Atlas surprise coming at Trainfest

[POVC]

I'm betting N-scale versions of the modern NJT commuter trains they announced in HO back in June.

Tim

[James Costello]

With all these Scaletrains 53' containers floating around, a Thrall 3x 53' well car set would be pretty handy....

Surely it's at the right place in the queue to be shrunk from HO to N by now.... 

[johnb]

Umm... Dee's gone! She lost so many bets on the World Series that she couldn't pay off, so she disappeared.

What am I gonna do now? Nobody'll read my posts anymore.

I read your post

[Chris333]

Another switcher with sound like their S2....this time with mounting holes in the (metal) hood rather than cast-on grabs.

Sure. A Lima would be great!

[Mike C]

Oh come on everybody knows it will be a Reading T1 !

[lock4244]

A new hat for Malibu Stacey. Oh wait, wrong forum.

I'd like to see a 20' wrinkle side container... CAST please.

It won't be a GP40-2W.

[peteski]

@peteski, how about new wood side deep gapped reefers?

I'll pass - thanks. 

[Joetrain59]

Reading T1 would be interesting, but a J3A Hudson would be nicer;)
 Joe D

[nkalanaga]

Kiz:  I'll still read your posts, but will definitely miss Dee.  She's part of the reason I stayed here after trying it , when Atlas shut their forum.  Anyplace that will accept non-human members can't be too bad!

[Curtis Kyger]

How 'bout a RS3 with ESU sound?

[Dave Schneider]

Is this for real, or just one of those wide speculation threads?

Best wishes, Dave

[OldEastRR]

Is this for real, or just one of those wide speculation threads?

Best wishes, Dave

It's your chance to be a kid on the knee of the department store Santa again, gleefully listing all the new toys you want.

Hell, Atlas hasn't offered a 5-axle C-liner in quite a while..?? ... uh, when was the last time Atlas brought out any N passenger cars?

[tom mann]

What am I gonna do now? Nobody'll read my posts anymore.

If you feel that people aren't reading your posts, just post exclusively in the N and Z board.

[DeltaBravo]

It is time for Atlas to step up their game and redesign the frames for their RS units. In 2016 how can a model company put this on their new product release?     "Please note that the N scale RS-1 will not have DCC ready frames."

Heck Lifelike had their RS units with drop in decoders years ago. Atlas should go buy the frame  and motor design from Walther's, because it doesn't appear they are using it any longer.

Note, the Atlas shells look great.

[thomasjmdavis]

uh, when was the last time Atlas brought out any N passenger cars?

I'm hoping we see some progress on the 60' cars they were talking about.  (Life has been wacky the last few months, and I haven't paid attention to much in the last 2 weeks other than baseball, so they could have announced something I missed completely).  I could use the baggage and RPO, even if I have no use for the coach (assuming the CNW design that would be a big upgrade on the old Bachmann cars, but they just don't fit the prototypes I model).

I am at the point in designing the new "dream" layout, on deciding on DCC or DC.  The fact that I want to be able to run several trains simultaneously, even if I don't have a crew of 5, makes me lean toward DCC.  Following is my humble opinion only, I have no idea on how Atlas makes its production decisions, but I assume they had a good reason for what they did, but I can't see how cutting your potential market in half is profitable in the long run.  I am left to wonder if perhaps they are waiting on some sort of decoder standard to emerge (I've never understood why there is not one standard decoder, or 2 or 3 different sizes, for, say, all Atlas models, instead of every model having one custom designed for it.  But again, I suppose there must be a good reason).

On the RS1, back when they "introduced" the "Classic" line (which is to say, announced that they were not going to revise the tooling on certain 10+, now 20+, year old models to accommodate DCC out of the box), it made sense as an economy line.  But in those days, I think the MSRP was about $59, street price under $50,. and I bought several of my GP and RS units for around $40 when they went on sale.  But $119.95 for something that you need to have machined to fit a decoder in? (has anyone come up with a way to add a decoder to one of these without cutting some metal?)

I will be hoping I can pick up one or both of the C&EI bodies, and fit them to old chassis, which apparently are identical to the new chassis.  Unless, of course, in 6 months, some online retailer is trying to clear the shelves at $39.95.