000 [both former Weaver tooling] ever hit the streets yet.

Last edited by prrhorseshoecurve

"So when you get the notice from UPS of a shipment from us, we haven't actually released it to UPS for 2-5          days,    depending on the task at hand. When the tracking shows an updated arrival schedule, then you know it's been picked up and is on it's way."

Quote above from Scott describing the process earlier in the thread.    I got an EMAIL from UPS also.    But the tracking number says it has been picked up yet, which is as described above.

Scott made it pretty clear they will not be picked up until Monday.  If you got a UPS email today the label was created today.  UPS assumes the date the label is created is the date they receive the package for shipment.  If you got an email today for delivery in 4 days you should expect delivery 4 days from Monday NOT today.

And regarding boxes mislabeled in China I still have not gotten my DRGW 4-stripe PB because of a mislabeled package and a jerk who did not return something they did not order.  They should never hope to get what they did order because I got all the leftovers and have used them for other purposes.

If anyone is in need of a New Haven GP-9 please drop me a PM - bought a couple , but I've gotten back to Sn3 so will keep one for the case . Supposed to see them today .

                                                  Regards,

                                                                 Bryan

@Ed Kelly posted:

Hi,

Did the PRR consider running with the GP9 long hood forward to be running forward?

Thanks,

Ed

Well,,,,,,,yes if that was where the letter "F" was, and how the control stand was configured. With the Engineer seated on the right hand side, with the long hood facing/operating forward, then that would be the normal way the unit would have been dispatched.  

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