Good evening. I thought it appropriate to provide and update on the U34CH by DTM. Where we left off last, there were tears in my beer over EL branded DLC and the 2 year hold up on the EL-NJDOT U34CH. Since, we last touched base, I find out that there was some internal confusion over at the mother ship regarding the original 3 unit pack that we had planned on doing. I think that was on our side when it was decided to release the NJT model. But confusion is confusion and this might be part of the reason for this monster delay. Since DTG has the EL-NJDOT, I asked DTM to go for the whole banana and get a blanket approval for EL going forward. I quote DTM here " That could be very interesting". Indeed. With that he continued and this I don't understand " the U34CH could be included in the Retro pack instead of the Marketplace". Don't know if this prohibits using EL in workshop scenarios, which, being in the workshop is very important to me. On that note, DTM started working on packing up the 2 livery's, which I will talk about shortly. I had also reminded him to make sure that both models got the updated horn and physics by Howard. Some days later I find out that he was asked to use all sounds and physics from the original NJT pack. The idea is that you need the NJT pack to make the EL pack work. Sounds like there might be a re-release with all three units. But this now presents a problem of losing all the work we did, with brakes, horn, throttle and weight. As I recall there was much unhappiness with the original horn loop. As you may recall, this prompted me to go and buy legit horn sounds. So know where we are is, and I hope this was communicated clearly, a request to apply the updated physics to the original NJT unit as well as the 2 additional units. I must say, that everything that could go wrong simply has gone wrong. I am hell-bent on shepherding this project to the very end. I have had enough disappointment.
Moving on, its time for a recap of what was the original 'vision' for the U34CH. There were 4 paint jobs for the U34CH in its life. 1. The original EL-NJDOT blue bird. 2. A NJT transition version, which ended up in similar coloring but with a sliver nose that had an NJT logo. 3. the NJT Disco version and lastly, 4. A one off Conrail Bicentennial Unit. That unit I opted to skip as is looks really bad.
Below are the original 3 liveries.
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I never mentioned this but when we submitted all 3 to NJT 2 of them were rejected. You can see why. The original paint scheme was rejected as it was not keeping with thier image. Granted, there was not a lot of engine cleaning during the 80s, and they were aging, and frankly they looked beat. The coaches on the other hand held up nicely. As a side note the NJ logo for the "silvernose" and the NJDOT logos will be out there as a separate download.
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Focusing now on the 2 new units there some nice details to point out. After EL left the picture and the nescient NJT came in to play, they refreshed the paint with the silvernose, the blue color was not matched and we reprinted that in the model. As well, the cab numbers have a different font on the sides and on the number boards. So all 3 units have three different fonts that were used. In addition, as I mentioned, the horns and physics were revamped to more closely resemble the electric hold and acceleration characteristics of the original unit. This was a royal PITA to do as it was my Dad who was doing the testing. Dad drove these units, and I have to say there were some moments or real excitement when he started recalling how the units were supposed to behave. I'm not kidding when I say, thanks to pop, we had 38 revisions! Suffice to say, we had a problem with the brake steps, and how wide they were. In the model these brake settings are hard coded in the original Big 7 model. So you will find the EH band to be almost impossible to drag your mouse over to hit the eclectic hold. However, the EH does work and you can maintain a constant brake application without loosing pipe pressure. Howards physics work (he also contributed to the brakes) really shine in this model, its got that heavy feel and it creeps off the line in notch 1. Lastly, I watched my father in testing handle the U34CH just like he did in real life hit the platforms from 60mph with 50 seconds to platform, lay down 20 pounds of application, then at 30 at the platform put another 10 to 15 down and then the unit stopped with engine just beyond the platform. Trying to replicate this yourselves is going to make this unit fun.
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I haven't even gotten to the coaches yet, which are key to telling the story of the U34CH. With the NJT release you got both the hi and low door versions and modified version of the cab car controls. These controls have a table top mounted throttle. I had seen pictures of the Bombardier update to the cab and all they did was remove the control stand, put the throttle in and left everything else. It looked rough in real life and in our model. Because we didn't release the EL-NJDOT you didn't get the as purchased cab controls from 1971. Its actually the same setup as the stand in head unit. So the throttle moves left to right. The original cab we did was direct from the Pullman drawings and DTM nailed all the piping, conduit and wiring. There is also and cab light switch on the ceiling which we modeled and it works. So the cab car will be new to you and of course the original low door, EL-NJDOT coaches all with the correct numbering. I might be mistaken but the coaches have a different seating arrangement of 2 by 2 instead of 2 by 3. The NJT coaches we released were 2 by 3.
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Overall the details that I focused on and that are in the unit are as follows. Correct bulkhead controls and gauges, control stand in the head and cab car, Sinclair antenna, Motran Motorola Radio and the HEP switch that you can only activate from the engine (no hot keys just like the real thing) and we covered the paint jobs. The coaches were custom built by DTM from the original plans he did a superb job - he even got the air tanks right at the bottom of the coaches, and we put in the lavatory though we didn't model the plumbing.
Good video that covers the history of U34CH and Dieseliner Coaches from a SEPTA vantage point:
https://youtu.be/h-OlztE2cFUVideo of the cab of the last U34CH - this is the unit we modeled the cab from:
https://youtu.be/YHkSLbHEMtII hope hope hope that this all gets released finally and you can see the effort that went in to try and get the U34CH and Pullman Standard Dieseline coaches right.
Carry on.
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