Merry Christmas everyone.
I’ve been enjoying this thread.
As a modeller of Tehachapi in the late 1990’s, 2019 has been a very good year thanks to the following:
- Tangent Scale Models H100 hoppers
- Scale Trains Rivet Counter Dash 9s (I thanked all my Kato Dash 9s as they were sold)
- Briggs Models NSC Coil Care kits (get well soon Jeff)
- Jacksonville Terminal containers, tank containers, and container chassis (these are amazing)
- Athearn GATX Tank Train further releases
- Athearn 28’ pup trailer re-releases (finally)
- Fox Valley Models PS4750 and PS4740 covered hoppers (ex-Red Caboose with the nicely upgraded roof and bodymounts)
- Atlas (ex-BLMA) Bx-166 and Bx-177 ATSF and BNSF boxcars with the correct paint colours (BLMA got these wrong)
For 2020 my picks are very similar to
@GaryHinshaw (if biased earlier by a few years). I’m surprised to find the many of my picks are really requests for upgrades of existing tooling or re-releases of models that have been already produced…
- Southern Pacific AC4400CW from Scale Trains (I’ve given up waiting on Kato)
- Tunnel Motors from Scale Trains (I’ve given up waiting on Intermountain)
- SD75M/I (Kato or Scale Trains — the Athearn tooling is not great)
- GP50s (both BN and ATSF style cabs)
- GP40L (I thought Atlas had confirmed these at some show?)
- Acid tanks (Athearn please can you upgrade your ex-MDC tooling)
- 57’ 3-unit spine cars (RTR version for TTRX 36XXX-37XXX series)
- 48’ 5-unit spine cars (RTR version for TTAX 77XXX series)
- Thrall 5-unit and single well cars (the Walthers tooling is terrible)
- NSC early 48’ 3-car and 4-car drawbar well cars (JTC could do these…)
- 53’ JB Hunt Containers (waiting on Fox Valley who have shown correct CAD/tooling)
- 48’ Trailers (no one including Atlas seems interested in producing 48 footers for the last ten years)
- BLMA 100T trucks from Atlas
- Fox Valley wheels
I’m really hanging out for all the ex-Red Caboose tooling from Fox Valley — Centerbeams and Bilevel Autoracks are sorely needed.
I know Atlas have been through a lot with their factory woes, but I would really like to see them do more with their tooling. The new SD60E has a fresh chassis with ESU Loksound and operating ditch lights, but the SD50/60 re-release gets the same old shell with no ditch lights (despite the paint schemes being ultra-modern). Also, all the ex-Walthers releases from Atlas are virtually unchanged tooling, but are branded as “Master Line” and priced quite high. This is not intended so much a whinge, but an observation that I see several other manufacturers pushing the envelope with finer wheelsets, better road-specific and era-specific details, upgraded older tooling with body mounted couplers, at similar or lower prices.
Kato continue to sit on their existing tooling — I hope the rumours of SD70M flat radiator and SD40 releases happen.
Anyways, I'm already grateful for the last 12 months, and I'm not sure my wallet can cope with this pace anyway… so peace out.
Cheers
Tim