N Scale Southern Pacific GP-9 loco

Here's one for you Super and Sunhuntin ;

very nice!! what make is it?

[Super]

That is very cool, so small, so detailed. Is the reason for the gray sponge to protect the handrails from damage? Are they made of plastic or metal? Yes, these style diesels of some of my favorites. I like the walk platforms and handrails.

It's an 'Atlas' which was listed on eBay by the seller as 'Kato'. It is brand new as noted by the foam packing I forgot to remove when i took the pictures lol!! But 'Atlas' are actually made by Rivarossi in Italy who are one of the premium makers along with the Marklin's, Roco's and Fleishmann's of Europe.

I've already got a couple of HO gauge Rivarossi's and they are unbelievable in terms of detail and running quality - the ones I have are the German type Steam Loco's, although not 'Mr Bugg' as so loved by Super

I'm waiting on some 'N' gauge track etc... which is en-route from Japan, well I say Japan, its stuck in customs in Coventry at the moment - I swear they are a nightmare, aside from the darn charges it seems the packages take longer to get through customs than they do to get to the UK from Japan for gods sake lol!

nice one. what track did you buy?

i have an HO rivarossi, the john wilkes. a friend found it at a thrift store for $20USD and brought it back for me. i went on to find out its worth at least $300USD. you are right that the quality and running are both top notch. shes the envy of the club. whenever i bring her out, i get all sorts of "nasty" comments.

i know what you mean about packages taking longer in local movement than international. running joke here is its quicker to get a box from overseas than to receive a letter posted from the next town over.

I'm waiting on some 'N' gauge track etc... which is en-route from Japan, well I say Japan,

That would not be Atlas track, as KATO is Japanese. KATO has preinstalled ballast(thank you marketing!), in which Atlas has just rails and ties.

It won't really matter, it will run on any N gauge track, but I've got some Kato coming as well as some Tomy N gauge, both have the plastic balast/shoulder as well as the sleepers on which the metal rails run. I quite like that look as it save having to balast a track if you build a full layout if you don't want to. Although I probably would lol!!

I can get Peco track here cheaply which is the more traditional sleepers/rails, but well I'll wait on what is in the post for now

nice stuff. just to let you know, kato and tomix track wont connect up. the joiners are different on, same as tomy and trackmaster wont connect.

Thanks for the heads up on that, I assumed that is probably the case as most systems are closed when you get things like the uni-track, that's one big advantage of the more standard sleeper/rail type tracks as most are compatible.

The only reason I have both is a I managed to pick up a couple of cheap starter sets which when you factor in the cost of a loco, some rolling stock, track, controller etc... were an absolute steal in comparison to buying even just a loco seperate

I've got one particular loco set coming tho' which i'm itching to share with you as it is a real stunner, but for now I'm keeping quiet just in case it don't get here or something lol!!