The "1928 Rheingold" cars arrived at the house yesterday; here are my initial observations and impressions:
1. The cars are shipped with the 'Lenz' coupler, mounted to the body with a spring-retained 'KK' [ close coupling' ] mechanism; this can swivel by itself, but is also actuated by a bar running across the outer bottom of the trucks. The couplers have three position holes in the 'draft gear' to vary the distance between coupler head and carbody; the couplers are shipped in the outermost ones.
2. The bottom entrance steps are truck mounted rather than body mounted, which is pretty much a requirement on any curve radii under 7 ft or so.
3. Removing the 'Lenz' coupler requires removing two screws and then moving the assemby up and back; I had to do a fair amount of 'gentle prying' as well, as the car end is also a tight clip fit. The instruction book makes it sound easier than it is -- or I am more of a klutz than their target reader.
4. Thanks to the instruction book, I found out that the roofs can be removed -- THANK YOU, MTH ! The reason is to access the lighting bar mounted to the inside of the roof, above the cross-braces in the carbody top. Again, the instruction book makes it sound easy, but it isn't -- because there are clips along the tops of the car sides. Good fingernails and/or some small screwdrivers help here, and one has to be very careful not to chip any paint. But since one can gain access to the car interior in 'normal MTH fashion' from the bottom , I'd suggest doing it that way whenever possible, eg, normal interior mods.
5. The interiors are great. Sure, they are one piece molds in a dark brown plastic [ except for the table tops and lamps ], but MTH got the important things right: 1+1 seating in armchairs in 1st class, and 2+1 for second -- much improved over the previous Pullmans.
6. The destination boards are fixed to the carbody side, and read Hook - Basel SBB, with the 'car number' plate above.
7. All cars have the mysterious "speaker grill" in the center of the underside -- but it's a "grill to nowhere", as the interior above blanks it off. Maybe someone can explain these.
8. The baggage car has illuminated 'tail lights' at one end. In my opinion, this was a mistake, because I believe at the time and locale this trainset portrays [ 1929-30, because of not only the overhaul dates on the car sides, but MTH's locomotive for it still has oil headlamps...] this baggage car ran at the front of the train.
Further, MTH or Busch needed to read up on Schlusssignal practice prior to 1935 [ Signal 16b ] if they really wanted to do it 'right' -- or perhaps they did, and just figured what they did was 'close enough', and for many [ for shame, I almost wrote 3 railers, but there are 3 rail nitpickers/rivet counters too....] that will be fine.
9. The color: I'll leave that to the real experts, though I am inclined to the belief that MTH/Busch picked the later, darker shade.
10. Biggest disappointment visually: I thought a better job could have been done on the roof ventilators.
11. Biggest suprise: The exterior doors open, but they are spring loaded closed. [ An overcentre spring holding them in either position would have been much better.]
Executive Summary: Excellent job, MTH. Congratulations -- I hope they sell well, they deserve it.
Best regards, SZ
