IMRC Value Line "Aluminator" Coal Gons

[Denver Road Doug]

http://www.intermountain-railway.com/modelersclub/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Value-Line-Trinity-Coal-Gondola.jpg

Guess I'll jump on the Intermountain announcment bandwagon.   These are a welcome announcement because unlike the coalporters, THESE have no peer in the n-scale realm.  Well, except their LBF ancestry, which by the way is further proof--as if anyone needed any--that this is former LBF tooling.

I have some of the LBF's and hate the thought of buying more since I have all I really need.   But, the decoration on the LBF's is pretty atrocious so I may end up ordering some.   I do like those NCUX cars, which I think came later in my n-scale world but I may get one for grins.   They are slightly different cars but most won't know the difference and those cars DEFINITELY won't see the light of day, probably in any scale.  EDIT: The NCUX cars do indeed appear to be normal Aluminators...I think it's their coalporters that are a little different.   And according to IMRC they have a 2001 build date so...definitely getting one. See http://www.matts-place.com/trains/coal/series/ncux11341-11455.htm .

[James Costello]

Doug did you ever look at how well the bow-tie on the model compared with reality?

I never got to see the LBF models up close, so I've always been curious on how the profile compared....

[Denver Road Doug]

I'll just let the pics tell the story.   I think the tub is done fairly well, maybe a tad too deep, and the center band is pretty ugly...there's probably other issues with the car that are more pressing....definitely the decoration as I mentioned, which I assume will be much better under IMRC.   Overall...it's a unit train car, and "represents" pretty well.  It's probably a moot point unless you want to scratchbuild one since I doubt these will ever be done by anyone else.   Perhaps a good candidate for Shapeways I guess.

[Denver Road Doug]