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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 15:27:19 GMT -8
Quick notes, possible mistakes
Bachmann - details on website next Wednesday - USRA 0-6-0 - newly tooled boiler and tender - $329 - B&O, Pennsy, NYC, UP, CNJ(?) - FT - $299 - SF, NYC, Lackawana, Southern, WP - Pennsy K4 - $549 - 52' Center Beam flatcar /with bulkheads - $42 - CN, BC Rail, NP, Bachmann - offset streamlined cupola caboose -$45 - CB&Q, Wabash, N&W, GT - Thomas - Origin James - $139 - later this year
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 16:53:11 GMT -8
Atlas - new run of Multimax cars - 3 roadnames (NS, CSX, ??) - arrive in August.
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Post by hovehicle on Jul 16, 2020 16:53:46 GMT -8
Anything new from Atlas?
Vito L.
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Post by hovehicle on Jul 16, 2020 16:56:20 GMT -8
Nothing about the 5250, the Gunderson 60' boxcar with 3 horizontal ribs, etc?
Vito L.
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Post by NS4122 on Jul 16, 2020 17:02:18 GMT -8
Nothing about those...Only other item that caught my attention was that the 5660s are due next month. Nothing about the 5250, the Gunderson 60' boxcar with 3 horizontal ribs, etc? Vito L.
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 17:04:13 GMT -8
So far the only new tool stuff has been from Bachmann. Otherwise a discussion of previously announced stuff, stuff arriving soon, tour of Jason's train car in his basement, Jason's music advice (don't buy the John Lennon/Yoko Ono Wedding Album), guy from Atlas had his young daughter demo an N scale loco on a small home layout.
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 17:08:33 GMT -8
Kato indicating P42 arriving soon.
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 17:21:47 GMT -8
Not model railroad, but Micro-Trains has branched out and made some items (made in the US at their facility) for the pandemic - face shields and ear protectors (for those wearing face masks, the loops go onto the plastic device that goes across the back of your head to prevent irritation around your ears)
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Post by unittrain on Jul 16, 2020 17:24:45 GMT -8
This one is a bit of a sleeper not much that wasn't already known.
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 18:01:49 GMT -8
This one is a bit of a sleeper not much that wasn't already known.
In some ways not a surprise - most of the announcements these days are made in the days/week prior to the NTS and this was no different with Walthers and Rapido announcing beforehand.
For a variety of reasons Athearn's planned item was delayed to the end of the month (per the latest Athearn Live).
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 18:03:42 GMT -8
For those interested MTH recently put out a new HO catalog.
Unfortunately Lee English/Bowser Trains had the Internet connection drop just into his video tour of their facilities. Don't know if they planned to announce something or not, though they did briefly show at the beginning test shells of their RS3 project and PCC steetcar (Kansas City).
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 18:15:09 GMT -8
Kalmbach:
- coming starting in the October issue of Model Railroader, a new project layout (part of / extension of the MR&T) - the 30" x 14' Jones Island. Will take about a year to fully cover the project.
- Best of Scenery - a 164 page collection of previous articles.
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Post by mdvle on Jul 16, 2020 18:40:37 GMT -8
And it's over.
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Post by thunderhawk on Jul 16, 2020 18:41:54 GMT -8
For those interested MTH recently put out a new HO catalog. Unfortunately Lee English/Bowser Trains had the Internet connection drop just into his video tour of their facilities. Don't know if they planned to announce something or not, though they did briefly show at the beginning test shells of their RS3 project and PCC steetcar (Kansas City). Kinda surprised, and pleased, MTH is doing one more run of the Little Joes. Would have liked to see a tour of Bowser as I'm impressed how they do things and their conversion from a very old line manufacturer to bringing high quality modern products.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jul 16, 2020 21:04:02 GMT -8
I would say get used to virtual train shows.
So far two fall shows up here are already cancelled - including the big November show in Syracuse put on by the NRHS at the NYS Fairgrounds. At this point it's more uncertainty over what rules state governors will invent out of the blue next, than any real issues with the thing itself.
We did get one small show in under the radar here and there will probably be others like that. Beyond that, I may actually look into going well out of state to get in a show or two.
Makes it tough for me as it's harder to find resale stuff other people are dumping, and when I do find it the only place I can go is ebay.
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Post by migalyto on Jul 17, 2020 5:14:52 GMT -8
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Post by riogrande on Jul 17, 2020 6:52:16 GMT -8
I think it has. Maybe it was over at Trainorders. Most of them are for late 80's and mostly past 1991. I'm still bugging ScaleTrains for a mid-1970's through early 1980's production semi enclosed and enclosed autorack.
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Post by jonklein611 on Jul 17, 2020 7:17:19 GMT -8
I was hoping MTH was going to squeak out one final run of the N&W cars, but no such luck.
