My dealer called today.
The new long awaited 1:20.3 coaches are in.
They’re supposed to be “improved”.
I went down to pick them up, expecting the green ones I had ordered 2 years ago. (That’s all they had in D&RGW back then.) Then the San Jaun’s were announced and I thought dang, I’d rather have those. When I got down to my LHS, he had forgotten I wanted green, and sold the set to some one else. He said, if you take the yellow set, I’ll give you a good deal. Hot Damn! Everything worked out in the end. Here’s one of them.
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/jebouck/lscJScoach1.jpg)
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/jebouck/lscJSCoach2.jpg)
Jim has a “unique” memory.
I’ve gone into the store and seen a on the shelf for sale. I say to Jim, I see my gizmo had finally come in.
“Huh,” says he.
“Yeah,” says I, “that locomotive on the shelf over there.”
“Oh,” says he. “I wondered why I ordered that. It’s a good thing you came in today. By tomorrow, it would have been gone.”
Sigh.
John Bouck said:
Nice natural background, especially the sky!
Well, John…. You’ve had them for at least a few hours by now…. 
How are they? Improved?
AL McEvoy said:Well, they still have the same old wheelsets with dragging pickups. I expected BB wheelsets. That's another $200.00 I need to spend. The coupler post has been re-inforced with gussets on for sides. That's not a big improvement. I'll cut it off and body mount KD's. The floors are nice and snug against the ends on this batch--no gap as in the older ones.
Well, John…. You've had them for at least a few hours by now…. :-) How are they? Improved?
Other than that, I didn’t notice anything new and improved.
John Bouck said:That is so cool!
I went down to pick them up, expecting the green ones I had ordered 2 years ago. (That's all they had in D&RGW back then.) Then the San Jaun's were announced and I thought dang, I'd rather have those. When I got down to my LHS, he had forgotten I wanted green, and sold the set to some one else. He said, if you take the yellow set, I'll give you a good deal. Hot Damn! Everything worked out int the end.
Nice looking cars John
John,
Did AMS eliminate the gap at the ends of the coaches? That was the only thing wrong with the older ones, but it was an easy fix. Any signs of the combine that has been promised for so long?
Yes, the gaps are gone.
There isn’t any info available as to when the combines will be released. 
I have one on order from RC Models.
Mine arrived today. The bell woke me up (Night shift…) and I got to the door just as the FEDEX guy was filling out the “we’ll come back later” tag. He then presented me with a box that involved a great deal of manhandling to get into the house. Having spotted it in a safe place where no one will trip on it and the cats won’t knock it over, I went back to bed. I hope to have them unpacked maybe on Monday … but the main line is out of service for plaster work in the Canyon … so it’ll be awhile before they can really run, but I would like to form up a train just to see.
That’s ok too… I have to tell Stan C. to print and send the first round of decals…
Matthew (OV)
Looks really nice. I’ve always liked the original double stripe with silver trucks/ends “painted train” a whole bunch more than the later single stripe with black trucks (which is still used today on the D&S). Something about all that silver that I really like…might be because the Silver Vista looks so much better with silver trucks then black. Just to compare, here is a trainset of LGB cars that I added a stripe to and painted the trucks/ends silver…and a scratchbuilt Silver Vista:
