These are not the autoracks you saw in the "MTH Conrail Power" video. These are the ones I bought *after* I shot that video. Now I have 38 of the little monsters, but you won't be able to see them all in one train till I have a loop set up in my basement. At almost 60 feet in length, the test track just isn't big enough. So here runs my K-Line collector's club SD70 with the 16 newer 'racks. Half of these cars are the newest MTH ones, with the trucks moved inward from the car ends. Listen for the change in the cadence of rail joint noises as the train passes.

This loco's debut was delayed almost a year. It was one of the KCC units with problematic Lionel electronics. No, not the awful first-gen RailSounds Lionel sticks it's TMCC licenses with (seriously, an F3 horn in an SD70? WTF?), but the "just make sounds and not move" variety that afflected many units in this class. This unit was repaired under warranty the designated service center for these units and other K-Line equipment. Also repaired was a DOA Lionel U30C, which was one of the first Lionel-branded units the service center has witnessed with the same problem.

I actually shot this train almost a month earlier. But when it came time to edit the footage, I found a recurring hiccup in the video that appeared to be a defect in the tape. The first re-shoot was derailed by a coupler on the Conrail car that, despite the new MTH design, didn't want to stay closed. While repairing the coupler mechanism, it got too dark to start shooting. Two weeks later, the right amount of sunlight beamed at the house across the street, and the result is what you're watching. (less info)