A look at the Athearn F89F TTEX "Long Runner"

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The ESM truck bolster is slightly higher than the bolster screw column, so the truck won’t pivot if the screw is fully tightened. However, the screw is a little loose when not tightened. So I added Walthers Goo in the screw cavity so that the screw would remain where I set it.

I changed the BLMA couplers to 1015s no more droop and better coupling distance.

Any chance you might produce your own couplers with future freight car releases? I know Accumate style plastic springs work in your current models as I use them for the X58 under frames I used on other cars. Could reduce assembly cost and having to wait for MTL to ship parts to China and back.

Also - we really need kingpins included with your trucks. I'm running out of my MTL stash.

[jagged ben]

For the record, the Accumates in my Atlas TOFCs work fine.  Maybe because our club minimum radius is about 20".  Truck mounted accumates are atrocious and I've had issues with earlier runs of locomotives, but Atlas freights designed for body mount Accumates are good in my experience.

Also the wheel rubbing issue is hit or miss in my experience.   But a solution if you also own BLMA flats is to swap the wheels, then both work good.

[bbussey]

Any chance you might produce your own couplers with future freight car releases? I know Accumate style plastic springs work in your current models as I use them for the X58 under frames I used on other cars. Could reduce assembly cost and having to wait for MTL to ship parts to China and back.

Also - we really need kingpins included with your trucks. I'm running out of my MTL stash.

BLI’s couplers work perfectly, doesn’t make sense for us to reinvent the wheel. Everyone should concentrate efforts on lobbying them to offer their couplers at retail.

I don’t have any issues in dealing with MTL. They fill our OEM bulk parts orders within days in specific colors if required and we have the components shipped to ESM, which we then ship to our contractor in China along with other materials. Works very efficiently for us. I don’t foresee moving away from MTL for couplers at this point. Our quoted pricing is more than fair, they turn orders around in a week, and they make good on any errors with dispatch. That includes couplers for the injection-molded mass-market items as well as various detail parts for the craftsman kits such as the Keyser Valley caboose and low-side gondola. That also includes special items such as the Dalman and Nat-B1 truck frames without couplers (which they never have offered at retail) for the G26 mill gons.

MTL truck pins are available direct from MTL, in bulk quantity if desired. Call direct to purchase, it’s more economical than buying the small quantity in the clamshell packaging available as the parts item at retail.