MTL January 2023 Releases

[wazzou]

Still think it's simply someone fat fingering the button while scrolling.  Doesn't even realize they up or down voted

Agreed, particularly on a mobile device.

[bbussey]

Or, they hit the down-vote by mistake and have since corrected the faux pax.

[peteski]

Still think it's simply someone fat fingering the button while scrolling.  Doesn't even realize they up or down voted

Either case, seeing who placed the vote would solve the problem, since we could ask them "why".  But as it happens to me, when several of my posts (which contain  nothing controversial) in a single thread are down-voted, to me clearly indicate that I have a "fan" who likes to leave me "gifts".  It is not about the vote count, but about the functionality of the system.

[nickelplate759]

Or, they hit the down-vote by mistake and have since corrected the faux pax.

I've done this more than twice.... but not this time

[peteski]

I've done this more than twice.... but not this time

Well then it is a crappy design of the User Interface.  It would be nice if the UI would ask for confirmation when someone chooses to (accidentally or otherwise) vote on a post.  That would at least eliminate the accidental hits (but not the malicious ones).

[Steveruger45]

Well then it is a crappy design of the User Interface.  It would be nice if the UI would ask for confirmation when someone chooses to (accidentally or otherwise) vote on a post.  That would at least eliminate the accidental hits (but not the malicious ones).

Re- accidental hits.  Perhaps it is possible to adjust the UI and place the up and down arrows further apart?   If so that would be beneficial to many of us using tablets with fat thumbs.

[Glenn Poole]

Old - Excess height white stripes

So it doesn't have body mount couplers and it rides too high?  If this is true, why does MT keep doing this?  They retooled this car and the new tooling is absolutely great.

[johnb]

What caught my eye were the flatcars loaded with Sherman tanks, links were on the home page rather than with the "new releases".

https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=sherman&description=true

mine too....too bad the flatcars are all east coast...I want an SP set... @MTLJoe

[up1950s]

I like and ordered the MTL pair .

[jagged ben]

So it doesn't have body mount couplers and it rides too high?  If this is true, why does MT keep doing this?  They retooled this car and the new tooling is absolutely great.

It's not the same car or era.  The ladders, doors, and roofwalk (or lack thereof) are different.

[wes_sutton]

I'd be happy to see the Sherman tanks release as separate loads.

[thomasjmdavis]

I'd be happy to see the Sherman tanks release as separate loads.

True, but I wonder if we'd get the same deal we are getting with these flatcar sets.

One big, happy surprise here is how reasonable the price is on the 4 car sets with tanks.  At $110 MSRP, that works out to 27.50 per car WITH 2 tanks.  A quick search on shapeways came up with a 1/144 Sherman selling for over $14- so if that is the going rate for Shermans, the flatcars are free.
EDIT- I note that the MTL page "corrected rendering" now (Jan 12) shows 3 car sets with a total of 6 tanks instead of 4 car sets with 8 tanks.  So the price is less "reasonable" than I first thought.  Not outrageous, by current pricing standards, but not the deal I thought it was.

mine too....too bad the flatcars are all east coast...I want an SP set... @MTLJoe

I was initially thinking the same thing.  But (a) if these sell well, the obvious next step would be to issue other roads' flatcars with Shermans and/or other WWII era vehicles.  And (b) most of the Shermans were built in the eastern US- so more probably rode on eastern road flatcars.  Also, shipments tended to go to the eastern ports (a lot more Shermans went to the European theatre (and many to supply Britain), than to the Pacific (although, of course, some did).  I wonder if MTL used railroad or government publicity photos (as they did with the "atomic" cannon set) to establish roads and road numbers for these sets. 

What I really "need" for my layout time period is an M-48, but for the time being, I'll postulate the Shermans are being moved for National Guard training, or the government providing WWII surplus to Latin American countries.

[samusi01]

What I really "need" for my layout time period is an M-48

I was going to ask what was wrong with the M48 models on Thingiverse (link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2636629) but after re-reading I am concluding that you do not have access to a printer.

[JoeD]

True, but I wonder if we'd get the same deal we are getting with these flatcar sets.

One big, happy surprise here is how reasonable the price is on the 4 car sets with tanks.  At $110 MSRP, that works out to 27.50 per car WITH 2 tanks.  A quick search on shapeways came up with a 1/144 Sherman selling for over $14- so if that is the going rate for Shermans, the flatcars are free.
I was initially thinking the same thing.  But (a) if these sell well, the obvious next step would be to issue other roads' flatcars with Shermans and/or other WWII era vehicles.  And (b) most of the Shermans were built in the eastern US- so more probably rode on eastern road flatcars.  Also, shipments tended to go to the eastern ports (a lot more Shermans went to the European theatre (and many to supply Britain), than to the Pacific (although, of course, some did).  I wonder if MTL used railroad or government publicity photos (as they did with the "atomic" cannon set) to establish roads and road numbers for these sets. 

What I really "need" for my layout time period is an M-48, but for the time being, I'll postulate the Shermans are being moved for National Guard training, or the government providing WWII surplus to Latin American countries.

I believe we are doing three releases on different flat cars.   

Joe