Intermountain newsletter for TRINITY 5161 CUBIC FOOT HOPPERS

[Narlie]

Somebody went wild with the cut and paste. A whole bunch of cars wrongly tagged as BLT10-12 !

https://files.constantcontact.com/6a6d4255701/c42b988d-88b8-4110-9025-11c6e0d73eb7.pdf

[kscessandriver]

Anyone seen any of these in person yet? Against my better judgment (because I really didn't need more covered hoppers), I ordered a number of them.

[mu26aeh]

Seen some posted on FB sales group, look good from what I seen

I just went back and looked at my saved email from my LHS when these were announced.  Pre-order price of $18.79.  5 years ago this week.  Wonder what I'm actually going to pay for them

[Rivet Miscounter]

Somebody went wild with the cut and paste. A whole bunch of cars wrongly tagged as BLT10-12 !

The only cars I see tagged 10-12 are the BNSF Heritage Hoppers which were painted...you guessed it...October of 2012. (maybe this document was updated since your post?)   Not sure if they were all done exactly within October (ie paint/repaint date) but that's a pretty good estimation of when they hit the rails.

[Englewood]

MSRP went up like $7-8 from when I first pre-ordered them. I'd given up on ever seeing these.

[kscessandriver]

Well, once I get over to the post office, I've got a box of them waiting for me already. I hope to do it this afternoon, as I have nothing to do all day.

[basementcalling]

Can't say for sure from the angle of the pictures, but those new ones sure look like they have ride height issues.

[GaryHinshaw]

I don't know about this run of the cars, but some of the past runs have shipped with bolster washers to ensure that the truck-mounted couplers don't foul.  If they're well assembled, that washer can be dispensed with as the couplers will still clear.

And if you have a scheme for body-mounting the couplers you can swap in Atlas/BLMA trucks to lower them further:



Hopefully now, the 3281's won't be far behind...

[Englewood]

The 3281s I preordered years ago will show up the day after I order enough of the Atlas 3230 covered hoppers to satisfy the needs of my layout. 😣  Kind of like the auto racks and the grain hoppers these past few months... 🙄

[Englewood]

Ok, I checked my pre-order list. I ordered some of the 5161 hoppers back in December 2016 when they had an MSRP of $24.95. Now they're showing an MSRP of $34.95. Ouch!

[Jbub]

Ok, I checked my pre-order list. I ordered some of the 5161 hoppers back in December 2016 when they had an MSRP of $24.95. Now they're showing an MSRP of $34.95. Ouch!

They are probably keeping it in line with competion
Scaletrains 5188's are 'normally' 40.99 on sale for 32.99 and if you buy twelve 29.99

[kscessandriver]

I don't know about this run of the cars, but some of the past runs have shipped with bolster washers to ensure that the truck-mounted couplers don't foul.  If they're well assembled, that washer can be dispensed with as the couplers will still clear.

And if you have a scheme for body-mounting the couplers you can swap in Atlas/BLMA trucks to lower them further:



Hopefully now, the 3281's won't be far behind...

These do not appear to have bolster washers on them, but appear to ride at the same height as a variety of older 5161 IM hoppers I've got. I'm happy with them, I can easily make a very long KCS unit train now.

[MK]

Ok, I checked my pre-order list. I ordered some of the 5161 hoppers back in December 2016 when they had an MSRP of $24.95. Now they're showing an MSRP of $34.95. Ouch!

Our of curiosity, if you pre-order at price A and it goes up to B at production, do you get it for price A?

I'm not a pre-order person.

[mu26aeh]

I highly doubt they'll hold to the pre-order price.  It was 5 years ago they were announced and had a delivery window of 6-7 months after announcement.  I'm assuming it will be a similar discounted price to the new msrp

[wazzou]

Man, the one on the right looks ridiculous. 
Nice save Gary.