M-T TBOX

[Philip H]

Well done MTL

[Missaberoad]

Wow... that gives the HO Athearn Genesis car a run for its money...

[learmoia]

Disregard.

[ednadolski]

Mine arrived today.  No surprise that these are already sold out.   Here is what one looks like if you let it out of the box:





Semi-obligatory comparison shots next to one of the old LBFs.  No contest, really (tho my poor weathering on the old one doesn't do it any favors):







Thanks MT, well done indeed!

Ed

[mu26aeh]

Wow, not much comparison.   I have 3 lbf versions awaiting decals when I get to them.  I have a TTX and CSX sets ordered from LHS

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Are those plug door tracks separate?

These things look incredible! I really wish they were in my era.

MTL has done some REALLY good tooling lately. Before this, my personal favorite was the Airslide. I can't wait to see how the PS2 covered hoppers come out.

[wazzou]

Are those plug door tracks separate?

Yes, you can see the application in the video.

[peteski]

I'm ecstatic that MTL went back to molded-on side ladders.  I guess I can see why they chose to make the end ladders separate. They seme thinner than thir earlier offerings, but I guess I have to see it in person to really compare those to the earlier cars.

Those silly injection-molded tacked-on ladders on some of their cars (and on other brand cars) are way out of scale, and make those cars look toyish.  The ladders on these TBOX cars look very realistic to me.

After watching the video, I also ave few observations.
The excess height white bands on the ends are actually separate pieces.  That is an interesting way of dealign with that (and produces crisper results, and is less labor intensive than masking and painting).

The metal wheels look very similar to their last attempt at those. Hopefully these are better looking up close, but they still look to be diecast (not machined).

Interesting that they abandoned their typical diecast metal underframes with plastic details, instead using diecast weights.  I wonder what was the reason for that? Maybe injection casting metal is rougher on the molds than plastic?  Plus they don't have to use chemical blackening.

I was also very happy to see that they have not mothballed their Tampo machines.  It seems lately that they use ink jet printing for most of their car decorations (not just graffiti).

I wish they would still do spray-painting and Tampo printing on their wooden reefers.  Most of recent releases had the entire sides (inducing the yellow background) ink jet printed, and they don't look as good as the older reefers.  Sure, some multi-color graphics look better ink jet printed, but many simpler graphics and lettering would look much sharper when Tampo printed.

Anyway, these cars look like a winner, and it is nice to see that they are fully made in USA.

[coosvalley]

they are fully made in USA.

And yet we've been led to believe(by other MFRs) that this cannot be done

[Mark5]

The LBF isn't that bad, but the MTL is soooooo much better!

Mark

[ednadolski]

The LBF isn't that bad, but the MTL is soooooo much better!

The LBF graphics are rather poor. The MTL graphics do show some dot patterns, and the herald looks rather thick, but you can only see those things under high magnification (Optivisor at 10x).

I'd also have to say the LBF tooling is crude by comparison, esp. on the end detailing, but otoh those were made what, some 15 years ago or thereabouts?  The LBF doesn't seem like a particularly accurate representation of the NSC car, likely it was based on some other prototype.

I like that the MTL coupler pockets look like separate parts, so you can pop them off and put whatever you like on there. 

Ed

[peteski]

The LBF graphics are rather poor. The MTL graphics do show some dot patterns, and the herald looks rather thick, but you can only see those things under high magnification (Optivisor at 10x).

From watching the video I believe that this particular MTL release of those cars is 100% Tampo printed. No dot patterns.  I'm curious where did you see the dot patterns Ed?

[ednadolski]

From watching the video I believe that this particular MTL release of those cars is 100% Tampo printed. No dot patterns.  I'm curious where did you see the dot patterns Ed?

On the yellow safety stripes, and the red arrows of the herald.  Maybe 'grainy' is a better word than 'dots', but it's hard to tell even under the magnifiers.  Definitely not a solid color there tho.

Ed

[peteski]

On the yellow safety stripes, and the red arrows of the herald.  Maybe 'grainy' is a better word than 'dots', but it's hard to tell even under the magnifiers.  Definitely not a solid color there tho.

Ed

You are right Ed. When I view this photo full size I can definitely see what you are talking about.  Yes, those are ink jet printed. They did sneak it in.    Like you said, the ink is much thicker than Tampo inks, and it has a pebbly sheen.   I guess as they usually do, they Tampo-print small lettering that ink jet has a hard time rendering, and since that lettering was black ink, they probably threw in the other black color lettering.  It is interesting that even though those logos and stripes were just small areas of solid color, they went with the ink jet.  I guess less labor than etching the metal plates and mixing inks. Ink jet printer can those 3 colors in a single operation.



Even though their current ink jet printers are vastly superior in resolution from the ones on which they introduced ink jet decoration, I still miss fully Tampo printed models.  Well, while the ink jet is unquestionably the best method for printing graffiti and weathering, for solid color logos I still prefer Tampo printing.

[Mark5]

The LBF graphics are rather poor.
Ed

I was referring to the model.