Athearn Bi-Level Auto-racks now hitting the shelves...

[sizemore]

Been looking forward to this release!

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-Auto-Carrier-Cars-s/1470.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1470&show=30&page=1&brand=Athearn

As always not affiliated, just reporting to you crazy kids!

The S.

[unittrain]

Got 5 of them hope they do a tri level next.

[wcfn100]

Been looking forward to this release!

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/N-Scale-Auto-Carrier-Cars-s/1470.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1470&show=30&page=1&brand=Athearn

As always not affiliated, just reporting to you crazy kids!

The S.

Yeah I saw that last night and almost posted something.

I've become a bit more excited about this release after looking through some of the many pictures I've got on the computer.  I've been pretty adamant in the past about wanting a lo-deck flat for tri-level racks.  But after looking through those pics, the F89F(H) is a very good car for doing tri-level cars with the exact same rack.  I ordered a Q car lest night to see if it can be taken apart and once I get the car, I'm going to hit up the Athearn parts department about getting extra decks.

Here's a pic of the tri-level version.

http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911300.jpg

http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911081.jpg

There's no way to  discern with an ORER what racks went with what cars, but I can say in the number series that the BTTX cars fall, there are a ton more RTTX (tri-level) cars listed. It wouldn't surprise me if there were more tri-level cars with this same rack than bi-levels.


Jason

[jmlaboda]

I ordered a Q car lest night to see if it can be taken apart and once I get the car, I'm going to hit up the Athearn parts department about getting extra decks.

Here's a pic of the tri-level version.

http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911300.jpg

http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911081.jpg

While outside my area of interest I hope that you will be able to find a way of modeling the tri-level racks.  I remember them well from back when the Southern Railway's Piedmont operated... quite often racks were a part of the freight that trailed these trains, with their fiberglass panels.  Would be great to see this becoming an option for folks looking to model the '60s to 70s.

[nkalanaga]

Now THAT is weird.  If I try either link, I get a "403-Forbidden" error.  If I go through the website, I can get to the page for that picture, and then open the picture itself, exactly where the link says it should be.  If I copy and paste the link into my browser's address bar, I can get the picture.  But even after proving the picture is there, clicking on the link gives me the 403 error.

Are those pre-lettered police cars on the 911300?

[C855B]

The sysadmin for the site screwed-up the virtual alias reference, and it does not resolve without the "http://" explicitly expressed in the links. These should work:

  http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911300.jpg

  http://freight.railfan.ca/ttx/rttx911081.jpg

The difference is that Jerry typed out the link in plain text and the forum software apparently dropped the "http://", and I spelled-out the entire link within "[url]" markup. Strange how this stuff works sometimes.

Great pics, BTW!

EDIT: Never mind. Suddenly, my links now get the 403 error. They're doing something tricky (or klugey) to fight against hotlinking.

[basementcalling]

They hit the shelves and didn't stay on them long. Restocked but don't sleep. This Elvis is leaving the building fast. 

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  Nope, still doesn't work here:

"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /ttx/rttx911300.jpg on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

But, just like the previous ones, copying and pasting the link works fine.  Maybe it's a Firefox thing.

[peteski]

Mike:  Nope, still doesn't work here:

"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /ttx/rttx911300.jpg on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

But, just like the previous ones, copying and pasting the link works fine.  Maybe it's a Firefox thing.

Same problem using my Seamonkey browser (which uses Mozilla under the hood - just like Firefox).

[jagged ben]

The forum truncated the http:// off of Mike's links, too.

Try this and this.

[wcfn100]

I just got my extra Q flat from MKB and overall the car looks really nice.  I'll post some pics later if no one does.

Three initial thoughts.  Ride height isn't awful, but looks worse because of the design of the flat.  I'll get a better measurements later, but I think it only needs a 4-6" drop.  Lot's of glue, but it's mostly on the inside of the bottom deck holding the supports. And finally, mine has a bit of an assembly issue where the top deck is skewed.  It leans left at one end and right at the other.  Will try and take it apart later.

One mystery to me is how did they unload these cars without ramps? 


Jason

[wcfn100]

Jason

[w neal]

Um, what? Weren't the "ramps" supposed to be included on this model? Thats what all the media (even the demos at the shows) depicted?!?!? WTRs? I see the 'oles for them. Did the factory "forget" them?

Oh wait! MY MIND saw them, not my eyes. It appears the Wabash are the only ones with end ramps? Interesting...

[Missaberoad]

Um, what? Weren't the "ramps" supposed to be included on this model? Thats what all the media (even the demos at the shows) depicted?!?!? WTRs? I see the 'oles for them. Did the factory "forget" them?

Oh wait! MY MIND saw them, not my eyes. It appears the Wabash are the only ones with end ramps? Interesting...

The omission is not necessarily an error on Athearn's part. Prototype autoracks varried wether or not they had ramps.

As for how they were unloaded, I imagine there would have been full width gang plates (like between boxcars) put between the cars.
It would be interesting to see photos of 1960's/70s unloading facilities...

[wcfn100]

As for how they were unloaded, I imagine there would have been full width gang plates (like between boxcars) put between the cars.

I doubt that as decks had many designs including rounded and peaked.  I would think maybe separate bridge plates, but they'd have to be very universal.  Some flat needed up to 10" longer plates because cushioning.

This is an area I need to learn more about.

Jason