Lionel Sound Car for the Cranes

[Anonymous]

Not going to be my normal long review because I had a tooth pulled today, and don't feel the best yet.

Received the Santa Fe Crane Sound Car today, and if I must stress one thing, this car is all about sounds! It definitely is RS 5.0 based; with excellent sound quality and no white noise that I detected in the half hour I tested it. The dialog may be considered corny by some, but it does add quite a bit of fun to running of the crane with this car. Too much dialog to mention all the quotes here and it is well varied. The sound is very clear.

The roof sports the recently introduced magnetic "latch" system, holding it in place and allowing easy access to the run/program sounds on/off, and the volume control. The sounds are accessed and turned off by different buttons on the CAB-1 than some might find as normal. As an example, 9 turns the sounds off, or actuates the shut down sound sequence, rather than button 5. 8 turns the sounds back on. The whistle is neat, because it really sounds like a small steam whistle as would be found inside the crane. The engine sounds are well done, but I get confused because they are diesel sounds, while the whistle sounds like steam generated. Still, sound quality is excellent!

Appearance is up to par for what scale modelers have come to expect, cleanly finished, and highly detailed. The underside of the car has a very high level of detail, all well executed. Paint is excellent, along with the fine letter details. The ladder rungs are wire, and have the nice feature of a molded in plastic "attachment" points that very accurately portray the real prototype method a rung is attached to the side of a car with. This seems to be a new feature. The windows are frosted, so you can't see all the electronics inside. The car has a wood grained roof walk. The smoke stack is scale sized and appropriate. The deck is wood grained, and laser etched as to board appearance. The speaker’s holes also seem to be cut out by a laser. The ladder rung(s) that hang down from the body of the car are brass and are a nice added on detail. The brake wheel is also a brass casting, but it could have more detail. The doors on the cab are accurately scale sized at 2' 6" wide, and 6" 6" tall.

If you have the crane, I think you would be remiss not to have this accessory car for it, as it adds greatly to the play value and the actual appearance of the pair as a prototype railroad would use.

Don Holdaway

Let's quit fighting and run some trains!
Also more time to work with trains, now out of work again