Hi all,

I finished recently the weathering and renumbering on an Athearn GP35 (RTR model, HO scale). It depicts an ATSF unit, phase I in the mid to late sixties #1327, in a rather tired condition. I haven't dealt with any detail upgrades on this one yet (MU hoses, lift rings, coupler cut bars, new couplers) and i need to change number boards to the correct new road number. Luckily the Athearn factory yellow matched the Microscale decals (and my prototype photos) and i did not need to repaint / re-decal the whole shell (which i ll need to do in my Kato units...)

I just received this months release of the 60' Gunderson box cars in the new red TTX scheme and compared them to previous releases of this car from Athearn. I like the flatter paint, almost satin finish. The yellow is brighter and the bottom side is all black. Also the trucks aren't shiny, they are more matte than earlier releases of this car.

The other change I noticed is the application of the white Overheight strip on the ends of the car.

Here are some pictures.

A rigorous review of wheel design is described by Tad Daito in the May-June issue of the O Scale Resource on line magazine.  His test of custom "O" scale stainless steel wheels ran two hours a day for 13 years.  http://oscale.uberflip.com/t/62954-the-o-scale-resource   This work is being done in Japan using American prototype models, described thoroughly and bluntly.   His Low-D reduces friction !

A train of over 100 cars weighs 100 pounds and the locomotive pulls 1 amp.

I'm thinking of connecting an F3A and a B unit using a drawbar.  These units always run together.  I suspect others have done this, and am interested to see how.  What material is used for the drawbar? Do you use the standard coupler pockets? Do you permanently attach to both locos, or just to the lead unit and use a pin on the trailing unit the way steam locos connect to their tenders?

Any info will be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks 

John C