As a Southern Railway fan, I am excited about this offering and I appreciate David and others that are doing the research to make these car as accurate as possible. I ordered the 8 car set in early December and was fortunate to find a set of Lionel's new E8's to pull them with. I was also really pleased with the Lionel units, especially that both units were powered. I was also pleased that the color matched the E8's that Weaver offered in the 90's. Except for the tanks on top, they look like they belong together. I intend to remove the motors from the Weaver engines and make them dummies so that I can run four E8's pulling the consist.
Although I have been fascinated by trains my whole life and been into model trains for 61 years now, the only train trip I have ever taken was the Southern Crescent from Danville, Va to Washington, DC in 1978> Although as I understand it, at that time, Amtrak had taken over the route but the engines, cars and personnel were still Southern. I will never forget having breakfast with my two young sons in the dining car with its fabric table cloth and fresh cut flowers on the table. The train was close to Charlottesville and there was a light snow on the hillside with cows grazing. The food was freshly prepared and delicious. On the way back, we were admiring the engines before boarding the train and the engineer invited my 8 year old son up into the cab. he was thrilled!
Happy railroading,
Don
