All,
I'll try to address as many questions and concerns that I've seen thus far starting with other passenger train sets being issued on the California Zephyr tooling even though it wouldn't be prototypically correct. As someone once said to me the model railroad hobby is a big tent that everyone can fit under, a statement I completely agree with. Having said this I don't want anyone to take offense to what I'm about to say and that is Atlas prides itself on doing scale models as realistic as possible for a given price point. We find that this is what the majority of our customer want from us and not toy models that are incorrect.
On the California Zephyr taking up too much real estate on a given layout. Again it's what we do, scale models which we don't make any apologies for. How many of you have purchased a scale "Big Boy" steam locomotive based on the excitement of Union Pacific putting #4014 back into service? Now raise your hands on how many of you have a layout that will support that beast, probably not many. You bought it because it represents an important part on American railroad history and you didn't know if the opportunity would ever present itself again and you now have it as your own. This same principal applies to the California Zephyr in that it represented an important part of American railroad history with some historian considering it to be the most beautiful passenger train of the streamline era, hence having the nickname of "The Silver Lady". It's the only passenger train that has two Websites dedicated to it and four very well written books about it as well, with one of those books commanding monster money on e-Bay if you can find it. Think positive that one day you could join a club that has a layout that would support this beauty or start your own modular club where you can run what you brung (hot rod term). If you're financially able don't let this opportunity pass you by either just like with the "Big Boy".
Will there be any none powered diesels offered with the sets? No as we wanted these sets to be special in every way so we elected to forgo offering dummies, which we always find someone down the line wanting to buy the parts to power them anyway. I personally own two dummies in my entire collection of locomotives and that happened because I had to buy extra pieces to provide myself with an all powered CB&Q ABA set and the same with the Western Pacific ABB set. I will be selling these as soon as I can because I'm the only dummy in my locomotive consist. Needless to say I won't have to do this with the Denver Rio Grande & Western set of ABBAs as they are all powered. We're well aware that for the three rail models with traction tires two powered locomotives in the consist will in most cases be sufficient enough power to pull the consist on most layouts. Two rail is a different story altogether with those modelers needing the extra power for the California Zephyrs length.
Will the Western Pacific units have the stainless finish that we're offering on the Santa Fe Warbonnet F7s with the answer being no as we didn't have the time to make that change. For those of you who were at the York TCA event in October of 2015 and saw the complete train run with the Western Pacific F3s on the led those were my engines (all powered of course) and I heard nothing but compliments about the appearance of this ABB set.
Are the names correct for the various sets with the answer being absolutely! We'll be holding yet another seminar at York in April to go over how to order these sets which by the way numbers 9 different sets for Dealers and 1 special set for our Golden Spike Club members. We'll also discuss how how we chose the names for the various sets as well.
We thank everyone for their enthusiasm over these California Zephyr passenger train sets and for those of you who have already ordered them.
Jerry Kimble - Atlas Model Railroad Company
