Any comments from those who purchased the aforementioned new Crusader set?

I wouldn't buy it even though it looks nice. A friend of mine bought it and the thing broke as soon as he ran it. The running gear is made of a cheap plastic causing it to wear down and break more easily.

Nick

I opened up mine today. It is nicely packed with a lot more paperwork than most companies provide. A CD is also provided with a couple of PDFs on it. One is the Bee Line article about the Crusader from several years ago.
The Budd cars are very nicely modeled with full width working diaphragms and a clever coupler system which allows the cars to be very closely coupled. When pulled the cars will negotiate a #6 crossover without derailing. They will derail if pushed through it.
The cars are lit with track powered LEDs which provide a very prototypical modern glow. The lighting is switched on and off externally with a magnetic wand. The observation cars have switchable markers with the same wand. There is an enormous capacitor in each car to prevent flickering of the lighting.
There is a lot of prototypical interior detail molded in black plastic. It would've been nicer to mold in in a lighter color. There is plenty of opportunity to paint the interiors!
The cars have nicely modeled trucks finished in blue with blue wheel centers. There is decent underframe detail with piping.

So far so good. However the locomotive is a big disappointment. I measured only 2.4 oz of pull in DC so good luck with any grades. It takes 2.6 Volts to begin to move. The yard speed performance is jerky and the motor seems to have very little torque. I removed the tender shell and installed a Digitrax DCC decoder and speaker. There are excellent directions on the Con-Cor web site detailing how to do this.
The bad news is that I cannot get the locomotive to respond prototypically at low speeds. No combination of BMEF CV's seems to help. At speed step one there is always a jerk then inconsistent pick up. Often the chuffing sound increases without the engine moving any faster or at all. The locomotive surges when coming up to speed. Once the locomotive is running at a steady speed things tend to equalize.
The Digitrax decoders are not the best, so I popped a TCS decoder in to see if things improved. Sadly they did not. Maybe I'll try a Tsunami and see if that works better. I rate all of my locos A through F with A being flawless and F failing to proceed. This locomotive barely rates a C.
This is a real shame because the G1sas is nicely detailed with warmish LED lighting, a cab light, tender back-up light and lighted number boards. There is good backhead detail and two crewmen installed. It is just too bad that they dropped the ball so badly with the performance.

Oh well, there are always the terrific Genesis FP7's to pull the consist.

I was at an operating session on Saturday and heard similar complaints about the locomotive - one that was factory-equipped with a Digitrax decoder. From the photos I've seen the loco and trainset are gorgeous; it would be a shame if they have widespread quality problems with the locomotives...

Tom

I picked up the Crusader recently and had issues with the cars derailing on my super-elevated curves, and the engine died after about 2 hours of running.
I immediately found the "problem" with the cars. There are 2 pins, one each at the 3:00 and 9:00 positions on the body bolster. They rest directly on the top of the truck bolster. They basically rigidize the car and don't allow any lateral roll (sideways) of the trucks. I trimmed the pins back just a little. The problem went away.
I contacted GHB concerning the engine. They were most helpful and concerned. I sent the engine back and they exchanged it for another. It runs fine. I was very impressed with their customer service.
The engine could certainly use much more weight. The engine stalls on the grades with all 5 cars. If I reduce it by one car, it fares somewhat better. Naturally, this would not be the proper consist.
The Genesis FP7s certainly come in handy.

Good to hear they are taking care of any problems. This set is on teh expensive side and we as modelers should not have inferior products, especially at this price. Good for you!!