Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

My Christmas present to myself arrived this afternoon...  my first true foreign power, an MLW M420 from Rapido.  The front bell has somehow gone missing - inquiring with my seller on its possible whereabouts, otherwise I may have to try to get Rapido to send me another.  If they can't send me the part, I might be asking the seller for a full refund, since the bell is a bit iconic for this model.

   

This is a beautiful model with great detailing, and my first Rapido product.  I'm an instant fan.  It even came with a 16-page manual that was fun to read - these guys have a definite sense of humor.  I think they'd be better served with producing some explicit diagrams rather than all of the wry wit, but with the aid of a YouTube video, I was able to get the long hood off without resorting to power tools and the 21-pin decoder install was quick and easy.

I wish I could say operation over my layout was problem free, but that wasn't the case.  The truck are fairly stiff, especially side to side, and with a couple of my tricky curves and some rail joints in those curves, I'm left with the potential for having to redo some track in Mud Run Curve.  The other option might be to double check the gauge of the wheelsets, which seems like a longshot.  Not having issues with any of my other locos in that curve.  More to follow!