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Post by Judge Doom on Jan 30, 2015 23:20:26 GMT -8
Small local ramp facilities, and off-layout large ones. Maybe they're just thru-freight that doesn't stop on the layout for loading/unloading, or interchange/bridge traffic being forwarded from one RR/interchange to another.
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Post by Spikre on Jan 31, 2015 18:36:17 GMT -8
 Bessemerkid, just wait until Walthers puts the C&O cabeese on sale. they are fine cars if the price is under $15.00. with a lot of those wood cabeese its really amazing just how small they really are. even some of the pre-WW-2 Steel cars are sort of size challenged also. now is there a new player doing the N&W CF1s ? guess PCM/BLI is out of that running now ? Edit-- have either Tangent or ExactRail made any Usefull eastern Caboose models ? how about a Southern Bay Window? why hasn't any company done at least one version by now ? Spikre 
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Post by drolsen on Jan 31, 2015 20:58:13 GMT -8
Not to hijack the thread, but I'm curious: how do you use large cars like autoracks - especially the big articulated beasts - that require large, specialized loading and unloading facilities on your layout? I've always thought Bruce Friedman's autorack facility was a good example for how to model one in a home layout (granted, a large won): www.chessiesystem.com/Twinoaks.htmlPersonally, I'll just be using mine on run-through trains, but the articulated racks definitely take up a lot of length (TTX only had a few of the Atlas Thrall prototype in my 1998 modeling era). Not quite as bad as 5-unit well cars, though, of which 6 or 7 is about the most you can put in one train on a home layout. Dave |
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Post by fr8kar on Jan 31, 2015 21:40:37 GMT -8
Wow, that's really nice. I'm used to spotting two different auto facilities - one just as wide as Bruce's model and one only six tracks across - but both a little bit longer.  I think his approach is actually very believable even though it is much smaller than the prototype facilities. The facilities I know are both alongside the main track, so seeing a stub-ended facility is a nice change. I don't even want to think about intermodal. I have a bunch of intermodal cars (maybe 25 wells worth) and I just can't be bothered to fool with them most of the time. They look neat, but I don't know what to do with them on the point-to-point or loop-to-yard layouts we set up. They don't have a destination, they can't be broken up easily and they are space hogs. One day I'll finish my super-detailed Fuel Foiler project, but will I actually run it? No telling. |
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Post by navarch1 on Feb 1, 2015 4:52:59 GMT -8
This is what happens when you do not own your factory and you rely on "contractors" to create your products - the Chinese people became exactly what we wanted them to become...a largely "free" consumer society and quasi-free-enterprise-based economic system. Well, what the hell did we expect? That they would just keep making things for us very inexpensively and not want things for themselves? We have forever preached that the world needs to be more like us, and now the results of that are coming home to roost. The good news is that like the current US energy boom, sooner or later all things come full circle. Who'd have thought that in 2015 we'd be in a position to thumb our nose at OPEC? Despite the pronouncements of some very skilled business people, hobby manufacturing may have no choice but to come back here, as Chinese factories look to build higher value products over time in factories with precision molding equipment and small electronics capability. I'm taking the bull by the horns....invested in a high quality 3D printer ...in case I have to make my own models one day...lol. Bob |
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Post by navarch1 on Feb 1, 2015 4:57:19 GMT -8
Not to hijack the thread, but I'm curious: how do you use large cars like autoracks - especially the big articulated beasts - that require large, specialized loading and unloading facilities on your layout? I model a time when they moved in small cuts or as onesie-twosies, so they're just large cars in a mixed freight to me. But for those who model the modern era, how do you handle them? Are they just passing through, do you have the auto facilities to handle these cars and their cargo or do you model an assembly plant that fills these cars up? Do you run entire auto trains or have long cuts added onto your intermodal trains? Just traffic passing through...some interesting cars that populate an intermodal train. No end-delivery point needed - the real value of staging yards and Interchange tracks and bridge traffic.... Bob |
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Post by dstark on Feb 1, 2015 9:03:32 GMT -8
Didn't they release two new box cars within the past 2 years? That I can think of... NSC exterior post boxcars with three bodies (two released to date) plus truck and draft gear variations and the recent announcement of FMC 5347 double door boxcars. Not high output, but it's utter nonsense that "they don't make new products". |
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Post by atsfan on Feb 1, 2015 9:11:08 GMT -8
I was wondering why this could not be made in usa at this price level
Tooling is done
Kadee cars are and don't cost near this and seem more complicated
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Post by atsfan on Feb 1, 2015 9:14:58 GMT -8
Didn't they release two new box cars within the past 2 years? That I can think of... NSC exterior post boxcars with three bodies (two released to date) plus truck and draft gear variations and the recent announcement of FMC 5347 double door boxcars. Not high output, but it's utter nonsense that "they don't make new products". New engines I don't know of. Persoannaly I don't need more 50 foot boxcars Not saying anything bad about it though for those that do My freight car dollars these days are going to small outfits like Tangent and their hoppers etc I would sign up for a dozen new Atlas Master SD40-2's though :-) :-) :-) |
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Post by middledivision on Feb 1, 2015 9:51:54 GMT -8
I had a chance last Timonium show to by a bunch of the earlier production Atlas articu-racks for $30-$33 each. Those were 2nd and 3rd run ones the dealer still had in stock and was trying to get rid of. Bought my half dozen at Timonium a few years ago for $175. |
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Post by riogrande on Feb 1, 2015 10:04:10 GMT -8
Bought my half dozen at Timonium a few years ago for $175. They are waaaay too new for me but yesterday at Timonium I saw a pile of them at a dealer who was going out of business - the half price sale would have sold them at about $30 each. Most were FEC it appeared. Massive cars. |
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Post by curtmc on Feb 1, 2015 10:32:25 GMT -8
I saw those also yesterday at Timo... Early in the show the stack had NS, TTX/UP and FEC ones. The sale was 50% off retail (top number on price sticker) so they would have been $32.50-$40. Later in the day when I passed by all that were left were the FEC ones ($79.98 MSRP so $40) Seriously considered getting one more FEC one but didn't...
