Dear MicroTrains, Please Make A Lot of These

[Denver Road Doug]

James, those are the cars I'm trying to get done.  A variation of the BN ones anyway.   Joe said he was going to contact me but I guess he has been busy.

[casmmr]

What I would like to see are the 108-00-000 series of 100 ton 3-bay hoppers done in a 8 or 10 pack once a year in the same paint, but, do this 6 or so times a year.  I mean CSX in January; Chessie in March; C&O in May; N&W in July; NS in September; BNSF in November; UP in January; etc.  This way, everyone could look forward to their favorite road at least once every 1-2 years.  Also, it would become quickly known which road names sell.  For example, the Chessie does not sell out quickly, reduce from an 8-10 to a 2-3 pack or eliminate Chessie.  It is worth a try.  later, Craig

[High Hood]

I have a buddy that just got the new Athearn cars and he wasn't too pleased. The paint on them is really nice, but could use a shot of dull clear coat, but he received his with the internal weights broken loose, guess they were only held on with double sided tape, and they broke off most of the inside braces. The couplers on them also drooped a lot and he'll be replacing them all with MT body mounts.

Oh that does not sound too good.  I'm thinking about picking up the single car available before I get the multi packs.  It looks like the Kato coal porters are the much better choice, I'll definitely go with Kato for any NS G116/G117R/G118R project.

[Denver Road Doug]

HighHood:  that chromish plating scares me on the Athearn cars...

Anyone see it up close/comment???   Can it be dullcoated??    I wish they hadn't done it that way....

You know, when I first saw the BNSF cars that Athearn did with the chrome finish I thought the same thing.  (e.g. http://www.athearn.com/ProdInfo/ATH/450/ATH10475-450.jpg )


But, I actually remembered seeing those cars when they were brand new....an entire 120 car set a week or two after BNSF got them.   They did really look pretty much chrome plated.   I do expect some bit of dullcoat or something will help tone it down a notch, but as these cars were actually a little past my era cutoff I figured I'll run them BRAND NEW and it will be a nice effect.   I just won my first set of five off eBay recently and hope to get the other ten and then ideally another run of 15 on down the line.

See these pics for an example...they're swoosh but same basic cars as the original circle logo cars that hit the rails in late 2004:
http://eleggett.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=592953
http://eleggett.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=592957
http://eleggett.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=592958
I know it's a little random that I'm using derailment pics as an example.  But (a) I had them saved and was able to reference back to them via photographer, and (b), they're pretty cool shots!

Anyway, I certainly get your point of view as I once shared it.  Still not 100% sold on it, probably.   But, I'd say give it a chance...it will be interesting to see what dullcote and/or some light weathering will do.

[nsbob]

In comparing the coalporters made by Kato, Athearn, and E&C Shops, the Kato cars appear to have the correct number of braces for G116-G118 conversions.  I have some Athearn cars to convert and I have moved the braces on one with little difficulty.   I have not had any hands on experience with E&C Shops cars, but from the pictures I've seen, they appear to have the trucks positioned too far in compared to the Kato and Athearn ones.  Like Atlas and MT hoppers, I guess it's what you are willing to pay and what is individually acceptable.

[James Costello]

James, those are the cars I'm trying to get done.  A variation of the BN ones anyway.   Joe said he was going to contact me but I guess he has been busy.

Cool. I can weather, patch and re-letter, so I'm happy either way

[ljudice]

Doug, thanks for your observations on those cars...  I will try to find "a single car" and check it out!

[High Hood]

Might as well point this out.  The MT version of the NS H65 does have a minor detail out of place.  The =NS logo seems to be to low on the hopper, on the real deal it's basically at the top of the car.

[bnsfdash8]

Might as well point this out.  The MT version of the NS H65 does have a minor detail out of place.  The =NS logo seems to be to low on the hopper, on the real deal it's basically at the top of the car.

There's 2 versions, I think only 2, of this car. The early ones built had the logo down lower, like the MT car, but more recent cars have the logo and numbers up higher.

[unittrain]

I know bringing back an old thread  I just wanted to go to bat for the Atlas 90 ton hopper I compared it to the Bowser HO scale 100 Ton hopper and the Atlas model is a dead match across the board except for the wheel base being off by about 1/16" I also like the deeper rib detail on the Atlas car it just looks better at least for the Chessie cars which is what I model I also have the MTL car in decent quantity which matches the Bowser HO quiet well except for the MTL has the same short wheel base as the Atlas car but MTL shortened their car to match this shorter wheel base as where Atlas maintained the correct car length with the wheels sitting about 1/32" in to far from the car end. I think with some etched details and fox valley wheels the Atlas would be pretty accurate. I also want to body mount the hoppers and fill in the gap by the wheels. But for an older car the Atlas car is a pretty decent model, I just wished I could change the wheel base too if there is a quick way to do it I might try it if not I'll just over look it. But not to start anything just wanted to add support for the age old Atlas model I like both just wished the MTL had deeper rib detail.

[cnw mike]

Since we are begging MT in this thread, how about running those nice Nn3 gondolas sometime again in the next decade? They regularly go for 20-30 bucks a pop on  the 'bay.

[unittrain]

oops missed worded the above The overall length of the MTL and Atlas is correct, MTL just spaced the 2 farthest ribs closer together