Three December Athearn Announcements

[Brakie]

Unfortunately, prices continue to increase. According to BLW, Bachmann goes up 10-15% next month. With the economy, and delays, and price increases, I'm rethinking model railroading as a hobby.

Frank

Indeed..The  N Scale gons is the same MSRP as the HO 52' mill gons.Makes one rethink several things.

The good(?) part is the street price should be around $17.00-same as the HO cars.

My point?

That can't help the growth of  N Scale.

[unittrain]

I like the gondolas but I need to lower them and install BLMA 100 Ton trucks and body mount the couplers! If I can only get that underframe off without damaging the model.

[lock4244]

That money for old Roundhouse tooling w/o a load is too much for me. Looking at the Atlas Evans and BLMA gons, they are a steal by comparison. I don't usually gripe about the price, working in purchasing and sales I've seen a lot of increases this year, but when the cost of a Vic coupling goes up 12%, they still include the rubber seal.

[Brakie]

As a look see comparison here what I found.

Atlas Evans gon MSRP:$21.95. Street price : $17.56

Athearn 52' Mill Gon MSRP: $23.98.Street Price:$17.99

Neither gon has a load and both has seen price increases.

However,there is a third gon that must not be overlooked.

Atlas Thrall 2743 gon that has a MSRP(newest release with price increase) $21.95 Street:$17.56.Again no load.

Conclusion..All three gons are competitively priced at Street and requires a(say) Hay Brothers load..

[bbussey]

I held on to all my original MDC RailGon gondolas, as MDC did a nice tooling/deco job at the time and the model was based on that prototype.

[Philip H]

I keep picking up MDC Roundhouse gons at meets and ebay for the same reasons.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yep, I've got either four or six of em, even though the CSXT repaints are a bit too modern for me. I still think they're nice cars.

Lowering them is easy, I use a drill bit on the bolster, then touch it up with a file. Just make sure you don't go too far.

[jsoflo]

I had a lot of trouble lowering those Gons. I filed the hell out of the undercarriage and had to re-drill the bolster pin holes (like Ed said- be careful, not much room to work with at that point and its a metal bolster area- I had one go all the way through), remounted with BLMA trucks and they would not roll because the bolster area was too flat. Had to use so many spacers the height went back up. Switched to Atlas truck sets and that more or less worked (with fewer spacers). All-in-all, nowhere near the nice ride height and model of the Atlas or Exactrail gondolas (which are also of the modern variety). I went for these because at the time it was the only CP Rail black multi-mark gondola. In my humble opinion- not worth the effort, the ride height is ridiculous.

[bbussey]

It probably is easier to remove the underframe area above the trucks and fashion new bolsters from styrene that will utilize the BLMA trucks.  The model will weigh less but it shouldn't affect performance.