The majority of the trains that are on the layout have some personal connection. Either their the trains that ran (or run) somewhere I’ve lived, trains that I’ve ridden on in some form or another. It has made for an eclectic layout – and it’s why the setting for the layout is the home of a railroad museum… How else can you explain having MetroNorth, New York Central, Pennsylvania RR, VRE, Florida East Coast and other lines all co-existing on the same layout?
That’s why Metra is part of the layout – several times a week I ride Metra so not having Metra trains on the layout wouldn’t feel right to me. In total I picked up 6 Kato Metra bi-level gallery cars. Just like Metra, the passenger cars include a combination of Pullman and Nippon Sharyo gallery cars in both cab car and passenger only configurations.
Like the prototypes, there are some noticeable differences between the Nippon Sharyo and Pullman cars. On the cab cars, the differences include different horn locations depending on which car it is. The Pullman cars feature ladders on the cab side and relocate the marker lights to the side of the car, while on the NS cab car the lights are on the rear face of the cab.
While both sport the noticeable green tinted windows that are common on Metra trains, their different sizes – the Pullman windows are smaller than the ones on the NS cars. The roof detail is also different overall depending on the manufacturer of the cars.
But you can’t have passenger cars without something to pull them and they’ve been paired with Athearn F59PHi 73 sporting Metra’s modified version of the Amtrak California paint scheme that it was originally delivered in, and Kato F40PH 181 in Metra’s updated black and silver paint scheme.
This is the first Athearn unit I’ve ever owned as Athearn entered N scale after I left the hobby 18 years ago. It’s a decent looking unit, although I’m not a huge fan of how the sound decoder works in it – by default it automatically starts up as soon as it has power. Overall it runs well especially after I spent some time programming it.
I really like the 181, although I don’t know why Kato has started with the red roof details. If they were originally red on the prototypes, I guarantee you that they’re so dirty that they’re black now. The model I have had ESU Loksound pre-installed by Duford Model Works as a Lombard Hobbies exclusive. It looks good but sounds even better.
