Skip to main content

Reply to "E6"

Bob Harris posted:
CBQ_Bill posted:

Hi Scott Mann:

I called 3RD Rail Sunset's phone number on Monday & briefly spoke with Shani (not sure of spelling).  I was ready to buy another E5A & E5B set if one of the 2 available had names different than E5A Silver Carrier (AirConditioner) & E5B Silver Power (Generator).  But alas, your 2 remaining sets have the same Silver names.  

You said above "that it is a good thing that you didn't let the Silver names out . . . because they were wrong".  

Locomotive models are as much a work of art as they are prototypical replicates of the 1/1 scale object.  Your Phase II tooling gets an A+ for nailing the prototypical details of E5 Phase II.  However, in the slavish insistence on sticking to the prototypical names for Phase II, the spirit & essence of the CB&Q E5A are sorely missing from your product.  

I looked through my e-mail O-Gauge file tonight through e-mails between us from 2003 & your recent 3RD Rail/GDD newsletters.  The first mention of the CB&Q E5 occurred on 04/29/2018 in your MAY-2018 newsletter with a photo of Illinois Railway Museum's EMC/EMD Phase I CB&Q E5A #9911A Silver in its shimmering stainless steel (SS) finish with SS side fluting, black nose stripes, black grill stripes, E5 model plate, sans truck skirts, and with name SILVER PILOT on its shimmering SS sides.   This photo was repeated in 11 more newsletters from May-2018 through MAR-2019, a total of 12 times.  Between mid MAR-2019 and now, 3RD Rail issued 5 more newsletters with absolutely no mention of the E6/E5 project & without the photo of SILVER PILOT at IRM.  

The inclusion of SILVER PILOT's photo implied that you would include this road name in an E5 Phase I model with shimmering simulated SS finish with the details from the photo mentioned above.  The absence of SILVER PILOT & imitation SS finish in your final product is misleading at best & false advertising at worst.  

You say that your model is a Phase II E5. Okay, I can live with that, I am not a slave to prototypical details if the spirit & essence of the prototype is captured in 3-rail O-gauge.  I love your Phase II tooling and you get an A+ for it.  It has the side fluting, the correct Mars & headlight housing (which is different from the standard E6 housing), slanted nose, closed & open-with-coupler pilot options.  As a bonus, your tooling includes the removable truck skirts.  This tooling is a 1st in 3-rail O-gauge !!! 

I was expecting a shimmering imitation SS plated finish similar to what Lionel did with their 1980 Texas Zephyr F3AA set and their recent E7 AA set.  Instead, it has silver paint (the most striking feature of the E5 is the shimmering SS exterior).  I was wanting the E5 AB models' finish to match my 60' scale (Lionel, K-Line, Williams, & MTH) & 70' scale (MTH) plated aluminum Zephyr cars, but your silver paint job does not match those.  I wanted the E5 AB models to stand out in shimmering plated imitation SS when displayed along side my silver painted CB&Q F3s (MTH & Williams), E6s (MTH, decorated in an outstanding E7 livery with E6 plates & fictional  #9997 A&B), E7s (Williams), and E8s (K-Line).  Instead of standing out, the E5s blend in like nothing any more special.  

The window & grill nose string in black, the BR herald, the Zephyr Gothic letting, & EMC/EMD builders plate are wonderful details.  The model should have included the E5 model plates because this is in your photo of SILVER PILOT at IRM, most Q fans will want this after seeing SILVER PILOT at IRM, and their are no commercially available E5 model plate decals commercially available for your customers to obtain & apply on our own.

Last, the final insult is that I am stuck with the lack-luster name Silver Carrier, which is my least favorite prototypical E5 name.  I think of Carrier AIR CONDITIONERS when I see this name.  If you had included useful updates about available Silver Names in your newsletters, I would have selected E5A, Silver Arrow, Silver Swift, or Silver Clipper and been much happier living with this model.  By the way, there are no commercially available O-scale decals with alternative CB&Q E5 Silver Names of your customers to obtain & apply on our own.  

Are your E5B models truly Phase I or are they really Phase II B units with Phase I Silver Names ?  Besides Silver Power, what other names were used on your E5B models ?

I also did not realize from your sparse detail in your newsletters & website that there was an option to order two (2) E5A units instead of an E5A/E5B set.  If this choice had been stated in your materials, I would have opted for two (2) E5A units with 2 separate Silver Names.  

I would be a much happier 3rd Rail E5 customer if you could modify (at your expense) my E5A model to Silver Speed #9910A to match the E5B Silver Power (which is #9911B).    

Or, modify one of your remaining E5A & E5B sets to SILVER PILOT #9911A & SILVER MATE (#9911B), send them to Chicagoland Hobby or me in exchange for the set that I have.  

I have one # of each of your CB&Q steam engines, 2 of your CB&Q wood waycars (cabooses for non-Q fans), 3 of your 70' CB&Q heavyweight cars, wood coal tour, and several sets of your Little People figures.  I love all of these items.  They capture the spirit & essence of the CB&Q.  Some of the BRHS folks have told me that some of the details on #5632, #3007, & #4978 are incorrect, but I still love them.  

Please correct a set of E5 models with Silver Name(s) that I can live with and be proud to display at upcoming BRHS meets.  

CB&Q Bill

 

 

Good lord after reading all that you  dinged and donged with you must of lost 5 days of sleep. I for one think you want some thing personally just for you with names, and other items you mentioned.

to matched all the models from other builders you have to match these to them. you must be from Pluto because it does not work that way. An importer can not begin to match all that has been done from1912 onward. I think Scott for 699.99 imported some fantastic models, and if you had paid 3K for these you would still be winning .

I have my issues with the ones I have, which I helped put the design package together for the Mopac versions and I and Scott  talked to the builder on 3 different occasions and the still missed the mark on some items. So what can we do. You just move on and just play trains its that simple .

Next time I will try not to be//////^^^^^ ***

BH

Hi Bob:

No, I do not want something unique just for me.  I really wanted a model of the prototype locomotive whose photo was shown in 12 3RD Rail newsletters & their website. It is quite reasonable to expect the product to conform to the sales description.

CB&Q Bill 

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
×