Useful tooling that seemed to vanish...

[ljudice]

Anyone know what happened to:

- Atlas Front Runners
- MDC/Athearn Waffle Side 50' Boxcar

There must be others....

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Front Runners couldn't be kept on track without major modifications. I suspect Atlas's ACF 89' cars will follow their footsteps unless they make major tooling changes.

I believe the Waffle car and the (PCF?) "high cube" tooling was damaged on its way to China.

How about all of Walther's freight cars?

And Exactrail isn't releasing any new paint in their excellent product line.

At least LBF's tooling turned up and starting to become available again.

[ljudice]

Aren't front runners ok with a weighted trailer....

[thomasjmdavis]

How about all of Walther's freight cars?

I have several of the gondolas and auto box cars.  I can't find anything on the boxcar frame, but Spookshow lists it as made in Denmark, and presumes that would mean Heljan ran the tooling, but the gondolas have "Austria" imprinted- and those were made by Rowa- and certainly look like the Rowa gondolas of the 1970s-80s. Took a look at Spookshow's site, and was surprised how many N scale freight cars Walthers had on the market.  Apparently, about 1/2 were Rowa cars,and the other 1/2 made in China. Like all Walthers N scale, they seem to have made so many that they couldn't get rid of them, and now don't want to rerun, although a new modern car comes out once in a while.

As an aside, one of those boxcars has developed a pronounced warp in the sides.  I would blame it on heat, except it has been in the same house, and in the same storage box, as another matching car that has no such issues.  As is, I will give a shot at working the sides flat, and if it doesn't work, it will end up on a repair track.

[James Costello]

Anyone know what happened to:

- Atlas Front Runners
- MDC/Athearn Waffle Side 50' Boxcar

There must be others....

One time I asked Atlas about re-running the Front Runners with the later TTOX reporting mark and the response was they still had a warehouse full of the first run.... I imagine that's still the case.

They ran ok at the end of the train though - just like the prototypes.

[ljudice]

Another one: TrueLine Newsprint car

[learmoia]

The 1990s Walthers line:
70' Cryo car
Russell Snow Plow
Coil Car
Ballast car
50' box (NACC?)
53' Flat (and bulk head flat)..
3 Bay Grain Hopper.. (sort of an Evens car)
Bay window caboose
40' Gon (old tooling)
50' (war emergency?) boxcar
~Ian

[craigolio1]

I have several of the gondolas and auto box cars.  I can't find anything on the boxcar frame, but Spookshow lists it as made in Denmark, and presumes that would mean Heljan ran the tooling, but the gondolas have "Austria" imprinted- and those were made by Rowa- and certainly look like the Rowa gondolas of the 1970s-80s. Took a look at Spookshow's site, and was surprised how many N scale freight cars Walthers had on the market.  Apparently, about 1/2 were Rowa cars,and the other 1/2 made in China. Like all Walthers N scale, they seem to have made so many that they couldn't get rid of them, and now don't want to rerun, although a new modern car comes out once in a while.

As an aside, one of those boxcars has developed a pronounced warp in the sides.  I would blame it on heat, except it has been in the same house, and in the same storage box, as another matching car that has no such issues.  As is, I will give a shot at working the sides flat, and if it doesn't work, it will end up on a repair track.

@thomasjmdavis I had an issue with a warped styrene woodchip car kit that I was able to fix. I made a wooden insert sized exactly to the shape of the inside of the body, so that it was a snug friction fit in side the body. I submerged it in boiling water for about 5 seconds at a time at first, and finally for about 15 seconds, until the body relaxed and started to slide off the wood block. It's now a perfect non warped shape.

Craig.

Oh and make the block long enough for tongs to hold and don't hold it straight down or the shell will slide off when it relaxes and be stuck in the pot of boiling water only to have tong marks when you remove it. Ugh.

[nickelplate759]

The 1990s Walthers line:
70' Cryo car
Russell Snow Plow
Coil Car
Ballast car
50' box (NACC?)
53' Flat (and bulk head flat)..
3 Bay Grain Hopper.. (sort of an Evens car)
Bay window caboose
40' Gon (old tooling)
50' (war emergency?) boxcar
~Ian

also
 40' PS1 single door box
 40' double door steel box
 40' single door outside braced wood composite box.
 Wood cupola caboose

All made by Roco, all old tooling.

