(erielack) More EL product reviews...

["Tupaczewski, Paul R \(Paul\)" <"paultup_@_lucent.com">]

I picked up a bunch of HO scale EL stuff yesterday. Here are some brief
reviews...

* EL autoracks (from Accurail). The cars are nice! The colors are accurate
(brown for the tri-level and bi-level racks, the bi-level flat is TT yellow,
which I have photos of, so that's right). The placard lettering is a bit off
(they used a generic Helvetica typeface for the words "ERIE LACKAWANNA" - oh
well, I will have to do a decal set for these, I suppose)  But for many
people, it will suffice - the logo is nicely formed.

* EL gondolas (from Life-Like). These are the new "second generation" of
gons with metal grabs (but no metal stirrups? ugh!). They're offered in 3
numbers assembled and 4 unassembled. The assembly on these goes much faster
since most of the underframe is already put together for you, a nice touch.
These cars have also gone up in price - I paid $7.50/kit for undecs in the
first run. These kits cost me $11 each! Ouch. As for the accuracy of the
lettering - I'd love to find out who's doing their artwork, since there's a
lot of commonality between Life-Like's models and others (including Atlas).
The billboard ERIE LACKAWANNA roadname is OK - the lettering is a tad bit
heavy, and too squared off, but it's acceptable. The reporting marks are
very close to the correct typeface, but they lettering is not heavy enough.
Fortunately on a black car, it's easily fixed. The small Roman lettering
(Capy, blt., etc.) is very nicely done. Overall, they're very good (but I
always have a gripe somewhere, don't I? ;)

* EL bay-windows (from Overland). WAY cool. Really. If you have a couple
bucks lying around, splurge and treat yourself to one of these. The detail
is great - the more I look, the more I find - the small window wipers, the
small square marker lights, tiny lettering is clearly readable. (by the way,
does anyone know when the square markers were added? The red models don't
have them)  Speaking of markers, this Larry Berger collection photo on
George Elwood's site (http://gelwood.railfan.net/frt/el-c344l.jpg) very
clearly shows the "highway-style" markers the railroad used before they
standardized on those small square boxes. Anyway, the GMY scheme cabooses
had only one notable shortcoming that I could quickly pick out - the step
edges aren't yellow (but that's easily fixed). 

I haven't had a chance to compare the model to the drawings on George
Elwood's site (http://gelwood.railfan.net/frt/elcab.gif), but they sure look
accurate to me...

By the way, did anyone get an ERIE bay-window? I haven't seen one of those
yet!

	- Paul


Paul R. Tupaczewski______________
Lucent Technologies
Mobile Internet Applications
Wireless Networks Group
67 Whippany Road                 Voice: (973) 386-4966
Room 15C-121                           Fax: (973) 386-3538
Whippany, NJ 07981       E-mail: "paultup_@_lucent.com"
____________________________________


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