New products!

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Kato: new outside braced grain hoppers
Deluxe: 4750 grain hoppers
Athearn: has reduced their N scale product line to 15 packs of outside braced grain hoppers
Bachmann: first new fright car in 10 years will be an over sized grain hopper
IHC: first new rolling stock will be the old Mehano/AHM grain hopper

[3rdrail]

Pissed about the number of grain hoppers available in N, Daniel?? You've probably set a bunch of newbies off looking for these new cars.  They're not aware that you want plastics cars instead of grain cars. When you come right down to it though, how many unit trains of plastic pellet cars do today's railroads operate?

Anything introduced after 1950 is too modern for me, so kwitcherbellyakin!! >

[Robbman]

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[daniel_leavitt2000]

I was a little annoyed with the fact they had those long running ads in MR about the use of their new covered hopper (they first stated "Plastics?" if I remember correctly).

Yep its new tooling of a new proto, and thats always good... but we have 5 other grain cars that look nearly identical! With so many unique models left undone, why tool a proto clone of other cars already done in N?

I was also expecting a TOFC to be released with the 48' trailers... sigh.

[Robbman]

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[up1950s]

"When you come right down to it though, how many unit trains of plastic pellet cars do today's railroads operate"

A unit train of Plastic Pellet cars on its way to a model railroad manufacturer .

[Robbman]

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[sirenwerks]

"When you come right down to it though, how many unit trains of plastic pellet cars do today's railroads operate"

Good lord... ever been to Jersey or Delaware? Maybe not unit trains, but pretty significant blocks of cars. Not to join Daniel's anti-grain hopper idea, but we don't see the same amount of grain trains on the East Coast that the West or central states do, so our priorities may be a little shy of this month's releases.

[ljudice]

A prototype for everything, sirenworks!!!

Oddly enough, we just had the first - at least in my 15 year recollection - solid grain train on the NS Lehigh Line across NJ - all SOO, DME and ICE hoppers - apparently headed to a milling company in Clifton, NJ.

Anyone remember Conrail running one or two solid ROAD SALT trains in winter?

Lou

[Robbman]

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[sparky]

I see or hear at least 4 a day in VA...

You can identify a grain train by its sound?  Your special powers are even stronger than I thought!  ;D

[3rdrail]

I see or hear at least 4 a day in VA...

You can identify a grain train by its sound?  Your special powers are even stronger than I thought!  ;D

No, but you sure as hell can by the reporting marks of the hoppers, if nothing else. These days, plastics hoppers are larger than grain hoppers as well. I don't know the current situation, but we handled unit grain trains into Baltimore on the PRR in the 1960's. Chessie was still handling them around 1980 when I was with the Erie Western.

[John]

There are still grain trains going into Bmore today .. mostly a big block of cars on something coming out of Cumberland

[Robbman]

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[sirenwerks]

All I can go on is observation, and I personally haven't seen a solid grain train come into Baltimore since, I want to say 1990. Blocks of grain cars in mixed freights, yes, grain trains, no. As for Virginia, I don't get down to the South often (and I don't necessarily northern VA, where I was born, the South), so I will edit that statement to Northeast.