I'll attest that I'm good for at least one of these.  If there's an E44 in the works, I'll be good for a few.  Here's hoping!

There's a very simple problem with putting the cafe car behind the lead power car: that's not how AMTRAK runs the prototype, and having the cafe car all the way at one end would look a little silly.  Apart from that, I don't see any technical reason why you couldn't.  I haven't tried it.  If you're going to short the train a car or two, I guess the business car between the 1st class and the cafe would be a good one to leave out; that would get the cafe car to within two cars of the head of the train (which, BTW, is the TAIL of the train per the decoder's default normal direction of travel).

Unfortunately, I haven't run mine very much.  There's a fairly tight curve on my roundy-round layout that this trainset consistently has a problem with: every single time, it comes to a stop (with wheels spinning), derails, and uncouples.  That curve is really way too tight, and it's more an issue with the curve than the trainset.  An issue like that does keep me from tying up my mainline with the ACELA, though.

Adding some weight would probably help a lot with traction, and there's plenty of room in there to do it.  I'm guessing part of the problem is a sibling to the gripes about the AmTubes.  I'm sure Bachmann used a similar technique to collect power from the trucks for the lighting, so they probably drag a bit. 

I just bought enough cars to make the full 6 car + 2 power car consist.  The cafe car barely has enough power to push the train on a straight section.  Even on a nice broad curve, it slows noticeably.  When it's moving in a direction such that it is pushing more cars than it's pulling, the cars being pushed have an unfortunate tendency to derail on curves.  Some of these problems might be corrected with some tweaking, but I'm not too hopeful.

I am extremely disappointed in this model, and I do not recommend it to anyone who is looking for more than a shelf/yard queen.

I disagree with "no need to reinvent the wheel."  From what I've seen, the Brawa set is a little crude in the detailing.  More relevant for US modelers, however, is that the base and summit stations are extremely stylized.  They scream "Alpine."  US charlift/gondola/teleferique systems tend to be MUCH more utilitarian.  I am actually planning on modeling a Colorado ski resort, and at this point, I'm planning to scratch build all of the lifts.  The market for gondola and chairlift sets might be a little limited, but there certainly is one out there.  I think it would make a lot of sense to offer a utilitarian chairlift/gondola kit that was basically two wheels with support structure, intermediate pylons, cable, and vehicles.  With the mechanical workings provided, kitbashing (or offering add-on kits of) more stylized base and summit houses would be fairly simple.

I'm bumping this thread back to page 1.  I think we need to keep it alive and in the front of the Bach-man's mind.

Pretty please?

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but let's have that K4!  It is such a glaring gap in the total N Scale picture.

This topic came up over on the Atlas forum the other day.  I've noticed that it tends to crop up on a fairly regular basis all over the internet.  Back to the original question, who's going to be the manufacturer to take finally recognize the demand and provide the supply?

Quote from: in_eden on August 07, 2009, 10:05:25 PM
Eric...
How do you join the Atlas forum? I've tried about a thousand times, and no matter how I enable cookies, I never get a reply from the moderator! He probably thinks I'm stalking him!

Every time I walk passed the HO display case at my local hobby shop I have to pause and shed a mournful tear as I look at the line-up of locos... It's just not fair!

As to the second part, I agree.  I wish someone would do in N scale what BLI did in HO a few years ago: start rolling accurately modeled, road-specific steam with sound and DCC, and watch the orders roll in.  Even if we have to pay a bit of a premium, I'm sure N scalers would be willing to reward any company that did.  I can vouch for one!  (Well, at least for PRR prototypes.)

As for the Atlas boards, I had the same problem, until I finally discovered that my email client was marking the replies as junk mail.  Try contacting the moderators directly over email (not through the signup procedure).  That's how I finally got it sorted out.

My little 44-tonner has found its place among my other pieces.  Unfortunately, its ultimate home is still only a distant dream.

Taking on fuel for a long day's work.


Bringing a cut of boxcars around the roundhouse.

Although many of you will probably recognize me from other forums, I joined this one just to chime in on this thread.  I'm definitely good for a couple of these in the pre-war style.  I've already invested in the HO version.  I still think it's ridiculous that the N Scale world is without a K4.  How many different companies make them in HO?  I'll refrain from going into a full rant, as most of the merits of a K4 have already been mentioned.

C'mon Bachmann!  Let's see some PRR K4s!