New suggestions for MTL

[bbussey]

Thanks for the info on the fix as I have quite a few of them and the only big problem is the ride height. I'll try to do this and add BLMA 100 ton trucks

That, and the fact that they are 2½ feet too short.

[ljudice]

Bryan - this is the Athearn/MDC gon (Railgon prototype, I believe) - they are the correct length...

- Lou

[PacRail]

Steel cabooses and bay window cabooses in shortline road names.
An acid tank car.
More Farmrail covered hoppers, a runner pack would be great.

[mplsjct]

I would like to see a runner pack of the 3 bay open hopper in Burlington Northern, but without the end painted white for the rotary coupler, as was common in the early 70's.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=509953

Or, the same car in Northern Pacific, runner pack, naturally.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=615604

The NP link is fixed now, sorry for any confusion this might have caused.

[ednadolski]

Even more important than the coupler oscillation - figure out a way to incorporate body-mounted couplers and scale ride height in the existing fleet so it remains compatible with current state-of-the-art models.  The current MTL coupler design bounces only when the car is pushed.  But the models stand too high at all times, and it's more noticeable with every new model having correct ride height that appears on the market - and there are at least a dozen now, if not more.  All existing body-mounted equipment runs on 12½" radius, 95% can run on 11" radius.  Let's relegate 9¾" radius trackage to the 20th century, where it belongs.

+1.   I've always loved the great MT tooling and print quality, but having to fix couplers and ride height on everything is just too much extra work that I don't have time to do.

IMHO the oscillation is a must-fix.  I was just running a short train at a low speed down a 2% grade, it had a mix of MT and other cars with non-springed couplers.   No surprises as to which cars were oscillating and which were not.    If there is any way to improve that, it would be most welcome.

Ed

[chessie system fan]

A 50' rib-sided PS1 would be most welcome.  If it came with waffles like this it would be even better!

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo485057alb.jpg

[mplsjct]

Since you'd like to do something newer than the transition era, how about automobiles from the 1960's and 1970's?

Sure would be great to fill those open auto racks without taking out a second mortgage.

[eja]

how about funnel flow tank cars .....

[Pomperaugrr]

I would love to see Flexi-Flow covered hoppers.  I could use a bunch of these!   

Eric

[sirenwerks]

How about a 3500 CF Dry-Flow covered hopper (http://mopac1.tripod.com/CGW776.jpg) or a Canadian slab side variety?

[unittrain]

A F89F Flat with a partially enclosed autorack would be huge with many schemes possible!

[wcfn100]

How about a 3500 CF Dry-Flow covered hopper (http://mopac1.tripod.com/CGW776.jpg) or a Canadian slab side variety?

The 3500 Dry-Flo was mentioned earlier this year when Joe asked the same question.  It has a decent amount of proto road names (NP, CGW, CBQ, BN, SSW and a couple others I think), but I don't know if it's close enough to any other car for 'close enoughs'.  There were larger airslides, so maybe some of those? 

Eric Neubauer has a book with the history of the Air-Slides that is probably worth getting to see the viability of these cars. I believe it's a reprint of a '90 Craftsman article. I would be interested in the article if anyone has it.



Jason

[Mark5]

A F89F Flat with a partially enclosed autorack would be huge with many schemes possible!

Do you mean with the corrugated add-ons?

I'd love to see more open autoracks but I gotta wonder if people are buying them (I bought a bunch!). MTL has seemingly "parked" this tooling.

Mark

[wcfn100]

I'd love to see more open autoracks but I gotta wonder if people are buying them (I bought a bunch!). MTL has seemingly "parked" this tooling.

Mark

Well let's see.  IIRC, the ATSF cars were the wrong flat the wrong rack and misspelled.  On top of that, there aren't any cars to put in them.  Let's not gauge the market based on that.

Jason

[unittrain]

Yeah if they use the current rack they have and just add the corrugated metal sides, but they might have to tool up a new rack for it to work, you would get countless schemes but the cost per car would probably be quite high. I have thought about scratchbuilding some with the K&S Engineering corrugated aluminum siding and an N scale kits z-sill flat but now with BLMA's F89J's I would probably use those they are somewhat close to the correct flat.