A little more retail therapy today.
The Lionel/K line SD75M finally arrived in blighty.
For Lionel it's actually a nice detailed model, that'd be because it was originally manufactured by K Line and due to legal battles and all sorts of
ended up being acquired by Lionel. They only shipped 345 units according to urban myth, initially to K Line owners club only but then generally at the end. The whole batch was only shipped in three Railroads and only a hand full were TMCC DCC fitted, this one isn't so at best guess it's one of perhaps 100 or so models.
If we go back to my previous retail therapy post about the OMI SD75M there are a few details about the real engines, but I'll repeat what's necessary from there to here.
ATSF ordered the initial batch of SD75M's which came with road numbers 200 - 250 and went back for more, unfortunately during that process ATSF merged with BN and became BNSF, the second order progressed and units were delivered post merger in ATSF warbonnet scheme, they differed only in road numbers (8251 - 8275) and the change of lettering on the side, BNSF instead of Santa Fe.
Still following? Good, BNSF went back for more but by this time EMD was fitting the whisper cab and the new engines came with a slot in the nose which was the forward vibration isolation joint, to differentiate from the older models EMD listed these as SD75I with road numbers 8276 - 8301.
Later on BNSF regrouped all the earlier engines into the 82xx series (8200 - 8301) and then all back to 200 - 301, confused, easily done.
Lionel dropped the ball in two respects, the model is not an SD75M, it is an SD75I, as such it never carried Santa Fe on the sides, only BNSF in red, further more road numbers can only be 8276 - 8301 or later 249-50 / 276 - 299.
There is no real easy way around this fudge, you could re number and re logo the unit to make a genuine SD75I or fill the nose slot and back date to a SD75M of which there is little point as I already have the OMI version.
The other issues are all down to compromises for three rail and the 'play' trains brigade, plastic handrail posts that flex and do not break when you grab the model, split pilot to accommodate tight curves, massive claw coupler, enormous wheels....with traction tyres
and a fuel tank that's been on a health farm for six months.
Oooohh those wheels.......nice to see a full transom modeled on the truck mind, new wheels will make room to narrow the trucks to the correct width but that transom will need reducing to suit.
Skinny line fuel tank, should be almost double that depth as below, despite being a SD70 the tank is the same between the two models, as is much of the car body, especially those with the original slab radiators.
The choices are, keep as original even with all it's faults, it is in mint condition and the inner shop shelf is near perfect, the outer shipping one isn't to shabby either. Or, get stuck in and do a decent job of a SD75I.
So, I can now change an address.......yaaaah, but, it still will not let me read decoders at all. I still suspect it's a power issue as reading the Dash 8 makes a clicking noise, exactly the same noise when you first place the engine on the track, why it will let me edit the address and not read it is still a mystery.
