Atlas TOFCs

[bbussey]

Being a business partner has its privileges.

[Atlas Paul]

The models arrived about 10 days ago, all in house orders were filled and shipped - distributors first, individual customers and "business partners" second.  Bryan happens to live pretty close to Atlas, so he likely had his shipment the next day.

[tehachapifan]

Phew! Thanks for the clarification! With the post about MBK being almost out-of-stock already, I thought maybe the concept of "limited runs" went to a whole new level!

[jagged ben]

The post about MBK is clearly a mistake.  Maybe it was a confusion with the trash flats.    MBK doesn't appear to have posted them yet, although they did post a whole bunch of Atlas locomotives so it seems likely we'll see them shortly.

[wcfn100]

I had some of the MTL boxcar reds too. Foobs. Sold them when the BLMA F89 was announced (1967).

Mark, what's wrong with the MTL TTAX cars?

That series was a Flush Deck ACF car just like the Atlas car.

Jason

[bbussey]

The brown TT cars are an earlier prototype.  The yellow TT cars are correct, although some of the releases have not been in the correct reporting mark number series.

[wcfn100]

The brown TT cars are an earlier prototype.  The yellow TT cars are correct, although some of the releases have not been in the correct reporting mark number series.

So that's like calling the Atlas PS-1 a 'foob' for anything pre '54?

edit -Okay, nevermind, I found the '09 thread we had on these cars.  It doesn't sound like the MTL flat cars are any further off than the Atlas box cars are for earlier prototypes.  I can live with that.

Jason

[bbussey]

MBK now has them posted for purchase.  As of now, all remain available.

[davefoxx]

MBK now has them posted for purchase.  As of now, all remain available.

I got mine yesterday... before it was too late.   

DFF

[nkalanaga]

Especially on the yellow cars the reporting marks are easy to change.  MicroScale makes decals for the yellow TTX scheme, and one can easily paint out the printed marks with a dab of black paint.

[Denver Road Doug]

Picked up a couple of these from my LHS on Friday.  Nothing new to report about the looks, everything is as-advertised and as-mentioned in the other posts and as-show in the photos.

But, I have one comment...these things are freakishly HEAVY.   That's a good thing, mind you.  And I don't have any hard weight measurements to back up that statement, but it almost seemed impossible that the car I was holding could weigh that much.   Anyway, maybe I'm overstating but just curious if anyone else thought that. (sorry if this was discussed and I missed it...I did scan through a couple of different threads about these cars.)  I am modeling at least one baretable train so these will definitely make that cut based on weight and details.

[rochsub]

Received mine today. Just one of the triple Hitches model. Looks great, but does not roll very well at all. Flanges are hitting underneath car body.  Replaced wheel sets with FVM and now rolls great.

[davefoxx]

Received mine today. Just one of the triple Hitches model. Looks great, but does not roll very well at all. Flanges are hitting underneath car body.  Replaced wheel sets with FVM and now rolls great.

The wheelsets on my cars were hitting the carbody and making very annoying scraping sounds, as well.    I was afraid there wasn't a fix without inserting a washer and raising the car height.  Thankfully, the FVM wheelsets seemed to have done the trick.  The car tracks better, too.  I couldn't get it to make a lap on my layout (admittedly, below Atlas' recommended minimum radius curve), but with the new wheelsets and long, body mounted couplered cars connected to each end, the Atlas flat is running reliably now on curves down to approximately 11" radius!

FYI, you do not use the FVM replacement sets for Atlas cars (0.553") on this car.  Interestingly, you need the 0.540" length axle, which are the wheelsets for MT cars.

Hard to believe that this got past Atlas' quality control.  But, it's easy to fix, and the extra work to get the Atlas flat running reliably is really no different than replacing the plastic wheelsets that come with most Atlas cars.

DFF

[bbussey]

BLMA wheelsets also fit.

[davefoxx]

BLMA wheelsets also fit.

Ironically, I just removed a set of BLMA wheelsets from a BLMA gon that I've owned for approximately two years that never ran well.  Swapping in FVM wheelsets while I was on a roll with the Atlas car fixed that, too.  I don't know why I waited so long.