Lionel ES44AC Oil Train Set - VIDEO Added (12/10/19)

bigtruckpete posted:

Great looking set! Thanks for all of the videos. The crush cars really make the set.

Donald, we need more videos and pictures of your layout. It looks amazing!

Hey bigtruckpete.....that is a good question about more pics and video of my layout. Over a year ago, I was having discussions with Allan Miller about a full feature in the magazine showing my new layout. Back then, I was no where near as finished as I am now.

We had an agreement not to post too many pics or video of the new layout to you guys before the article was written. Well, time marches on and I am at a point where I could do the article. I am close to 90% finished with just my Midwest small town to complete.

I need to talk again with Allan and see if he is still interested in working on a feature article for 2020. I would like to do another one (my old layout was the feature in Run 255) but if he declines, then I will give ahead and share. 

Thanks for the kind words.

Donald

I thought my ES44s would arrive today, but my packages were late to arrive in California. They only got to Los Angeles by around 2 PM my time, I'm in San Diego, and they were both updated with "Scheduled delivery: Pending" as soon as they got to Los Angeles. I only hope that they will be delivered tomorrow and while my mom is still at home. Fingers crossed...

In any case, photos of my CitiRail unit will probably be delayed until tomorrow...

3rail 2 posted:

John Rowlen posted:

Do the BNSF and  TILX  cars have thumb tack couplers?

Hello John. Both the tank cars (TILX) and the covered hoppers (BNSF) have the thumb tack coupler. I guess they still have a big supply of them to get rid of.I thought I heard at one point Lionel was phasing out the thumb tack once the current supply was depleted and going back to the old style.

Donald

IIRC it was mentioned here that they are staying with the new unsprung truck design, just making a "tackless" coupler arm for it.

Well one of my pre-orders showed up and by shear luck it just so happened to be the CitiRail version.

Runs great with no issues and bluetooth works flawlessly. They even got the side stripes on the nose correct.