We go decades waiting for somebody to release these bi-levels, scrounging for 3 brothers kits wherever you can find them.......and no real options for the BN E units to pull them. And now....here we are with Atlas offering the Sharyo's, and Rapido doing the Budds, and the holy grail of E-units..........what a time to be a triple track modeler.......Really would have thought Kato would have gotten in on this sooner........in HO scale. Great review.
Great to see you back for a review!! Appreciate the time and effort put into this! Like you, I’m left a bit on the fence by these. As a collector of Chicago equipment (grew up with the UPNW line right behind my house), these are a must have. However, your review reinforced some of the concerns I had with picking them up. The lack of instructions for a less than obvious lighting system is baffling and frustrating, and the underbody detail is very subpar in my opinion, especially compared to what we can expect from the Rapido cars coming soon for a similar MSRP. I’m not sure if I’m going to pick a few of these up or wait for the next release and hope they release Metra cars again. Can’t imagine they wouldn’t. Again, appreciate the review!! Yours are by far and away the best on YT! 👏
Atlas did a great job on these cars. I should know, I ride them almost everyday. The only complaint I have is there still remains the annoying separation visible between the cars. Passengers do not leap from one car to another. I think the price is very fair as well. If they run smoothly remains to be seen, but I have faith in Atlas.
Great review, thank you. The 5 cars I ordered should be here Tuesday, and the tedious process of converting them from Metra to Virginia Railway Express will commence shortly thereafter. The price tag does hurt, but Im taking it in stride considering these are just about our only nice option in HO as stated (monopoly pricing). I do a little bit of dcc work, and I can guess with confidence that your lighting output functions are just wonky on the programming side of your decoder, easily fixable with JMRI or LokProgrammer.
I wish they'd made more of an effort to simulate the stainless-steel finish, instead of just painting the cars silver. I don't think they look good in person. I wonder how close they will match the upcoming Rapido Budd bilevels?
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We go decades waiting for somebody to release these bi-levels, scrounging for 3 brothers kits wherever you can find them.......and no real options for the BN E units to pull them. And now....here we are with Atlas offering the Sharyo's, and Rapido doing the Budds, and the holy grail of E-units..........what a time to be a triple track modeler.......Really would have thought Kato would have gotten in on this sooner........in HO scale. Great review.
I bought two three brothers kits that the wood is bent in 😕. Me too!
Great to see you back for a review!! Appreciate the time and effort put into this!
Like you, I’m left a bit on the fence by these. As a collector of Chicago equipment (grew up with the UPNW line right behind my house), these are a must have. However, your review reinforced some of the concerns I had with picking them up.
The lack of instructions for a less than obvious lighting system is baffling and frustrating, and the underbody detail is very subpar in my opinion, especially compared to what we can expect from the Rapido cars coming soon for a similar MSRP.
I’m not sure if I’m going to pick a few of these up or wait for the next release and hope they release Metra cars again. Can’t imagine they wouldn’t.
Again, appreciate the review!! Yours are by far and away the best on YT! 👏
Atlas did a great job on these cars. I should know, I ride them almost everyday. The only complaint I have is there still remains the annoying separation visible between the cars. Passengers do not leap from one car to another. I think the price is very fair as well. If they run smoothly remains to be seen, but I have faith in Atlas.
Yeah I did too, but the gap is for models, cars would hit otherwise unless you’re running in straight line
I can only begin to fathom the time and effort put into these detailed reviews.
Thank you!
I think they look great and I agree with some of the other RUclipsrs. It’s been a long time waiting for Metra bilevel in the silver type looking cars.
We love your videos! Upload as often as you can 🙂
Very good update.
Great review, thank you. The 5 cars I ordered should be here Tuesday, and the tedious process of converting them from Metra to Virginia Railway Express will commence shortly thereafter. The price tag does hurt, but Im taking it in stride considering these are just about our only nice option in HO as stated (monopoly pricing). I do a little bit of dcc work, and I can guess with confidence that your lighting output functions are just wonky on the programming side of your decoder, easily fixable with JMRI or LokProgrammer.
Great review
Which DCC decoder did you use for the upgrade?
These look great but I'm kinda disappointed they only did Metra. I would be very tempted to get these if they had done CalTrain.
I wish they'd made more of an effort to simulate the stainless-steel finish, instead of just painting the cars silver. I don't think they look good in person. I wonder how close they will match the upcoming Rapido Budd bilevels?
They will probably match the Rapido's well given that Rapido uses silver paint for stainless as well.
Nice train
I'm getting these soon from another hobby store online.
I'm still wating for my pre ordered but I've heard they can do 18 in curves
These are very cool cars. But very overpriced
Too pricey