Great info, Ed. I'll look into your modification. My minimum mainline curves are the same as yours. It does seem strange that BLI has made this necessary.
BigDaddyJim Wright did a review
Sound and smoke are definitely not for me.
Why are there radio chatter sound effects for a 1930s locomotive?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
John-NYBWI hope it runs as good as it looks.
I haven't seen any documentation from BLI about the use of the included 'wings' that apply just ahead of the cylinder covers and below the pilot beam. I believe I saw or heard a reference to them as being used for a display model.
I went ahead and installed them in their fairly snug-fitting pins and sockets. You have to get aligned just right and use something like a wood skewer to push the piece 'home' once it is lined up.
On my 34-36" curves I saw that the lead pilot wheels would derail somewhere on the main line. I flipped the engine on her back and used a pencil to indicate where the fouling area is on the inside of these rather thick molded pieces then used a diamond abrasive bit in a rotary tool to carve out a small area to give more clearance for the lead wheels.
Success!
Vanderbilt_wings-2 by Edmund, on Flickr
The red area shows where I cut away behind the panel. BLI could just have easily made a relief in this area but it seems they chose not to. The plastic is some kind of granular type almost like it has a graphite-like additive to it.
Vanderbilt_wings-marked up by Edmund, on Flickr
Apparently, the spare trailer truck included is also called for if you want to use it on display. It has more relief and larger journal boxes on it.
Cheers, Ed
Jim Wright did a review
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
“Was the NYC still running heavyweights on the Commodore Vanderbilt when this early streamlined loco was put in service and were the cars painted to match the loco or were they still Pullman Green?
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Glad to hear you got it sorted out John. Now I'm going to have two forum members I'm jealous of!
Mike
I didn't check the last day of the Show Me Something thread for March and now it's locked but I did see Ed's (gmpullman) streamlined Hudson for the Commodore Vanderbilt which I'm guessing is the new release from BLI. That's an impressive looking loco. I'm glad Ed posted that because I had one on pre-order with Trainworld and I went to their website to check on the status of mine. That's when I realized why I hadn't received mine. I lost my wallet a couple months ago and had to replace all my credit cards including the one I had made the pre-order with. Naturally, the old card got declined when they tried to charge the purchase to it and I missed their email informing me of this. I just contacted them and got it all sorted out and was told they would ship mine Monday. Looking forward to getting it. I hope it runs as good as it looks.