There was also a very nice (not Roco) PD hopper car that came in the Wonder Bread/Hostess scheme.

[thomasjmdavis]

@thomasjmdavis I had an issue with a warped styrene woodchip car kit that I was able to fix. I made a wooden insert sized exactly to the shape of the inside of the body, so that it was a snug friction fit in side the body. I submerged it in boiling water for about 5 seconds at a time at first, and finally for about 15 seconds, until the body relaxed and started to slide off the wood block. It's now a perfect non warped shape.

Craig.

Oh and make the block long enough for tongs to hold and don't hold it straight down or the shell will slide off when it relaxes and be stuck in the pot of boiling water only to have tong marks when you remove it. Ugh.

Thanks for the suggestion Craig.  I've done something similar years ago- wood block inside the car and a warm oven (don't remember exact temp, but heated it up, turned it off (so the model would not be exposed to direct heat from the burner) and put in the model.  Mounted the wood block to a wood base in a T shape- wood base sat on the oven rack. Probably took 2 or 3 tries with re-heats of the oven. Not sure if it was luck or skill, but that also worked out ok.  There was also a conversation on TRW a few months back where someone figured out a water temp that would soften but not damage styrene- I was going to look that up.

[JMaurer1]

Won't be the last time I say it and it sure isn't the first.

Walthers = Black hole for N scale

Things go in but never come out 

[sirenwerks]

And Exactrail isn't releasing any new paint in their excellent product line.

The ExactRail 4427 will be missed. It's abandonment of new releases is highly disappointing. The company really needs to knock down its MSRP and offer less road numbers and more schemes, especially the TLDX billboard schemes. Hopefully, Trainworx will make up for this loss with a low-side version of the car they have partially tooled.

[thomasjmdavis]

The ExactRail 4427 will be missed. It's abandonment of new releases is highly disappointing. The company really needs to knock down its MSRP and offer less road numbers and more schemes, especially the TLDX billboard schemes. Hopefully, Trainworx will make up for this loss with a low-side version of the car they have partially tooled.

I wonder, sometimes, if N scale is not "decal averse".  For any number of manufacturers, one would think that the solution would be to offer one or two numbered cars (instead of 6 or 12), then offer lettered but un-numbered cars with a sheet of decals with 12 or 50 or 100 numbers.  Those of us who want a unit train, or fleet of signature car for our roads could have dozens, while those who want one car could have it- this would seem a viable option.  Except that, apparently, N scalers demand (or manufacturers think we demand) fully decorated cars, and the application of 4 or 6 numbers in various locations on a car is too much challenge.

The only occasion I can think of where someone tried this was Walthers with their passenger cars, and at the time there was a lot of complaining (but made me happy, as I could decal my PRR 10-6 for one of the cars that operated in a pool with L&N and occasionally showed up in their trains).  Atlas does occasionally produce unnumbered locomotives, but does not include the decals, so not only is there the added expense, but often as not the color and/or size of separately purchased decals from another company are not a precise match.
 

[craigolio1]

Thanks for the suggestion Craig.  I've done something similar years ago- wood block inside the car and a warm oven (don't remember exact temp, but heated it up, turned it off (so the model would not be exposed to direct heat from the burner) and put in the model.  Mounted the wood block to a wood base in a T shape- wood base sat on the oven rack. Probably took 2 or 3 tries with re-heats of the oven. Not sure if it was luck or skill, but that also worked out ok.  There was also a conversation on TRW a few months back where someone figured out a water temp that would soften but not damage styrene- I was going to look that up.

The oven is a great idea!

[sirenwerks]

The AHM/Roco and Rivarossi 40' chemical tank cars were good ones. Not the finest detail, but good kitbash fodder and rare models of an early insulated tank car in N.


The Lima 45' 70-Ton Steel Gondola (also released by MRC, AHM, PMI, and Model Power) was similarly good kitbash fodder and an alternate GS gon to the Atlas release.


Deluxe Innovation's 1944 AAR riveted 40' box and its numerous variations of the large woodchip cars could probably go on the list, since DI doens't seem to be in existance anymore.


IMO, the Roco 160-Ton Crane Car; Hubert/E&C/LBF Skybox flat and welded side woodchip gon; and Walthers NA 50' exterior-post insulated box, 45' logging flat, 54' GSC Commonwealth flat, and Difco dump cars will be missed too.