Fleet Friday: TurboTrain 2.0

 It finally arrived!

After a long wait, Rapido's TurboTrain 2.0 is now on the layout and it was well worth the wait.  It came with a lot of goodies,

but the improved performance is the best thing of all.  

I know that the TurboTrain was long gone from the rails in 2006, but this iconic train couldn't be passed over.  I bought the first version on a whim when I saw it on sale on month in the Walthers sales flyer.  It was only a three-car set, and I spent several years after working on getting all of the intermediate cars to make a complete nine-car train.  It was just a cool looking train and an equally cool model.  The problem was, the model did not run really well, especially at slow speeds.  The updated Turbo is a noticeable improvement in running reliability.  ...even at speed step 1!

Along with running improvements, lighting and sound has benefited from the second version.  I appreciate that the sounds from the first run, including station announcements have returned.  I spent a Sunday afternoon running the Turbo, first with just the PDCs.  I wanted to see how the guidance arms do on the curves.  It was great to see that there we no problems.  I then made a 5-car train and ran that around the layout, and again it ran beautifully.  I need to add the traction tires before I run the full 9-car set.  I also need to find a spot to store a train that I've been told is about seven feet in length before running the whole thing.

My biggest problem now is what I should do with my old TurboTrain.