Weekly Photo Fun 3/25 - 3/31/22

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I converted one of the Rapido Penn Central EP5 (or E40s) into its freight configuration.   This necessitated removing a good chunk of the roof detail, one of the pantographs, the third rail shoes, and re-lettering the unit.   These ran into Conrail but were never repainted.  They ran their last miles in New Jersey, so I wanted to model one of them. 4977 was the last one in service.  

So basically, I have the whole line up of mainline Conrail Electrics.

How well does the EP5 run? I am waiting for the one I reserved which is also Penn Central.

Well, I haven't really "stretched its legs" yet, but so far on the little sticks of track I've put it on, it seems to work just fine.  It does have some momentum out of the box.

Probably the only thing  I don't know how I feel about is the pantograph mechanisms.  

To begin with, there is a switch on the bottom of the engine, but unlike other electrics, this controls whether or not the pantographs can be raised at all.  The model comes with the pantographs down and disabled (presumably to prevent someone from accidentally sheering them off).  Once you switch this on, the pantographs will rise and fall automatically depending on direction.    You can also specifically raise and lower particular pantographs using F13 and F14, and they will stay despite any direction changes you make with the model.   

Likewise, you can set a "switching" mode, which will keep whatever pantograph raised while changing direction.  Otherwise, the model makes you wait for the pantographs to change before starting in the other direction. This comes complete with the sound effects of someone walking from one end of the engine to the other.   

However, the major drawback is that you can't actually raise and lower the pantograph by hand.   if you wanted to say, pose the model for pictures,  You'd need to fire it up and raise the appropriate pantograph.    When they are in the raised position, you can press them down by hand, but nothing locks them down.  They would easily pop up again if bumped the right way. 

Since most people don't have overhead wire, my guess is that most people will leave them locked down and switched off,  but I just figured I'd mention its peculiar set up.    The automatic function is not as fun for me because I flat out removed the other pantograph on mine (which hurt, its an expensive model),  but I have a pair of New Havens on lay away so I will be able to enjoy the full model with those.