Kansas City Star: KCS SD70ACe by Lionel

Stars, stripes, and a green body with the famous yellow ribbon make this stand out even in a fleet of modern diesels.

A sad element of railroad mergers in North America means there are fewer and fewer unique liveries to spot on the point of a freight train. If there is an up side, it is that railroads seem to be more willing than ever to commemorate people or events with special one off custom liveries. Union Pacific did their camouflage SD-40-2, Norfolk Southern produced their Heritage series, the Canadian National did a locomotive with D-Day invasion stripes, and the Kansas City Southern has created a livery to support their employee veterans.

The Lionel no. 2033330 Kansas City Southern Veterans locomotive is quite a model. Here are some photos from my testing of the model for the December issue. A Legacy model, it has all the finer details that you would expect: Individual grab irons, see-through screens, clear and crisp body detailing, and flawless graphics.

The sound system packs voice that makes the earlier RailSounds system sound like AM radio compared the rich tones of FM radio. The powered smoke unit created a fog worthy of Olde London Towne!

The locomotive costs $599.99. See it at your local Lionel retailer. – Bob

The motors were very smooth running and responsive to commands.

See-through fans are a nifty “Gee Whiz” element of the model.

Cast-in detailing is accentuated by the alternating red-white striping.

Looks good and more importantly, it can handle the tonnage!

The model works well with scale cars (the B&O boxcar) yet when carefully spaced, doesn’t look out of kilter with more traditional gear such as the TTX spine car.