I was down at NJ Transit's Newark Liberty International Airport Station railfanning just a few weeks ago. I just got on platform one when suddenly, a diesel-powered NJ Transit train zoomed by! The consist included a GP40PH-2, F40PH-2CAT and three Comet I & V Cars. I have never seen one with such a weird consist. Can someone identify this train for me?

I recently purchased a second hand President's Choice DC Controller from my LHS here in Toronto. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find any information regarding it. The model indicated is F352 and some information regarding this will be greatly appreciated. I never knew that President's Choice made DC Controllers!

Has anyone also noticed that HO model train manufacturs rarely produce modern-era (1980s+) equipment? I was planning on building a NJ Transit HO Layout with a time period from 2003-2005, but unfortuately, I had to scrape it as there weren't enough commercially available equipment available (Comets, Arrows, ALP-46s, rebuilt GP40s...).

I am planning to build an Amtrak NEC layout from NY Penn Station to Newark International Airport STN. I was simply wondering...would be a treacherous task to recreate the traffic levels of the NEC in HO?

Actually, I have heard that the fastest steam locomotive ever would be the first of Pennsy's experimental steam locomotives, the S1 6-4-4-6. It ran regularly between 100-120MPH. However, one record in the early 1940s indicated that it ran at a speed of 153MPH around Ft. Wayne.

Rogertra,

I think he meant the Acela Express units.

It greatly depends on the year that you prefer to model. If you were to model the years from 1998-2002, you should probably use six Amfleet Acela paint scheme cars, one Amfleet Acela cafe car and one Amfleet Acela business car (Bachmann does not produce business cars, so use an another business car). Of course, from time to time, you'd see Metroliners with only four Acelas.

Now, if you were to model 2003 to 2007, I would suggest that you use the same consist, only with all Phase VI. Of course, you could always add one Phase IV or Acela coach in the consist as an unrepainted car.

Of course, you could always couple up the HHP-8 to a long distance train (Silver Star, Cardinal...). For the Silver star, you could need a 1700 series Amtrak Ph.IV baggage, a 10-6 sleeper in Ph.IV, three Viewliners in IV, a heritage Ph.VI/IV diner, an Amfleet II lounge and three to four Amfleet II Cars (Ph.IV/VI), all of which are produced by Walthers.

Then again, you could use them on the Keystone trains. You'd need only two Ph.VI Amfleets Coaches with one Ph.VI Amfleet Cafe Coach.

For some reason, I noticed that some of the modern Horseshoe Curve images indicate that the main has only three tracks! Whatever had happened to the four-tracked main line???