All Atlas rolling stock fleet

[cv_acr]

For me it's not so much about brand loyalty, it's about what can be had.

This drives my decisions as well.

Yep. My HO fleet contains a range from Branchline, Atlas, Athearn, Athearn Genesis, Intermountain, Walthers, TrueLine Trains and Sylvan, based on quality, variety (Berwick, ACF and SIECO CP/CPAA boxcars for example) matching the prototype it represents and appropriateness to my railway (I don't have any personal need for intermodal equipment or SP hoppers for example). Walthers features pretty heavily in my fleet with their Hawker-Siddeley "Canadian-style" bulkhead flatcars and Ortner hoppers, as do the Proto1000 National Steel Car paper service boxcars.

[Chris333]

The PS-1 boxcar.

The Atlas car has doors with a strange looking raised triangle type thing between the ribs. I'm guessing it is a Superior door.  Do any real doors look like this? Just curious.

My Atlas / MT ratio is about even. Started with a bunch of MT's, but Atlas caught up with 55T hoppers and those USRA boxcars make anything else look like doo-doo.

[Virginia Atlantic]

I believe Atlas makes a superior product.  If I were evr to return to the hobby, I would likely run a fully-Atlas fleet for the VAR (or any other freelance road I create).

[gunner]

My fleet is about 100 MTL cars, (27) 55 ton hoppers most are from the BLW special runs with 60 transition era box cars in western roads and about 15 flat and stock cars.  MTL doesn't meet my current needs, so will see a lot less of my money in the future.  They have missed on the runner packs with the exception of the Wabash cars for me.

I have about 40 Atlas cars of various models, but will soon have 20 more 55 ton hoppers in dimi data.  They arrived at Atlas today.  I just wish they were the peak end models.  If Atlas were to offer the peak end in dimi data, I would be filling out my hopper roster in no time at all.  Most of my cabbies are Atlas NE6's, but I could use 8 N&W CF caboose for my steam fleet.

I also have 6 or 8 Athearn milk cars, 8 of their 65 foot mill gons and a pair of their flat cars.

DI has met my intermodal needs with twinstacks and roadrailers.

IM has been meeting my needs for 40 foot box cars and reefers as I like their multi number runs and their packaging is easier to deal with.  As I get older the large print lables are a great help in getting the right car in the right box for storage.  They may see some of my milk car business if they are competitive with the Athearn models.

Trainworx will see a good bit of my money if they can make a bunch of dimi data 46 foot steel GC drop bottom gondolas, they are close enough to the cars that the N&W ran to suite me.  The art work for these promises to provide a very, very nice model!  If they would jump PCM and make an H2a hopper, they could tie up my budget for a few years!  Their 6 packs of 100 ton hoppers are very good product too.

Kato has gotten my passenger car business so far with 1 CZ set.  I will be looking at the Broadway LTD as my second purchase, but will forgo any other offerings unless they are relevant to my area of modeling interest of the N&W and related local roads.

I probably have too many cars already, but have expanded my horizons as far as manufacturers go, due to the improvement in quality and appearance of the above mentioned manufacturers when compared to MTL.  The other manufacurers keep putting out high quality products that interest me and those products have been more relevant to my modeling intersts.

Bob

[jlong]

Intermountain has been my choice of freight car lately. Mainly because I'm on a 70's thru 90's modern era binge. An era Intermountain seems to be focusing on at the moment. The newly tooled cars drip with crisp detail and the decoration is very sharp. The cars come equipped with the more reliable Micro Trains truck sets with low profile wheelsets. I don't notice if the cars sit too high or not.

Atlas and Athearn come in second. I especially like Athearn ethanol cars and PS-2 hoppers. Ya know the ones with the round things on top. The new Atlas ballast hoppers are dynamite. I can't resist a woodside reefer or double sheathed boxcar now and then. You can build a train fast with Trainman cars. The Accumate couplers that are furnished with Athearn and Atlas don't get real high marks with me but they do a decent job.

Micro Trains......Well they better quit relying on their reputation and get off their duffs because the competition seems to be running them over. Lately a good majority of their offerings just don't do it for me. Drab paint schemes and collector knick knacks is all I practically see from them anymore. But hey, those are my tastes and tastes vary so who am I to judge?

[Allentown Hump]

The PS-1 boxcar.

The Atlas car has doors with a strange looking raised triangle type thing between the ribs. I'm guessing it is a Superior door.  Do any real doors look like this? Just curious.

My Atlas / MT ratio is about even. Started with a bunch of MT's, but Atlas caught up with 55T hoppers and those USRA boxcars make anything else look like doo-doo.

I believe that that door is supposed to be an 8' Pullman door...