Atlas Huricane Sandy relief car

[up1950s]

Why didn't they use something for the steam era , like an open hopper filled with sand .

[wazzou]

Is that for real?  Or did you do that Richie?

[DKS]

Is that for real?  Or did you do that Richie?

Real: http://www.atlasrr.com/News/save-the-shore.htm#.URV1PqVZWSq

[wazzou]

IMHO, as far as the effort in philanthropy  ,  however with regard to the appearance of the car 

[DKS]

IMHO, as far as the effort in philanthropy  ,  however with regard to the appearance of the car 

+1 and +1

[Kisatchie]

...however with regard to the appearance of the car 

Hmm... I like it because
it's blue...

[eric220]

IMHO, as far as the effort in philanthropy  ,  however with regard to the appearance of the car 

+2 and +2

Also +1 for the prototype choice. Would have been nice to see something a little more era-agnostic.

[peteski]

I'm not crazy about the car and the graphics but I suspect that they used a smooth-side car like a covered hopper because the graphics would not have looked all that great if applied to a door in the middle of the car.

[GaryHinshaw]

I ordered one.  The web page said "Accurate painting and lettering".

Are we allowed to weather it?   

[davefoxx]

I agree that it's not the most attractive car that I've seen, but I agree with Atlas' choice for the carbody.  Hurricane Sandy occurred in 2012, so it wouldn't make sense to put the special scheme on a 1950's era car.

Reminds me of Model Railroader's 50th Anniversary box car, which was a specially decorated 40' boxcar with running boards.  Not a lot of those were still on the rails in 1984.  I was only thirteen or fourteen years old when that car appeared, and I recall that, even then, I didn't understand why they didn't use a 50' car without running boards.  Sometimes anachronisms really bug me.

DFF

[jpf94]

I would have preferred they do the 3560 car in N scale as they did in HO.  Just my preference, but I'll still buy one.

[Robbman]

I'd say the unit cost of the car to get it run had something to do with it.  The Trainman 5250 is, quite frankly, older tooling and simple to assemble, thereby allowing Atlas to sell it at a decent price ($14.95, $2 less than the standard run MSRP) that most wouldn't balk at, yet still getting more bang for the buck in terms of profits to donate to charity (offering it direct also REALLY helps there too)... and it'll also be run at the same time the other Feb 8th standard release of 5250s.  Kudos to Atlas here.