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I took delivery of two Walthers Proto E7 units in the A-A formation. Numbers 1424 and 1428 for the B&O Railroad.I found both units to be packed to the max in each of thier boxes. Combination of tabs and foam inserts along with plastic overlay covering the spare parts ensure that these things dont move during shipping.There were a number of parts, instructions etc included with these engines. Im pleased overall with the presentation. It will be quite some time before I will examine those small parts and learn where they go.I dropped each of these units out of the cases, easily slipped the A bodies on via the front cowcatcher (I know.. be gentle) where the coupler passes thru the hole. I found that the red and yellow fuel tank caps are actually small pins that fit thier holes on the body and makes a good fit.The QSI Modules indicated version 7 which I think is the latest availible as of 2006. I will have to cross check it against the QSI Industries upgrade list but am pretty sure that these QSI modules are the most current availible. Version 6 is pretty good as well, Im not particularly worried about software versions right now.I whipped out a section of Kato track connected to my Super Chief and it had a number 6 Kato Unitrack switch on as well. The diverging route has a 34" Kato curved section before running parallel to the main. The frog on the Kato switch was also powered. The switch itself was controlled by a DS-64 via loconet. The DS 64 had a PS12 power supply on it.Enough about the stuff let's have the locos.Number 24 and 28 ran well, they need about an hour's worth of run around time before breaking in I suppose.Coupling the two units back to back and mu'ing them revealed a slight surging problem that will eventually destroy the middle coupling. I did a quick and dirty MU and will try to define one unit as the lead engine and the other unit as the number two engine and get them to work properly with change of direction headlights etc.I ran down the line and grabbed a Rapido Passenger Car.It turns out the Grey of the Rapido's paint just about matches the Grey on the engines. Same for the blue. To my eye I cannot tell the difference much if any. That Grey on the Proto engine influenced very heavy my selection of these engines versus the ones availible from BLI. BLI engines featured white and blue which I dont think matches the Rapido Set.The Rapido passenger car behaved well and true with the units. I suspect that there is a Freight cowl under the front of each unit with a slightly bigger Passenger Cowl (Cowcatcher) that came in the box and could be put on. The Cowls that were on the units as delivered from the store did not interfere with the Pax cars.I manually tested one unit on a 3% grade and it very narrowly escaped bottoming out at the top. I used the Woodland scenics inclines and risers with short sections of Kato track to define the transitions at the top and bottoms of the grade. I did not attempt to test the unit on the bottom of the grade yet.They came with quite some heft. They behave as passenger units but I would imagine the two can haul a pretty good size freight train if called to it. I dont know what is my max number of passenger cars pulled yet. Rapido only made three availible so far and Im expecting three more soon.I will need to mu these units and get them to behave correctly and hopefully solve the surging between them.The engine sounds and the associated sounds were very clear and loud to me. Quite pleasing. I might knock down the volumes a tad to keep the wife happy. 2 Desiels roaring out of the station does not a happy home make =)Bottom line, I got these units at a good price after tax and am well pleased with them. If I identify a need for more of these E7's I would not hesitate for a moment to buy another set. However I usually only run one set of each engine type.I think the pricing for the two came in at right at 200 dollars each and I am quite happy with this price point.At the end of the day, Proto did a fantastic job and Im pleased. I dont know much about the lighting and the stuff like mars. I dont think the B&O did mars. However playing with the lights revealed a nice dimming effect. Very nice.
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