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Post by thebessemerkid on Feb 1, 2015 12:05:40 GMT -8
May have to make a Timonium trek, maybe after the snow and drivers who can't drive in it are gone. That's a good deal on those cars.
ETA: for those interested, MBKlein has a video of the cars and they look pretty good (can't say the same for the MTH gp35's with crummy proto-sound, and the annoying background music throughout the video)
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Post by thebessemerkid on Feb 2, 2015 17:50:57 GMT -8
Bessemerkid, just wait until Walthers puts the C&O cabeese on sale. they are fine cars if the price is under $15.00. with a lot of those wood cabeese its really amazing just how small they really are. even some of the pre-WW-2 Steel cars are sort of size challenged also. now is there a new player doing the N&W CF1s ? guess PCM/BLI is out of that running now ? Edit-- have either Tangent or ExactRail made any Usefull eastern Caboose models ? how about a Southern Bay Window? why hasn't any company done at least one version by now ? Spikre Here's a nice o-scale one:  www.kohs.com/Weathered_Models/WeatheredModelPhoto-17.html |
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Post by Spikre on Feb 3, 2015 17:19:43 GMT -8
nice Cabbie Bessemerkid !! but KOHS is out of my range now. am wondering if the Wood Caboose that PCM/BLI announced had a different class ? in the early 80s just west of Petersburg on RT-460 was an N&W Woodie that had been engulfed in Kudzu. don't know what ever happened to that true "Crummy" ? Spikre
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Post by thebessemerkid on Feb 3, 2015 17:24:41 GMT -8
If I hit the lottery, I might consider o'scale (and a room big enough to run it!). Happy with HO and nothing else can touch the variety. That Kohs stuff sure is nice though! |
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Post by Spikre on Feb 5, 2015 11:54:13 GMT -8
?? Bessemer Kid, in the recent N&W Arrow on page 6 is a picture of a CF class wood caboose.think PCM/BLI was going to make something similar to it ? this is vol-30,October/November/December 2014. the main article is about the Virginian E33s, nice article. saw them now and then in Bridgeport,then later at Waverly in Newark,NJ. Spikre  |
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Post by riogrande on Feb 10, 2015 5:15:00 GMT -8
Back on-topic - I've noticed a few Intermountain Autoracks advertised on HOswap or HOinterchange lately - asking price is $75. I haven't seen any sold notices but wonder if the price is so high because of the new MSRP. MBK is selling some from the last run at $67 - but it isn't unusual to see people advertising stuff to sell above the discount prices many places sold them for - I guess people can ask what they want - not sure if they sell or not at above standard discount prices.
Between the warped panels and them being mostly to new for me, I resisted the Schwarz however. It's a bit disappointing as overall they are lovely models, but I just don't want to spend money on rolling stock that was brand new at the very end of my modeling period - I think the oldest of the IMR racks are about 1989/1990. As it is, even my Walthers racks are like 1988 at best.
I'm still waiting patiently for a late 70's thru mid-80's auto rack. What with the poll showing the popularity of the 1970's being at the loci of preferred era, I'd think manufacturers should start looking seriously at a model that fits. I'm planning on a couple of the Genesis racks due this spring, but still need feel there is a HUGE hole in the late open rack era/early close rack era.
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Post by valenciajim on Feb 11, 2015 7:18:41 GMT -8
Just getting caught up on several threads after being out of the country for three weeks.
What is the street price of these going to be?
I think there is a convergence of factors hitting Atlas and other manufacturers. One is that the costs of production are increasing. Second as the price increases the deand decreases, so the cost per unit goes up, further driving down demand and the cycle continues.
Before I left, there was a thread about whether the declining price of oil would result in lower prices for model railroading stuff. I noticed after being gone for three weeks that the price of gasoline at the gas station closest to my house has risen by 27 cents while I was gone.
I guess I am lucky, I have all the rolling stock and locomotive I will ever need, so I can be really selective about what I buy.
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I think his approach is actually very believable even though it is much smaller than the prototype facilities. The facilities I know are both alongside the main track, so seeing a stub-ended facility is a nice change.
