ToyTrains1’s Blog

I've reviewed the MTH Premier woodsided passenger cars.  These are models of late 19th century cars that go very well with the Premier line models of locomotives from the same era, such as the exquisite model of the New York Central #999, and are probably the finest passenger cars yet produced by MTH.  A photo of one is below; there are lots more photos with the review on my Train Reviews page.

I also notice that I've neglected to mention that MTH DCS v.4.01 was released.  This point release corrects the problem with Rev. G TIUs that I mentioned previously.  There's one small bug in this release (you show me software without bugs and I'll show you vaporware) that affects only the older 5v PS2 locomotives — if you move one of those locomotives to the inactive list, you'll be unable to move it back to the active list without first deleting it and then re-adding it.  The simple work-around is to just not make such a locomotive inactive in the first place (yes, I know, lash-ups are a special case).  I expect that there will be another bug-fix point release in the not-too-distant future.

I've been remiss about doing reviews over the last few months, I don't quite know why.  With the new Cab Forward however, that comes to an end.  The review is done and appears on my Train Reviews page as well as in my Train Forum.  Photos of this new gem of a model appear on my Cab Forwards page.  And here it is in all its glory!

First, the new toy.  I picked up the new MTH Premier Southern Pacific Cab Forward the other day.  Way back when, MTH had issued a PS1 model of this steamer and I have it.  This one is equipped with PS2 and the difference is like day and night (you can compare them as I now have videos of both of them posted on my web site and on YouTube).  For this reissue, MTH has, of course, increased the level of detail and made it available in two different models, as-built (as was the original model) or with the updated cab front that SP used when they rebuilt some of these huge locomotives.  I went with the updated front.  As you can see in the new video available on my Multimedia page as well as on YouTube (link below) it looks and sounds great!

Speaking of YouTube, I started posting my videos there about 14 months ago and I now have (with this new one) 88 train videos.  In those 14 months, the videos have racked up a total of over ONE MILLION views!  That is just totally mind blowing!

As visitors to my web site know, over the years I've combined my love of toy trains with my love of woodworking to build a number of display cases to hold my O-Gauge model trains (they can be seen on my Display Cases page).  Over time, I've received quite a few requests for information on how I go about building them so the last time I built one, I took the time to document the construction process by taking photos at each step and I've now prepared a photo essay on how I go about it.  You can find that page at this link: Display Case Construction.  It's pretty much a step-by-step photographic guide on how I build my cases, including many of the time-saving tricks that I've learned over the years.  If you're planning on building a display case for your trains, I hope you find this to be helpful! 

A little over a year ago, I posted my first video on YouTube.  Since then, the 80-odd videos have garnered an astonishing, to me, 900,000+ views.  Two of the most popular have been those showing the Southern Pacific Daylight steam locomotives, the GS-2 and the GS-4.  I've received quite a few messages asking if I could show the two of them double-headed.  This video is the result of those requests.  It shows the GS-2 in the lead with the GS-4 following.  They're hauling the matching set of passenger cars, which I've taken the time to equip with passengers.  The video is available in the usual three formats (Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG-4) on the Multimedia page of my web site as well as on YouTube.  The YouTube link is below.

I finally received the add-on set of BMT Standard Subway Cars, so I shot a quick video of all six in action.  They make a very nice set and bring back memories of riding on them when I was young.

Yesterday, a large box with eight new Atlas woodsided reefers arrived from Andy Petersen. As with all Atlas reefers, they're exquisite! Seven are the 40 foot rebuilts and one is a 36 footer.  I've updated the master listing of Atlas reefers and their photos have been added to the photo roster.  Take a gander if you haven't seen them!

DCS v.4.0 has been released by MTH and is available, as always, as a free download from their web site.  It has lots of nifty new features, which are documented on the DCS Revision History page of my main web site and I think that once you try it, you'll really like it.  I find that I use the new quickset speed control a lot, and being able to clone the remote is very, very handy, especially when you have a lot of locomotives as I do!  But now for the caveat.

Based on my own testing, it appears that there is a bug which causes the Variable 1 track to lose both voltage control and DCS signal, but only on the original Rev. G model of the TIU.  The Rev. I TIU and the Rev. H1 TIU are not affected by this bug.  As a reminder, the Rev. I TIU has a sticker on the bottom that says Rev. I and the Rev. H1 TIU has a sticker on the bottom that says Rev. H1.  The Rev. G TIU has no model designation sticker on the bottom.  If you have the Rev. G TIU and you use the Variable 1 channel, I would recommend not upgrading to v.4.0 of DCS quite yet.  I expect that v.4.01 which fixes this bug will be out shortly.

::sigh::  At least it's a software-based system where such a bug can be fixed with an upload of corrected software.  Helluva beta tester I am, not to catch this for MTH before they released the software.

One year ago today, I posted my first video of an MTH locomotive in action on YouTube as an experiment to see if it would get any interest.  It did, so I posted more videos.  Fast forward to one year later, I have 85 videos of MTH locomotives in action on YouTube (almost all of the ones that I have available on my web site) and they've garnered, in total, in excess of three-quarters-of-a-million views.  While that might not be much for a political or music video, for a bunch of little hobby videos, it's not half-bad.  You know, I think the experiment succeeded! 

I swapped out the locomotives, D16d for H3, and shot another video showing the American hauling the new passenger cars.  It looks super!  It's available on my Multimedia page as well as YouTube.