MT Undecorated Business Car is a Kit

[Nato]

                   :|What a refreshing surprise. I received my Micro Trains Undecorated Pullman Green Business Car with Balloon Roof and discovered it was not shipping damage that had loosened the trucks, but that the car is a kit, although semi simple. The body and end pieces are painted Green, trucks and roof are black, interior is a turquoise bluish color. The trucks come unattached with pins to attach. The roof must be removed to install the window glass, and the inside end bulkhead at the front kitchen end. The rear platform floor with steps uses two pegs to insert into the car floor at the rear end. Diaphragm has to be attached to the front of the car. Coupler's come assembled in their draft gear boxes and must be screwed in place to the underbody. Wow! Neat! Can we have more of these semi-kits (as I call them) please. There are no assembly instructions or exploded diagrams, but assembly is pretty straight forward. The History Blurb on the back of the box reads in part "You have purchased a Micro Trains undecorated product."   Nate Goodman (Nato).Salt Lake, Utah. 

[Cajonpassfan]

I thought all the undecs come that way....
Otto K.

[Nato]

                    After looking at the Micro Trains Newsletter that came with my order I' am pretty sure the undecorated painted diner is also a semi-Kit and all the undecorated painted heavyweight cars listed in the newsletter are probably kits, not having ever ordered any this is just a guess. Does anyone know. If they are "Hooray!" Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[Kisatchie]

...After looking at the Micro Trains Newsletter that came with my order I' am pretty sure the undecorated painted diner is also a semi-Kit and all the undecorated painted heavyweight cars listed in the newsletter are probably kits...

Several years ago, I won an MT undec painted observation car on eBay, and it was fully assembled.


Hmm... that doesn't
prove anything...

[CBQ Fan]

I have purchased 3 different undec baggage cars from MT on 3 separate occasions and that is how they all arrived.  Semi kit form.  I have the undec diner sitting in a box waiting for me to open it.  I expect it to be the same.  I agree it is a great setup!

[powersteamguy1790]

                    After looking at the Micro Trains Newsletter that came with my order I' am pretty sure the undecorated painted diner is also a semi-Kit and all the undecorated painted heavyweight cars listed in the newsletter are probably kits, not having ever ordered any this is just a guess. Does anyone know. If they are "Hooray!" Nate Goodman (Nato). 

All the undecorated MT painted heavyweight cars that I purchased when they first came out years ago were kits and were not assembled. I enjoyed the time assembling them and now have a large fleet of assembled undecorated, painted heavyweights that are waiting to receive the ATSF road name.


Bob........

[nickelplate759]

Same - I have about 1/2 dozen of assorted styles, and all are shake-the-box kits.

Alas, the new "undecorated painted" diner is NOT painted (in spite of what it says on the box) and a much lighter shade of green - so it DOES need painting.

George

Edit - does anyone have a good match (preferably with True Color) for the Micro-Trains version of Pullman green?

[CBQ Fan]

Same - I have about 1/2 dozen of assorted styles, and all are shake-the-box kits.

Alas, the new "undecorated painted" diner is NOT painted (in spite of what it says on the box) and a much lighter shade of green - so it DOES need painting.

George

My diner will be silver and lettered for the Q so I am good!!

[thomasjmdavis]

As far as I know, all MT undecorated cars come as "kits" or unassembled- passenger and freight.  Sure makes it easier to do the finishing work. I end up disassembling half the ready to run stuff I buy, either to repaint it into something else, or just for weathering purposes (even railroads that never seemed to wash their cars did wash the windows once in a while- so the glass needs to come out when weathering a passenger car, for instance).

And having them unassembled also makes life a lot easier for kitbashing.

I am a big fan- in terms of what I have purchased new in the last 5 years, probably more undecorated than decorated. 

My only complaint on the passenger cars were that the "unnumbered" or "unnamed" cars early on did not include a decal sheet for the names and numbers (or, at least, I never found one in the box)- and for whatever reason, the Microscale sheets I have had very few appropriate 10-1-2 and 12-1 names.

[JoeD]

We've released a few passenger car sets that were painted but undercoated and assembled.  Those were in response to people wanting to put their own decals on the cars.  I believe we've done them in Pullman Green and PRR Tuscan and possibly Silver.  Generally our undecks are kits, this is something I reinstated years ago.  As a modeler I did not see the wisdom in having to dis assemble a model to paint it and then try and get press fit pieces to set properly after being pried off a shell or under frame.  I'll check on the copy, sometimes these things slip through.  I probably do about 30 inserts a month and other departments do a few as well so...it happens.

Joe