The new American Flyer SD70ACe is out!

Last year (a long long time ago) Lionel announced a new S locomotive - the SD70ACe. Being a sucker for a modern locomotive I immediately ordered on in Norfolk Southern livery. On February 20, 2013, the new locomotive arrived at my home. I think it was worth the wait.

Externally, this a gorgeous piece of equipment. I expected as much as this followed on the heels on the "legacy" equipped U33C in 2012. The level of detail is excellent.

The SD70 is another in the line of Legacy equipped locomotives and you really need a legacy system to get all the value out of this item. But even running in conventional mode, this will be a real treat hauling a string of intermodal containers or some of the long awaited cylindrical grain hoppers.

 

Fresh out of the box 1011 sits with crew in the cab.

Rear end showing the cooling fans and dynamic brakes. The fan cowling lifts off to reveal the controls.

The detail on the lettering is excellent.

The coupler and the stairs pivot independently of the trucks.

Lionel did not use the fuel tank mounted motors as they did on the U33C. 

Instead, they appear to have gone with a tower drive for the SD70.

Note the lettering on the truck frame.

Nice detailing with the ditch lights, MU hoses and grab rails.

The New York Central Wreck Train

No...its not a wreck. This is the train you send in to clean up the wrecks. A diesel switcher pulling a heavy crane, a floodlight and some cars to cart the scrap and service the crane.

The wreck train headed up by a Baldwin S-12 Switcher

The operating  floodlight car - it really does light up when the track is powered!

The Brownhoist crane car. This is a heavy piece of rolling stock with 6 wheel trucks.

The crane work car. Its a combination caboose and flat car. This is the companion piece to the Brownhoist crane. As you can see they fit together as a nice unit.

New American Flyer Mill Gondola with coil covers

My new American Flyer car arrived today - A Pennsylvania mill gondola with coil covers. It is a good addition to the two other gondola's with coil covers that American Flyer has produced - the Bethlehem Steel gondola and the EJ&E car from the NASG. Its not a bad car, but the overall tuscan red paint job is sort of...boring.

Here are some photos of the new car.

New out of the box!

The coil covers don't quite cover the entire gondola.

Close up of the coil cover showing the detail of the brackets and grab wires.

Nice detail on the end of the coil cover.

The covers stack up - just like the prototype

The interior paint is a little uneven.

Videos of the new loop

Well okay...technically, its videos of all three loops. But these are the first videos out showing trains running on all three tracks. The C&O diesel switcher pulling the mixed freight is on the new inner loop. The Burlington Northern U33C diesel hauling the string of Gunderson container cars is on the middle loop and the American Flyer 4-4-2 Atlantic is on the outer loop.

The inner loop is done...YAY!

Laid the last of the inner mainline track today. Following that I ran temporary power leads to the bridge and successfully ran locomotives around the track. There is one turnout that the Gunderson well stack cars don't like - the cars hit the turnout throw - but otherwise the look works well. I kinda suspected the Gunderson cars would not work on the inner loop with the tighter radius curves. Fortunately, I can still run the cars, it'll just be more of a challenge to get them in and out of the main yard.

No pictures today, but both the SW-9 and an 4-4-2 Atlantic traversed the track.

The only fault...I forgot to install the automatic uncouplers on two sidings. Fortunately, its a relatively easy process to backtrack and fit them to the track.

Landscaping the layout

I'm starting to work on some of the landscaping forms on the layout. I needed a little background on creating hills. Fortunately, I found this nifty video on Youtube from Woodland Scenic on creating detailed hills with rock formations. Well worth 10 minutes of your time.

More progress with the inner loop!

I've been busy installing roadbed and track on the inner loop. Its almost ready to run a train on.

 

Its actually working out pretty well. The 'east yard' has a main line and two passing sidings. One will serve the passenger station while the other will be a place to stash extra cars not currently in use, or serve as a passing siding if the passenger station track is full. The interlocking tower is positioned to observe all the activity on the east side including both the middle and outer loops. I may install a floodlight tower near here to through some light into the yard area.

Pardon the mess - its a work in progress.

Another challenge was the northwest corner. I ultimately decided to install a tight inner turnout to service the west yard (and  to use the original bridge layout). Problem was that the curve of the tracks actually crossed the inner corner of the layout and would be hanging in space.  Soooo...I added a bit of table to fill the corner.

You can see the proposed track line done in red.

The corner is a piece of board with a 1x4 frame under it. On top of the is a piece of styrofoam. It was too tall for the surrounding terrain, but the foam cutter knocked down  the edges to a reasonable slope. I used Woodland Scenics foam putty to smooth out the irregularities and fill the seams along the edges. A little sanding and it is good to go! 

Shot from the perspective of the turnout.