Here's a recently finished project. Something for the NEC portable layout perhaps?  I thought it would be appropriate to post here seeing as how Bachmann's release of the HHP-8 made this possible.

A special thanks to a friend of mine for his assistance with the project. I'm proud to say we've been able to go back-and-forth assisting one another with various kitbashing and painting projects. He did an excellent job with his model! When doing a project like this, I try not to replicate the number that the person assisting me modeled out of my own personal sign of respect (except in the case when the person models all numbers on the prototype OR happened to model the same number that I wanted to model for sentimental/personal reasons, lol)







I used PolyScale Stainless Steel for the silver as I felt it was the best mix. It had the stainless steel feel but also had a bit of the Floquil Platinum Mist feel to it as well. The future floor polish did not take away from the luster (something I had been nervous about).

I used straight PolyScale D&H blue and trim film for the orange stripes. The MARC markings came from a friend of mine that had a few leftover custom decals. The blue numbers came from a CSX set but it only has two "1"s in the set which is kind of a bummer.

Is there an official reason why Bachmann has not run this particular paint scheme with its HHPs?  General thought in the community (amongst consumers anyway) is that more roadnames/colors are better for a particular product in terms of sales.

If a fellow, well-respected Bachmann Forum member and NEC modeler is reading this post, he's probably rolling his eyes and will surely chew me out here or in Springfield in a couple of months...

I'm one car away from having 2 complete Acela Express train sets (the prototypical 6 cars) WITHOUT duplicate car numbers! I just need one more Businessclass car. Does someone have a list of car numbers that Bachmann produced for the Businessclass cars?  They all start with 35XX

I have the following Businessclass cars:
3530
3532
3528
3517
3510

If anyone knows which road number to look out for, that would be very helpful. I'm pretty sure that that last number is likely found in an actual train set which would make the pursuit a little more difficult but given the fact that I'm still running 4-car sets for now due to space limitations, it does keep my "ambitions" in check

Thanks!

I just noticed that whoever assembled one of my HHPs put the wrong roof shroud on one side. 

One side of the roof shroud should have a bunch of little vents and be solid for the most part.  The other side should have one long vent (colored black).  It should also be tooled such that it can easily rest over the access box for the pantograph/track power switch.

Note the two photos below.  They show both sides of the locomotive.  Pay close attention to the roof to see what I'm talking about.  The roof shrouds on both sides resemble what is shown in the second photo.


source: http://www.inventivecomputing.com/acela.html



I just noticed this on one of my locos the other day (number 650).  The others are fine.  The reason this got by me is that I mainly view trains from the inside of my layout as they are virtually up against the wall so I spend 99% of my time looking at one side of my locomotives and rollingstock.  I have another HHP which is still sealed in its box and I'm a little nervous about opening it and discovering the same problem.  I bought both of them around the same time. 

Has anyone else noticed this?

All my other HHPs are fine, I just happened to get one that slipped through the cracks 

I need to gain access to the motor under the weights and lube some of the contacts down there.  Can someone tell me how to do this safely?

Thanks!

Ok guys,

Despite my hectic schedule since the start of the school year (Grad School), I finally found time to continue with my AEM7AC rebuild project and update the page.

I've been asked about that page at shows and emails and I've finally moved ahead with the project.

Here's the link: http://www1.freewebs.com/marylindsayrr/rebuild%20projects/rebuildAEM7AC.html

Also note that I removed the logos from 927. Many pointed out (when the logos were originally present on the model) frantically that the prototype does not have the logos but I originally did this knowingly with the anticipation of the prototype having the logos applied. Of course now that I removed them, I'm sure the prototype has them now but I plan to leave it "bare" with respect to the markings.

I hope it is meeting your expectiations. Some painting here and there remains but the only thing left is virtually the working ditch and strobe lights. 
~Kyle