Hi everyone,

I am getting one of the new MTH GS4 daylight units and was wondering if anyone was pulling the USAT alu passenger cars with it. I would love to see a picture to compare the 1/32 engine with 1/29 cars. Seems to work great with Aristo heavyweights but I understand they were kinda small for 1/29. Not a huge fan of the MTH cars have 2 full sets of the UP version and was disappointed for the money. The USAT cars look great and I would rather go that way but if they look strange from the size might need to look elsewhere. any input would be great.

Thanks and happy holidays, Dave

Dave,

Not sure about the size thing, but would be a little concerned about pulling power. The USA cars are heavy and have some drag due to the power pickups. I don’t run at night so have removed the pickups from mine. They really roll nice without the pickups.

I think you would find the MTH loco too small for the USAT cars. The cars are accurately scaled at 1:29 and so is the MTH loco at 1:32.

The Aristo H/W cars look OK with some 1:32 locos, but they are indeed a shorter version of the more common 80’ cars.

Greg

OK thanks for the input guys. those were my concerns guess I’ll stick with the MTL daylight set. think its possible to swap out the brush style pickup for the roller bearing version on the MTL passenger cars?

Dave Stubbs said:

OK thanks for the input guys. those were my concerns guess I’ll stick with the MTL daylight set. think its possible to swap out the brush style pickup for the roller bearing version on the MTL passenger cars?

PLease don’t check out on us for the responses you have received so far. Charlie Ro makes a VERY nice consist that might work with MTH(not familiar with Mikes stuff) not sure that Greg is either or OWNS any of Mikes stuff. Possibly wait for more input Dave ?

There is a LOT you can mix and match as scale matters not to me personally only how the eye travels while seeing the trains run.

Hi Rooster, By no means checking out just deciding if I want to cancel my order for the MTH cars. I’m all in on a full set of Santa Fe and SP daylight USAT cars. I understand USAT is going to re-release the F3 unless there is time to get the molds updated for the F7 into the next catalog. I’m really hoping they do a second run of the chrome plated SF units.

Dave,

Where did you get the info on USA F7 upgrade? It has been several years since I have heard anything about it.

Called USAT and asked while buying parts for my SD40-2. Gentleman told me either the F3 or the F7 would be in the 2018 catalog If the tooling can be completed in time it will be the F7 if not the F3.

Rooster, even with eleven thousand posts, I guess you have missed how many times this question has come up. Matching MTH locos with the aristo heavyweights and the usat streamliners comes up often.

A bit of searching will find the answer and pictures.

Greg

Greg Elmassian said:

Rooster, even with eleven thousand posts, I guess you have missed how many times

…

question has come up.

A bit of searching will find the answer and pictures.

Greg

Ats Rooster.

No argument, been discussed many many times. after searching for a while I was unable to find a picture of a MTH GS4 with the USAT passenger cars. So I asked the question if anyone had a picture or info. Thank you for all the responses it was very helpful.

Did you search MLS? Look for threads that Jerry Barnes has posted on, he does mostly MTH, and while he may not have the daylight, I seem to remember him on some of these “does this good look good with this” threads.

If you have not done this before, go to the forum, find a post by Jerry, go to his profile, and then “find more posts by Jerry”, you can see the thread titles and do this pretty easily/quickly.

Regards, Greg

Thanks Greg,

Hhaven’t even been to that site signed up but didn’t find what I was looking for, might need to search more. Its Not problem I have 8 USAT Santa Fe cars on the way so I’ll compare. Sadly the GS4 just got put out another month or 2 (starting to see a pattern)

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wwOR/geico-pigeons-fire-at-will

USA cars will dwarf the Daylight. I do have one USA car, can set it next to the Daylight in a few days, when it warms up some!

Thanks Jerry, no rush but a picture would be great. I’m thinking I’ll get the 6 car Accucraft set they look very nice.

I got one of the Accucraft cars, a diner for my UP set. I did rebuild the inside of it, adding a kitchen and spreading the tables apart to get figures in. I took a pix of a table set with UP plates/Etc and then printed it to fit the table size. Can send it to you, if you want to get that crazy! Cars are closer to scale, being 30" long, the MTH are 27" Nice cars, I don’t have a lot of luck with their couplers, so put on Kadee 820’s. MTH may be a bit more detailed.

OK sorry for passing false rumors I should know better. USA just released a 2017/2018 catalog on there website with no mention of F3 or F7. I will verify facts before posting sorry again.

Dave Stubbs said:

OK sorry for passing false rumors I should know better. USA just released a 2017/2018 catalog on there website with no mention of F3 or F7. I will verify facts before posting sorry again.

No one else has ever done that, posting before verifying.

Flog him around the fleet! (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)

Steve Featherkile said:

Dave Stubbs said:

OK sorry for passing false rumors I should know better. USA just released a 2017/2018 catalog on there website with no mention of F3 or F7. I will verify facts before posting sorry again.

No one else has ever done that, posting before verifying.

Flog him around the fleet! (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)

Keelhaul!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)