Trainfest 2010 Report

[Sokramiketes]

Does the plastic walkway on those new Atlas hoppers leave anyone as cold as it does me ? I mean really Atlas....ever heard of etched brass ? Sigh

Trainman line.  What it lacks in etched brass it really makes up for in price.

[asarge]

For the price I don;t worry too much about the walkways. The lettering is good and it's a good runner.

[Lehmannmws82]

The new Bachmann grain cars look decent. Not perfect but in a unit train consist and the street price should make them a bargain for us NTrackers.... I think I need to order some of those new CP GEVO's to do a DPU train consist.

[Sokramiketes]

Hmmm, aside from the bad joint and the lack of distance between the roll-ups, it looks promising. I've been seeing a number of these types of replacement stations in Morning Sun books lately.

It was hacked together for the show just to demonstrate what could be done with the Armco kits.  Mark called it a C&NW depot, which it probably was when the photo was taken, but it was built by the CGW in Dodge Center, MN. 

[sirenwerks]

I knew there was something very familiar about that station. McIntire's was similar but smaller, same bay window but no double door freight area. Sycamore, Ingalton, and Fredericksburg were similar too. One problem though is that's the wrong metal siding for those structures - not smooth enough. But the siding on the Armcos would be perfect for the two-bay engine houses at Chicago Transfer and Hayfield. Any idea where that reference photo came from?

[SkipGear]

The Atlas GPs work fine for me.  I don't see the logic in Bachmann tooling up a GP7.  And, wouldn't the Atlas SD50 winterization hatches work on the Atlas GP7?

I questioned it at first, until one of my customers came in and placed an order for 10 of the B&O units. It's an early scheme, which Atlas seems to have forgotten how to do and it sells for half of what a DCC installed Atlas GP goes for. He has a huge basement layout (roughly 45 minutes from point to point at scale speed), models Cincinnati to Chilicothe B&O in the 50's, is into opperations, and could get twice as many locos for the same price. At this price, he can turn them loose on opperation nights and not panic if something goes wrong.

The price is right and it will take some of the sticker shock away from going DCC for many people.

[Mr. G]

GP7s with winterization hatches and DCC at a reasonable price are pretty appealing.  Add Pyle lights and the right paint schemes ;D and you've got some great locomotives.

[noblerot]

Thanks for the info and pics Jamie, any mention from deluxe innovations on the long delayed twinstacks? I assume from your pics none were on display

[mcjaco]

It was hacked together for the show just to demonstrate what could be done with the Armco kits.  Mark called it a C&NW depot, which it probably was when the photo was taken, but it was built by the CGW in Dodge Center, MN. 

Further to Mike's thoughts, it was two Armco kits bashed together.  Mark did a quick job to show how versatile the kits were.  Each wall has cut lines in the inside for either a roll up door, a door, or a window.  The detail parts made the kit.  Gas meter, a/c units, the roll up doors, phone boxes. 

[mcjaco]

Thanks for the info and pics Jamie, any mention from deluxe innovations on the long delayed twinstacks? I assume from your pics none were on display

Twin stacks were on display.  Don't recall what Dave said other than their new packaging, and the new way they articulation will work.

[sizemore]

I questioned it at first, until one of my customers came in and placed an order for 10 of the B&O units. It's an early scheme, which Atlas seems to have forgotten how to do and it sells for half of what a DCC installed Atlas GP goes for. He has a huge basement layout (roughly 45 minutes from point to point at scale speed), models Cincinnati to Chilicothe B&O in the 50's, is into opperations, and could get twice as many locos for the same price. At this price, he can turn them loose on opperation nights and not panic if something goes wrong.

The price is right and it will take some of the sticker shock away from going DCC for many people.

Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah. I'm tempted to get the B&O and Cheezzie units just to weather the crap out of them and use them in pool service. If the winterization hatch is removable and everything else that we look for checks out, I'll probably grab another 4 of them to make into WM units.

The S.

[jmlaboda]

"The 10-wheeler is also sexy... Does the behemoth tender conceal a motor?  Or can we swap in something more appropriately sized?"

The motor is in the engine, not the tender, which is why it has taken them so long to come out with the model.  And the tender size... honestly it depends on what era you are modeling AND whether you are modeling a light railed branchline or something else.

Like early 2-8-0s the tender was rather short and could be represented by using a Model Power tender with parts or underframe of the Bachmann tenders (not sure which one would be best) to create the early tenders that these engines had.  Later in life such engines received tenders that were at least similar to what comes with the model, but there it depended on what the engine's assignment was... those used on very light railed branchlines sometimes retained the lighter tender simply to keep weight down on the engines.

I was rather surprised recently when I got to go to the North Carolina Transportation Museum and checked out the ACL 1031 that its tender was very similar in construction and design to that of the Bachmann USRA short tender... which will be the tender I will be using behind my 4-6-0s (as well as other shortline/branchline engines) for the freelanced lines I hope to model.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=548405
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=916866
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3048

I don't know what will be possible as far as DCC goes but I really am not very interested in DCC, at least not at this point, but having distinctive looking power, at least slightly different from the norm, is a part of my goal and I am glad that Bachmann is offering these.  Other examples that I have seen in photos is the Bachmann USRA long, which was also used behind some of the Ten Wheelers on various roads... there is variety if you are looking to model such engines later in life just as there is with the MP tenders if you choose to model them when they were younger.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Until you consider the $4 Micro-Trains trucks/couplers.

Why would I do that? I wouldn't want to put $4 70 trucks on a 100 ton car that already has a truck that's never given me problems.

[bbussey]

Why would I do that? I wouldn't want to put $4 70 trucks on a 100 ton car that already has a truck that's never given me problems.

Agreed.  MTL couplers I would consider for body-mounting purposes, but the truck frames are accurate.  I would keep them and replace the wheelsets with FVMs.

I keep the Atlas trucks on all of my Atlas equipment, regardless of which couplers I body-mount.  I also use Atlas trucks on much of my IMRC equipment because the bolster pin hole is centered.  The Atlas variety of truck frames is just as diverse as the MTL variety when the tonnage is taken into consideration.  And Atlas is the only company that offers a friction-bearing caboose truck.

When the BLMA friction-bearing 70t trucks become available, that will be another option.

[Denver Road Doug]

Why would I do that? I wouldn't want to put $4 70 trucks on a 100 ton car that already has a truck that's never given me problems.

Well, I was mostly referring to comparing apples to apples.   If you are talking dollar for dollar the MTL setup is more expensive.  If you want to suggest that Accumates are equal to or better than MTL couplers, I have no problem with that, but it just hasn't been my experience.  The IMRC cars have MTL couplers and yes incorrect trucks although I imagine that will change very soon.

I was thinking the end platforms on the Atlas hoppers were thick too but honestly I didn't give them much of a second look after seeing the unbelievable 2 feet thick walkways.  I'm guessing they (end platforms/railing) are similar to the 3560's which I think look fine.