Frankly, I've found that once you get out of the 'burbs and onto the more lengthy 100mph+ stretches, the little niggles melt away; the dash, the catenary, I find I quickly forget it and just concentrate on the driving.
With a typical load of only 5 or 6 coaches, the AEM7, as modelled, is a swift beastie (as you might expect: nearly 6,000hp and ~90t
) and I'm finding it very enjoyable to drive -- I've absolutely no idea whatsoever how well the physics have been modelled, but I do know I find it fun, which is what it's about for me 
As was mentioned earlier, the cruise control feature is great; dial 110mph into it and keep the power handle in notch 8 until you need to slow down
Oh, and the cab signal indicator combined with the cab speed indicator and alerter ('can I hear y'say "whoop! whoop!"'
)) means you can blat along at line speed and properly read the signals and have some idea what to expect in the next block and slow down/speed up accordingly -- very clever.Just did my first full run through and it's quite astonishing the level of detail that's packed in quite close to the track and yet still trot along at a smooth framerate.
Oh, and the "box-in-the-middle-of-the-view"? To be honest, I've already started to not notice it, iyswim; most of the time, your focus is set on the next signal and the cab signal indicator, just glancing at the big speedo to check we're not overspeeding. Oh, no, no I don't use the Fisher-Price controls
Cheers, Rik.
): The lower figure one is the line speed, i.e. the maximum permitted speed; the upper one is the speed for *that signalling block section*. So, you may find yourself in a situation, e.g. following another train, where the lower one says "120" 'cause that's as fast as you'd be allowed to go were there not another train ahead, but the upper one may read "30" 'cause there's a train in the next block section and the next signal is a "stop".
