Today we discovered a Christmas gift from Cris’ brother, which had been hidden in the grandkids’ playhouse by the UPS guy. Apparently it was raining on the day they delivered the package.
Inside the box was a new Aristocraft RS-3 diesel locomotive. It’s a real beauty, with great detail. I ran it this evening and it performs very well. Lots of pulling power, and runs smoother and slower than anything else I have. Handles the tight curves fine too, with one exception.
There is one spot on the lower level, west end, where it likes to climb the outside rail. Since it only happens there, the problem is with the track rather than the loco. Most likely the track is slightly out of gauge there. Shouldn’t be difficult to correct.
Although it’s quite long, at 1:29 scale it’s small even next to my 1:24 stuff, and the Buddy L 2-6-2 towers over it. Eventually I will probably try to “upscale” it with a larger cab and other modifications.
