SP B30-7 7788 Joins the Fleet

New Equipment Delivery - 3-24-2017

SP B30-7 7788 is the third Speed Lettering Southern Pacific B-Boat to join the Meridian Speedway fleet.  The model of SP 7788 received is factory equipped with LokSound.  This consist sure brings back memories for me!  Trios of these were very common in Louisiana and Texas in 1996.  They were so common that they were taken for granted and often overlooked.

These models look great on the display case!  This brings my roster of EsPee locomotives up to 10 which nicely fills out two shelves.

SP 7788, SP 7823, and SP 7850 will be sent off soon to have LED ditch lights and LED headlight upgrades done.  I am looking forward to operating these units when completed.

I ordered this locomotive from Toy Train Heaven as this model was not available from either MB Klein/ModelTrainStuff or TrainWorld.  I ordered two boxcars as well, the third number of the three KCS Atlas HO 50' Berwick boxcars (I was only able to get two from ModelTrainStuff) as well a Mississippi Delta version as MSDR 195224.  One drawback of doing business with Toy Train Heaven is that it takes a while for them to process orders so you never know when your card will be charged.  In this case it was almost two weeks after the order as placed.  In the interim I guess they sold out of the KCS car, so it was not included in the shipment which is too bad.  The MSDR car is quite nice however and I am glad to have it.

The prototype SP 7788 I have photographed several times.  The image below is one example where I photographed her as the middle unit on SP train 1-HOCXM-18 at Patterson, LA on August 19, 1995.  

This unit has air conditioner and antenna equipment on the roof which Atlas did not incorporate into the model.  This is interesting because Atlas puts those details on their SP and SSW GP40-2 models as per the prototype.  This is a little disappointing but not a big deal as these details are not difficult to add.  It is just a bit odd as we have come to expect better from Atlas.

Chris