I think the person that had commented about the statement from Ryan had said something about the graphite smoke box on particular, that being the main issue for a bunch of locomotives falling off to the wayside. I think it was said that the factory thought they had the colors right, which I don't see how. As I recall from looking over the artwork for Mr. Muffin's custom run Hudson, I was extremely excited as I thought there was no way this would wind up the white silver we had seen. I think that that, combined with dealers saying what the heck is going on with the colors, pretty much forced them to do something.
Thing is though, that this has been something that has plagued them for some time. I can remember Bryant(forum member I met at York) being very hot about the Polar Express cars being horrendously wrong in color. That was and should have been the real wake up call for samples to be sent as that Lionel had to make proper shells for every order that people responded about it being wrong.
Like I said up top, I don't know if the colors on the Santa Fe's smoke box is the wrong color. This is also because on another post featuring the Pacemaker, my camera shows it a lighter shade of red even though it isn't. It was explained to me by another on the forum, that digital cameras whether they are phones or cameras for some reason see the colors differently based on their resolution or such. I for the life of me can't recall really taking a front eyed view with my own eyes of the Santa Fe, but hope the 3009 is as it is supposed to be. Also that the Mohawk's have the graphite smoke box. If these aren't, I guess the V2 engines(and hopefully rolling stock) will be under the microscope so nothing like clown engines get through.
