Heart first, questions later…

Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a reason. Sometimes it’s good to jump heart first and ask questions later. I did not need these Rio Grande models, but I sure did want them…

And with the internet and global shipping in under 10 days I’m holding them. Anticipation was good, exciting, that feeling we’re all familiar with, leading up to a childhood birthday or Christmas… but starved of today in our world of courier delivery within hours of placing an order…

Anticipation - would they meet my expectations? 

The Scaletrains GP30 is a beautifully conceived thing. Just the right amount of detail, a little light but my word a gorgeous model with etched roof fans, hand rails and grabs, flush glazing with no prism effect, fantastic printing, lovely body/truck interface and my word, yes, even sand pipes! She runs well too… I’d say the only slight anti-climax was the finish - it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t have the lustre, in the flesh, that a Farish model does - nor as shown in the photos on Scaletrains website. I am happy.

The Microtrains box car. As good as I hoped. A recent release with plastic chassis and interior weights over each truck. The tooling is ever so crisp, there are some nice separate touches, brake footboard and the brake wheel are as good as any current offering - the roof walk is see through but as it’s plastic a touch thick, paint though is lovely, just right for a box car. New release means body mounted couplers too…

The caboose is sublime. This surpassed my expectations. I’d heard good things but in the flesh, it has the wow factor. Lovely paint, fine details and handrails all over - and delightfully rear end and back up working lights on DC! 

So as a trio they delight, sat together on my Mosslanda they’re just right.

Initial observations:

• American N is still too small for me. It just doesn’t have enough sense of mass, unlike British N, strangely.
• The quality of what China can produce is phenomenal, even if I had all the bits I couldn’t put one together as neatly as this, and these are mass produced models by people who turn up at 9am and just make trains.
• The RioGrande micro is definitely now, the Christmas project. A mix of nostalgia and meloncholy, I already know it will be a great tonic for the time of year.

 

But wait, there is more! Did any of you notice the couplers? These are not the usual mahoosive Microtrains examples that I so hated last winter with the CP barge scheme… these are ‘n-possible’.

I picked up a a few sets to try out, they’re fiddly at first but you get used to that - and the appearance is second to none. No more slinky bouncing trains. They’re not quite as good as the video shows on coupling up and I have, as yet, not got the knack of uncoupling them but for this project, and as a neat experiment, I can see massive potential. They are 3D printed in resin yet can cope with massive long trains (see Grant Eastman’s Southern Alberta - and try hard to avoid the rabbit hole of his channel).

So, as I sit here, snoring dogs (that need a walk!) beside me, I’m filled with hope. There are some talented, clever, driven people in our hobby. More, we have some wonderful, relative affordable models at our fingertips. All of this, fuel for our imagination. My little slice of Colorado will be necessarily small - but the dreams beyond its walls will fill my heart. Until next time, more soon…

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