I’m thinking of going Kato, but I was wondering if any of the superliner coaches have marker lights similar to those on the magnificient Broadway Limited tail car.
Also, has anyone come anywhere close to modelling pennsylvania catenary along the northeast corridor in N scale? I don’t mean a catenary system that works, simply one for display purposes only. I haven’t found anything on a google search.
And a little off topic but, why are Broadway Limited/PCM n scale engines such bad performers? I’ve seen several E7s run at the LHS and they are always jerky, stopping and starting, the sound is very annoying IMHO, it goes in and out all the time. To tell you the truth, I don’t see the point to sound in n scale at all. Its too expensive, sounds bad, and is very distracting. The overall appearance of the Broadway N scale diesels is outstanding, the paint is crisp and looks almost naturally weathered, so I’m disappointed that they are such bad runners.
I’m sticking with Atlas and Kato, but anyway, I’m looking for an Amtrak tail car with marker lights, if anyone knows of any.
I’m sorry to hear that the E7’s you’ve seen have disappointed you. I own one PCM (the first E7 run) and two of the BLI E7’s (second run with the Paragon system). The PCM runs like a champ and can easily pull 9 Arnold passenger cars. One of my BLI’s ran great and the second one did just as you said, it jerked a lot. The sound kept starting over, etc. I thought maybe bad connection somewhere, dirt somewhere, etc. I didn’t find anything. Then on a whim I decided to do a factory reset (CV 8 to a value of 8). That did the trick. Now it runs just as smooth as my other two. I love these engines.
N Scale Northeast Corridor catenary sounds like a very big challenge and God bless you if you pull it off.
I suppose that there is an European manufacturer of ready-made catenary.
However there is a short cut. Model the catenary poles and the bridge of wires spanning the tracks using clear acrylic or styrene. Then paint the wires onto the clear plastic. Do not string the catenary between the supports.
I have seen photographs of a rather well-known New Haven layout where this works quite well.
Of course you can always go back and string real catenary later.
Amtrak!!! You should start with a good thrashing! Stick with modeling the Pennsy and NYC in HO. The trains and locomotives had more style back then anyhow. [:P]