Latest Athearn 57' reefers - cushion underframe?

[bbussey]

How is the ride height on these cars?  Can the McHenry's be swapped out with Accumates and maybe MT 1015's?  I am planning on pulling the trigger on four non-sound FGE Solid Cold cars.  I  recall seeing the Solid Cold cars in Conrail mixed freight trains running on the Conemaugh Line at Blawnox, PA during the mid 80's.  Thanks.

Ride height is good.  The trucks are all-new tooling and also look good.  Accu-Mates and BLI's 1015-compatables can be swapped in place of the McHenry.  Athearrn has not included the pockets for the MTL centering nubs in the past, so I doubt it is included on these models.  But it can be added in easily enough if MTL 1015s are strongly desired.  BLI is considering releasing their 1015/Accu-Mate hybrid as a separate item.  It solves all problems if they ever do, so it's best to lobby them so that they know there is a market for the product. 

Maybe it's patterned after these cars. 
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-frt/fgmr12192jpa.jpg
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2990719
This is all post '68 so I don't know anything about them.

The 1970-style As-Built version does look like the prototypes in these photos.

[wcfn100]

Here's the original flyer that has the details on the three body styles.

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/112814/10_N_57_Mech_Reefer_112814.pdf

That FGCX number series must have been a small, I can't find any pictures showing welded cars.


Jason

[unittrain]

Just got mine today nice car not sure about ride height mine come out to be 15'-10" data on car says 14'-9" but still cool car.

[wcfn100]

Just got mine today nice car not sure about ride height mine come out to be 15'-10" data on car says 14'-9" but still cool car.

The overall height of the car won't be listed as part of the data on the car.

edit: the 1980 ORER list these cars with an extreme height of 15'6".


Jason

[sizemore]

My three with-sound arrived yesterday....

Thanks for the quick writeup!

The S.

[Denver Road Doug]

Just a reminder....for those that are still on the fence, this might be a better option for the sound. http://www.digitrax.com/products/sound-decoders/sfx006

Do we know if the non-sound equipped cars still have power pickups?   That would be nice but doubtful.  Hopefully they'll be available separately...again doubtful.  Athearn doesn't seem interested in parts.

[jagged ben]

Do we know if the non-sound equipped cars still have power pickups?   That would be nice but doubtful.  Hopefully they'll be available separately...again doubtful.  Athearn doesn't seem interested in parts.

It would be great if they did, so I could just wire a 10k resistor across them and have a detected car!

With that said, I don't see any pickups in Mark5's bottom view photo, so I'm not hopeful.

[ljudice]

Picked up an ARMN open end car today and realized it seems to have a printing error...

The "Chilled Express" logo has no lettering (white ink strike) on one side, just the blue markings...

I'll take everyone's word on the ride height, but it looks tall to me.

- Lou

[peteski]

Picked up an ARMN open end car today and realized it seems to have a printing error...

The "Chilled Express" logo has no lettering (white ink strike) on one side, just the blue markings...

I'll take everyone's word on the ride height, but it looks tall to me.

- Lou

You just found a super-rare collectible car which will be worth lots of . . .  um, this is not a Micro-Trains car. Never rmind.  It is just a flawed merchandise. 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I like my cars. I bought all 4 FGE numbers and a BNFE for variety. When comparing them to other 57' reefers in N, they are much better detailed than MDC, but lack the delicate under body detail and etched parts of the newer IM cars. I would put them just above the RC cars.

[ljudice]

You just found a super-rare collectible car which will be worth lots of . . .  um, this is not a Micro-Trains car. Never rmind.  It is just a flawed merchandise. 

Dang it, I was sure I could put this up on Ebay starting at $10,000 or so!!   

[bbussey]

I like my cars. I bought all 4 FGE numbers and a BNFE for variety. When comparing them to other 57' reefers in N, they are much better detailed than MDC, but lack the delicate under body detail and etched parts of the newer IM cars. I would put them just above the RC cars.

I have to disagree.  The body detail is better on the Athearn cars as is the ride-height.  And the use of actual wire for the brake rods instead of plastic is a definite fortification against breakage.  But isn't this an apples/oranges comparison, since the Athearn cars are FGE prototypes while the RC/MDC/InterMountain cars are PFE prototypes?  Having the Athearn models on the layout with the others is not being redundant.

[nkalanaga]

Since we're comparing the two, how is the ride height on the MDC cars?  The sidesills look right to me, but the roof has always looked too low, at least to match the WFEX cars I'm familiar with.

IM's, on the other hand, were clearly too tall for a Plate B car, and took a lot of filing to lower.  Then came the fun of mounting a coupler to the lowered floor.

[nkalanaga]

I just got mine, and agree that they seem to sit too high, based on five tests:

The "Eave Height" should be 14-9, mine measures about 15-3, or about 6 inches too high.

They sit higher than other, probably correct, Plate C cars, such as the new WOT insulated boxcar and ExactRail's Gunderson car, whose roofs match each other.

The end of the roof, excluding the ribs, measures about 16 ft above the rails, compared with the 15-6 in the 1980 ORER.  Again, there's 6 inches.

They SEEM to show more wheel than the few pictures I could find online, but that may be due to photo angles.

Finally, the couplers are about 1/32 inch higher than my MT coupler gauge, and the same with a MT truck with coupler, the WOT car with factory body mounted couplers, and an ESM X58 with factory body mounted couplers.  That's 5 inches, and since I'm eyeballing it, could easily be the same 6.

If others can confirm these measurements, I'll have to try to lower the cars.  So far I haven't taken them apart.

[ljudice]

I just got mine, and agree that they seem to sit too high, based on five tests:


They SEEM to show more wheel than the few pictures I could find online, but that may be due to photo angles.

That's my impression too...  Since they are longer cars (than 50') the extra 6" or so gives them a more massive look that doesn't look right to me.