Long Caboose release date?

[mudhen]

To Busksco;
Now I can't wait for my supplier to get my caboose. If it look as good as your pictures make it out to be. It will have been worth the wait.   Anticipation will have won.

[zubi]

>>"To be honest, the first impression is not as great as all that anticipating would deserve"

Perhaps some photos might change your mind?
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/gallery.php?set_albumName=Large-Scale-Long-Caboose&include=view_album.php//

Dear Mr Bucksco,
Many thanks for the photos. I have actually acquired one of these cabooses before seeing these photos. As Tam-Tam shop in Akihabara started discounting these cabooses at the end of August, I took the risk and bought one flying Rio-Grande version. It is quite good. My first impression must have been influenced by the box - I guess I developed some kind of immunity against them. But also the exaggerated wood grain I saw inside, plus the oversized and unpainted grab irons on the wall above the platform did not exactly encourage me. Anyway, the hardware can be painted, and thase particular grab irons may have been larger on one or two prototypes. The wood grain, well, it is a matter of taste I suppose, I would prefer it finer and more gentle, but some may like it the way it is. Also, the wall or table lamps inside, although nice, look somewhat oversize and artificial to me, but perhaps it was not technically possible to make them more realistic size. Finally, nicer wheels with raised lettering and ribs would be welcome on a highly detailed model.
Overall, it is a very good product, and many things are nice and well done such as lettering which has never been done correctly to date on any RTR long cabooses of D&RGW.   
Of course, plastic has its limitations and the poor RGS version is incorrect, in particular its length. I am not sure whether I am going to overcome this. But hopefully this will not deter many others. The D&RGW versions look pretty sweet and I feel I may be getting the toilet seat version some day.
I only hope the plastic will survive longer than that on my previous Bachmann purchase, the very first Shay engine from 1998 with which I happily parted a long time ago.
Now that Bachmann proved that they can build a decent car, even with some interior, I would suggest to consider one of these fine examples for the future products:
http://4largescale.com/fletch/d60c.htm
http://4largescale.com/fletch/d60.htm
I believe many modellers who bought your early Moguls and Americans would be happy to buy some of these if you produce them to the same (or better) accuracy as the D&RGW caboose.
Best wishes from Tokyo, Zubi

[tac]

Evenin', Zubi!!  tac here with my long-awaited caboose.......It arrove yesterday just as me and ig were about to embark on a trip over to North Wales to paly trains at my brother-in-law's.  I chose the 'Flying Rio Grande' version to match my Accucraft K-27s, and while I'm pretty much happy with it, I couldn't help but notice a couple of omissions/mistakes.

1.  The marker lights face green to rear on mine.  I'm sure I've seen a fix on another well-known forum but for the life of me I can't find the thread [never have been able to find ANY thread using the so-called search function on THAT forum].

2.  The anti-rotation clips on the turnbuckles are conspicuous by their absence - sure, a couple of strips of basswood will fix that, but sheeesh......over here in sunny UK it's $225.00 - cheapest.

I'll be giving it a run tomorrow, if it doesn't rain!

Best wishes to you from

tac and the birdies
www.ovgrs.org

[Jon D. Miller]

Tac,
The information in reference to the orientation of the marker lights is right here on the Bachmann site.

As delivered it appears that the marker light lanterns are not properly installed on most if not all units.  The markers have the green lense to the rear. Wrong.

Red should show to the rear and sides.  Green should show to the front. Have read, but don't know for sure, that at some point in time the markers were changed to amber lenses to the sides and rear.

On another site there's a posting where a new owner managed to damage the marker light wiring when trying to get the red lenses facing to the rear.  It is not necessary to pull the marker light assembly from the body.  The lantern will slide off the marker light base.





Here's the lantern removed from its base.  All that is necessary to get the proper lense orientation is to move the left lantern to the right side and right lantern to the left.  Also refer to page G887X-IS001 of supplied documentation.  Takes about a minute or so to make the correction.  Wonder why folks won't take the time to review supplied documentation before attempting any work on a model.   :

Wonder if Danny has figured this out yet?

Boards installed through the turn buckles was not necessarily common on truss rod cars.  Might be a nice touch, but checking old photos will show that most truss rod cars did not use any type board through the turn buckles.  Of course you always have the option of adding them.

One of the "Enthusiastic Children"

JD

[zubi]

Terry, the info about marker lights went to you per email. TD&RGW cabooses generally did not have boards in the turnbuckles, I just looked at some photos and saw a couple of exceptions, but #505 did not have them, and it is likely that #503 didn't have them either. Best wishes, Zubi