03/24/06

Just took delivery of 9 matching American Freedom passenger cars.  Aside from the paint damage mentioned below, these are a great looking car for the money and well designed.  Changing lights will be a breeze when compared to the Aristocraft heavyweights.

 

 

 

 

Quick Review:

Overall the car is well designed.  It's simple to take apart and reassemble, much less difficult compared to the Aristocraft Heavyweights.  The MTH cars are a lot lighter, but don't roll as easily because of the use of inside the wheel power pickups. 

The interiors are nicely detailed and except for the paint problems noted on the paint issues page(see link below), the paint has a nice satin finish as is on their GS-4s. 

The power feed connection from the car body to the roof is made by two copper springs. (see last picture)

The interior lighting is very full and complete with the provided 6 - 18volt bulbs.  The pictures below are with 24volts applied to the track so the lights are brighter than they should be.  (I've regulated the voltage to 12volts max on the Heavyweight.)  The below pictures also highlight the height difference between the two cars.  The MTH cars were a tad shorter than I expected.  Because of their size, I don't think they would could be used with any existing 1:29 scale engines and look right.

 

The truck is smartly connected to the car wiring through a removable connector and has a true spring suspension like the heavyweights.

 

The car is ready to accept Kadee couplers with the provided three mounting holes.  To remove the existing coupler arm, you can simply unscrew it from the truck.  You have to physically cut the arms off the heavyweights.

 

In conclusion, I think the cars are well made and very smartly designed.  I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again.

As far as how they compare to the Aristocraft Heavyweight, the heavyweight has a more solid feel to it and is heavier.  If you are looking for passenger cars for your MTH Challenger, I think the heavyweights are the way to go.  The larger size and great appearance of the heavyweights gives an overall better looking set in my opinion.  However, if you are looking for a set of 1:32 scale streamliners for a different engine, you can't go wrong with these.

 

American Freedom Train Videos:  

(Right-click and save-as the video before you play and it will run smoother.)

                                              Select the version / quality you want to download:

  

 -  Lead Cam #1(Full video) - 10:57 mins  -  camera on flatcar behind tender

                       -  166MB/2100kbs - 80MB/1000kbs - 12MB/150kbs

               

 

 

 

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More at:

MTH American Freedom GS-4 page

 

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