Atlas N New Jersey Transit Double Deckers

I've finally been able to assemble a train of the Atlas N New Jersey Transit double-deckers. I had this in mind when they came out with the N ALP-45DP, but the first run of these had only one speed, very slow, so I returned the loco and vowed to wait for the second run, which everyone hoped would be an improvement. The bottom line seems to be that the speed in the second run varies, but it's better than the first, so things are at least accptable.

The lettering, as well as the body detailing, is very good. The lettering looks good even in photos blown up several times the size of the model. Car 7006 below is a cab car. You can see the loco-style number board on the left end. NJT has 61 cab cars numbered 7000-7061.

Car 7009 is also a cab car. All the cars are lighted, which is a big plus, but unfortunately the cab car doesn't alternate head and tail lights. Kato cab cars are set up for a decoder that will do this on DCC, but again, this isn't an option on these cars. You'd have to find a way to light the cab car head and tail lights separately, install LEDs, and find a decoder to control the function on the Atlas cars.

Car 7207 is a car with toilet. NJT has 99 of these numbered 7200-7298.

Car 7545 is a car without toilet. NJT has 168 of these numbered 7545-7677.

I've seen complaints about how these cars track. With that in mind, I backed off each truck screw a quarter turn to give them a little more play, and I had no problem running them in either push or pull.

I've been following a French railfan and modeler's channel called MiniTrak by Simply Railway. Here he's running an NJT train: