I had short, friendly chats with Ryan and Dave about upcoming items of personal interest. They are doing a new tool for the boiler casting for the Legacy Berkshire. There are parting line and roughness issues which they are to address shortly. Lionel is definitely upping their detail game on the 'new' Berk. They are still talking delivery by the end of the year (We'll see).
Dave gave me an opportunity to inspect the pre-production sample of the new Baldwin. Fans of the Gilbert-style Baldwin will be happy in that this will be the most substantial one ever. With good weight for traction and twin motors, this version should be better than what they did with the FlyerChief GP-7s. Dave mentioned that they considered additional and more prototypical handrails, but the costs to do so killed this.
I also discussed with Dave the continuing saga of properly operating AF knuckle couplers. The latest AF electrocouplers work beautifully with the newer knuckle couplers fitted to the cylindrical hoppers but (still) not at all well with those fitted to the traditional Gilbert-style rolling stock. The newer design coupler also functions well with traditional Gilbert uncouplers and couples dependably. I've noticed that the two designs are just enough different from each other to cause the operational difference. Dave promised to address the issue and to look into the adoption of the newer design across the board.
York was great, as usual, although the coldest one in memory.
Bob
