MTL March releases announced

[bbussey]

MTL March releases have been posted.

Some good stuff. GN and CP SWCs, ACL heavyweight set, ATSF auto rack, multiple Z scale Northeastern cabooses, and others.
https://www.micro-trains.com/publicfiles/monthly/MN2003.pdf

[thomasjmdavis]

Since they went to all the trouble to do that ACL purple scheme, I thought, that as a public service, I would point out that the ACL diner Sarasota bears a resemblance (not exact, but give or take a small window here and there) is shown in the purple scheme in Larry Goolsby's book on ACL passenger trains.  Something to work on for a future release.

[johnb]

Tanks for the heads up, but I will have to wait for mid month

[Ngineer]

ACL purple scheme

That is a bold move, given that SAL, ACL and SCL are quite unpopular railroads AFAIK.

If you look at railpictures.net, you see hundredths of pictures of ATSF in warbonnet, but nearly no pictures of SAL and ACL. Didn't folks travel to Florida in the fifties?

Would the Kato F3-set (106-0201) have pulled hwt passenger trains?

(Didn't know that Micro-Trains has taken over the Labelle lube as a distributor. Should make for better availability.)

Cheers

   Javier

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ahahahahah. That Conrail 50'er. I already have two of the OLD version... but once more into the breach. lol.

[JoeD]

Ahahahahah. That Conrail 50'er. I already have two of the OLD version... but once more into the breach. lol.

Glad to know I'll at least sell one.  LOL

[learmoia]

I'll buy one.. so 2..

You can definetly see the difference in the new tooling.

~Ian

[Dave V]

The weathered stuff just keeps looking better and better...

[Philip H]

The weathered stuff just keeps looking better and better...

Agreed.  And it make it tougher for me to think I should roll my own in the weathering department, even when the releases aren't what I need for my layout.

[thomasjmdavis]

That is a bold move, given that SAL, ACL and SCL are quite unpopular railroads AFAIK.

If you look at railpictures.net, you see hundredths of pictures of ATSF in warbonnet, but nearly no pictures of SAL and ACL. Didn't folks travel to Florida in the fifties?

Would the Kato F3-set (106-0201) have pulled hwt passenger trains?

(Didn't know that Micro-Trains has taken over the Labelle lube as a distributor. Should make for better availability.)

Cheers

   Javier

Javier,

I think it is fair to say that southeastern roads do not fair well on the internet, generally.  However, they are fairly well represented on our late friend Jerry's Passenger Car photo site, and there are several books on ACL, FEC and other roads in that part of the country with a lot of info and photos.  I've also read that "southeastern roads don't sell", but, truth be told, with the exception of a few individual cars, very few accurate models are available- and those simply because the roads bought used equipment from C&O, or sleepers that matched some from PRR or other roads.  No one has ever done a prototypically accurate set.  And as for ACL in particular, there are some truly hideous renditions of ACL purple to be found.

I think the Kato set was actually F2s (of which ACL had several sets).  In any case, per the Goolsby book, the primary use of the F2s was on secondary passenger trains (a logical place to find heavyweights generally).  There is also a photo of the F2s leading the combined Flamingo/Dixie Limited consist in the 1950s- with all visible cars in the shot being head end (the Dixie Limited, despite its name, was essentially a mail train when it left Chicago in the early 50s).  ACL was also not bashful about using E units on secondary trains.

The heavyweights that were painted into the purple scheme were also often mixed with lightweights, especially on connecting trains for the Champions and many of the trains running from Florida to NYC and Chicago.  So the cars would have some potential to end up in a Havana Special or Dixie Flyer.  They could also get mixed into a train of green cars- as many of the ACL heavyweights soldiered on in earlier schemes.  Would also note that both the east coast and midwest trains would carry cars of several roads.  A 1956 Havana Special consist in the book, for instance, shows PRR, FEC, and NYC lettering, along with ACL cars (including one in green) and a sleeper in generic "Pullman".

Makes me wish that WoT had got the color right on their 70' baggage cars.

The one caveat would be that the sleepers in the set are NOT the correct configurations for the names.  The real "Tower" sleepers were 8-1-3s, and the "Poplar" sleepers were 6-6s.  But that said, they are as accurate as most of the streamlined equipment out there in ACL paint.  The coach numbers are correct for a series of single window coaches that had a couple more windows, if the diagram book is accurate, but overall of similar appearance.  The more notable differences (from the diagram) are that the ACL cars had a balloon roof (although this may have been a later addition?) and the arched lavatory windows that were common to ACL heavyweight coaches (a hold over from an earlier time, still in use on ACL on cars built in the 1938- some of the last heavyweights built).

[Ngineer]

Makes me wish that WoT had got the color right on their 70' baggage cars.

Tom,

thank you very much for your vivid explanation. 

I read that the ACL purple (violet?) did fade very quickly in the hot Florida sun.
(Paint manufacturers test their colors in Florida. "Florida Outdoor Exposure Testing" Q-Lab)

Couldn't that be a reason why the correct color is so often disputed?

The famous photographer Jack Delano took lots of pictures from various railroads, but I've never seen a Jack Delano photo with Florida trains. (On the other hand, I've only seen pictures of him that are readily available on the internet, from the Library of Congress.)

   Javier

[thomasjmdavis]

Javier-
I have every confidence that MT will deliver an accurate color. 

The complaint I have is primarily with WoT over that 70' baggage (one of my very few pre-orders)- the artwork in the ads had the correct color (so they knew what it was supposed to look like), but what was delivered is much too blue- very different from what was shown to us to solicit the pre-orders.  While I prefer to have some variation among cars (as a form of weathering, as you point out) for the sake of realism, I think manufacturers have a responsibility in this day and age of preorders, to deliver cars that are the same color as portrayed in their ads. 

[Tom Todd]

It'll be 2 Great Northern Coaches for me.

[jagged ben]

Does anyone know if the Santa Fe autorack is accurate as a tri-level?  Naturally they release that a few months after I finally scored the Red Caboose (bi-level) version on eBay for a reasonable price.   

[wcfn100]

Does anyone know if the Santa Fe autorack is accurate as a tri-level?  Naturally they release that a few months after I finally scored the Red Caboose (bi-level) version on eBay for a reasonable price.   

As for accuracy, the MTL flat isn't a PLH-10 so it's not a low deck car with 28" wheels.  Otherwise it looks pretty good.

Jason