Atlas Trainman question

[Norm P]

Can someone tell me the difference if any between regular Atlas N and Trainman N?
I noticed the Atlas stock at the hobby shop is Trainman.  Is this a less-detailed economy line or what?  I picked up a 90 ton coal hopper, and while I'm not too keen on the brown plastic wheels, trucks can be replaced.  It doesn't look as chintzy as Bachmann or LL stuff I've seen.

Is the Athearn N scale rolling stock generally good stuff?
Thanks in advance.

[SirTainly]

Trainman is Atlas' Budget line of stock. A fair bit of it are items that were former in Atlas main range but have been demoted to Trainman as they've lost their edge against the latest releases. Some items are however specially created for the Trainman line. The brown plastic wheels are Atlas standard ones, you shouldn't have any problems with them.

Athearn is a bit hit and miss in N. The old MDC boxcars are ok, you may not like the accumates, and it's not straight forward converting them to MTs as the trucks are screwed in. The gondolas weren't great, they had ver thick paint on them.


Simon

[bsoplinger]

Is this a less-detailed economy line or what?

That's basically it in a nutshell. In HO trainman has molded on details where the regular line would have separately applied grabs. If a grab would have been painted (usually on a loco) it would be in the regular line and it wouldn't be in the Trainman. In N scale the trainman line are mostly very old models, that aren't up to today's level of detail. Since N is mostly cast on detail the trainman detail would be larger and chunkier than their standard line. Trainman walkways are plastic and thick, the regular line are either much thinner plastic or even metal.

But even the older chunkier detailing on the trainman line is nicer than what's on the current offerings from either Bachmann or Life-Like (now Walthers).

As far as detail on rolling stock goes, some of the Athearn stuff is so-so some is very nice, it all depends on the model. Simon did a good job summarizing the differences in locos.

[SirTainly]

oops I removed the bit about the locos, when I reread the original question.

[Wlal13again]

For the price, Trainman cars are fine, I put MT trucks and couplers on them with a little weathering, not bad at all...

[tom mann]

This should tell you everything you need to know:

http://www.atlastrainman.com/tmovie.htm
http://www.atlastrainman.com/tmovie2.htm

[Chris333]

"the Trainman" It's been a while 

[tom mann]

"the Trainman" It's been a while 

sorry to bring it up

[Dave V]

Tom, that may be the worst thing I've ever seen (and I was a peacekeeper in Bosnia...).

I showed it to my wife and she's still gagging.

[tom mann]

Tom, that may be the worst thing I've ever seen (and I was a peacekeeper in Bosnia...).

I showed it to my wife and she's still gagging.

Don't tell me...kindly drop Paul G. an email*... ;D


*i'm sure it will be news to him

[Chulvis]

Really depends on what you are after.

Trainman is a great way to build your rolling stock collection inexpensively if quantity is what you are after. Generally speaking you can get two Trainman cars for the price of one InterMountain car, but there are some things to consider.

The Trainman ACF 50' 6" Box Car is, in my mind, a steal for the price. I really like those cars a lot. If Ore Cars are your game then Trainman is really your only option, but it is a good option for the price.
I'm not a huge fan of the Trainman PS-2 hoppers, Double Door Box Cars or PS-1 Box Cars. The 90 Ton Coal Hopper may not win any awards for detail, but coal trains are huge, so I'll go with the sticker price on that one. They need a little weight added to them though.  The Flat Cars are not bad if they fit your era but I don't care for the trailers they put on them. The 42' Gondola is good, but I'd invest the extra $2.50 for a Hay Brothers load for them. Makes a big difference. The Cupola Caboose is dated looking but there is so little available in N Scale for cabooses you have to go with them.

The one great thing about the Trainman line is that Atlas has done a good job of coming up with interesting paint schemes and still offers multiple road numbers for them.
Gold Medal Models makes detailing kits for many of the Atlas cars that are now in the Trainman line. Kind of defeats the purpose of the Trainman price point but some of the Trainman cars are not available from anyone else.

If detail is what you are after and your budget allows then Atlas Master Series, InterMountain, Fox Valley Models , some Micro Trains Line and some Red Caboose cars should be considered.

Overall, you can't really argue with the price of the Trainman line. It's a good value for what you get.

[Chris333]

Come on...a moonwalking dog!  You just can't get better than that.

[Norm P]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen.  I can't afford to throw large amounts of cash into the hobby, but I prefer quality over quantity, so I'll probably just pick up the brands Chulvis mentioned, and use the trainman line as practice cars for weathering and detailing.  I'm a sucker for coal related stuff though, so I couldn't resist my impulse to buy the hopper. 

I'm sure I'm the only one who buys model railroading stuff I don't actually need...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I haven't chimed in yet, and I hope it's not too late, but I'm a HUGE fan of Trainman stuff (except the video).

I love my 50' OB boxcars:


I have at least 4 of them, and won't think twice before getting more.

I also really like the new covered hoppers.

And at the prices? You REALLY can't argue at all. I think they're worth much more than just practice cars.

[Dave V]

I don't think Trainman's all that bad.  For the most part I use a few Trainman cars to round out my foreign road roster.  Since my focus is on the PRR, I'm not too picky about whether the cars for the non-PRR roads are dead-on.  The detail issue is something that may bother some.  For me, when it's three or four relatively less-detailed boxcars in a 20-car train, it's just not that apparent.

I have a thread in the weathering/detailing/scratchbuilding section about using Trainman TOFCs with a tiny bit of paint and detail.  They're not contest-winners, but again, in a long train they look decent to me.

The new 50' single door Trainman boxcar looks like a fairly decent stand-in for a PRR X45 (I've talked to Cory about making sure the production model doesn't have that horrible silver roof the pilot model does).  The door's off, and there are too few rivet lines...  ...but for the price I have no complaints!