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Post by thebessemerkid on Jul 17, 2020 8:26:23 GMT -8
For those interested MTH recently put out a new HO catalog. Unfortunately Lee English/Bowser Trains had the Internet connection drop just into his video tour of their facilities. Don't know if they planned to announce something or not, though they did briefly show at the beginning test shells of their RS3 project and PCC steetcar (Kansas City). Kinda surprised, and pleased, MTH is doing one more run of the Little Joes. Would have liked to see a tour of Bowser as I'm impressed how they do things and their conversion from a very old line manufacturer to bringing high quality modern products. $365 at Trainworld www.trainworld.com/manufacturers/mth-trains/mth-80-2403-1-milwaukee-road-little-joe-e72-electric-w-proto-sound-3-0/"Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Freight Yard Proto-Effects" - wonder what that entails? Pleasantly surprised they are using Kadee 158's, so one less thing to replace. Would be nicer if they would offer a DC version for those who want to put a decent DCC decoder in. Zero probability of that though. One downside of the MTH marketing machine was they flooded the markets with near and sorta-scale Chinese models. That soaks up a lot of the potential market. Take the Little-Joe's or bi-Polars which should receive top-notch treatment. Let's pick an Athearn as a generally Western-centric manufacturer. Would you buy a Genesis Little Joe or Bi-polar? I sure would as woukd many others. But hundreds (thousands?) of potential buyers already ponied up for the MTH models. For many the MTH are "good enough" and they're not terrible models. I have a bi-Polar (my only MTH loco). How much of the potential market need has already been filled that cuts into the minimum needed for an Athearn (or whoever) to make a top-flight model? MTH produced tons of niche models for the O-scale market. I never found them particularly impressive. Very plasticky and with compromises galore (some necessary in O scale, some not). It was always my worry that they would do the same in HO and drive out really good manufacturers for unusual prototypes. Some of the MTH stuff (sans electronics) isn't bad at all. I'm told their passenger cars are quite good. Since all their heavyweights are available from Walthers or the old Branchline (both of which are excellent, btw not to mention being less expensive) I never saw the need. But Mike wanted to run the HO market like he did the O scale and was pretty soundly rejected, for a variety of reasons. So yes, getting another crack at Little Joe's is good, because odds are we won't see one in plastic for a long time, if ever. Same for the bi-Polars, which is a shame as they are really really interesting beasts. The best brass ones are out of reach for most. MTH didn't touch the boxcab electrics market in HO, so there's hope for a good manufacturer to do the Milwaukee and GN boxcabs.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 8:30:25 GMT -8
I was hoping MTH was going to squeak out one final run of the N&W cars, but no such luck. Ironically they have streamlined N&W baggage cars in red and blue. Not only did the Powhatan Arrow not run with a baggage car, but as far as I can tell the N&W didn't even own streamlined baggage cars. Hopefully another manufacturer picks up the tooling, as those cars are the best passenger cars I've owned, hands down, bar none.
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Post by thebessemerkid on Jul 17, 2020 8:50:03 GMT -8
I was hoping MTH was going to squeak out one final run of the N&W cars, but no such luck. Ironically they have streamlined N&W baggage cars in red and blue. Not only did the Powhatan Arrow not run with a baggage car, but as far as I can tell the N&W didn't even own streamlined baggage cars. Hopefully another manufacturer picks up the tooling, as those cars are the best passenger cars I've owned, hands down, bar none. I don't have any personal experience with the MTH streamline passenger cars. Were they doing a lot of unique prototypes or otherwise better than the Walthers streamilners (the 932/920 Walthers later Proto series, not the cheap 910 Mainline junk). Outside of some documented paint errors (Empire Builder) I thought they were as good as anything, save for the $600 and up W&R and other top shelf brass beauties.
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Post by jonklein611 on Jul 17, 2020 9:13:28 GMT -8
I was hoping MTH was going to squeak out one final run of the N&W cars, but no such luck. Ironically they have streamlined N&W baggage cars in red and blue. Not only did the Powhatan Arrow not run with a baggage car, but as far as I can tell the N&W didn't even own streamlined baggage cars. Hopefully another manufacturer picks up the tooling, as those cars are the best passenger cars I've owned, hands down, bar none. I love my N&W set. Easily the freest rolling cars I have. The only cars that come close to these are the Rapido Budd / LRC cars. Yes MTH did some foobieness, but darn they look sharp.
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Post by riogrande on Jul 17, 2020 9:14:22 GMT -8
I did buy one of the cheap Walthers Mainline junk because it happens to "appear to" match an SP passenger car, the small window coach. There don't seem to be many light weight plastic HO passenger cars that match what SP used other than the Daylight cars, so I bought it.
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Post by amtrakfl9 on Jul 17, 2020 10:21:17 GMT -8
I did buy one of the cheap Walthers Mainline junk because it happens to "appear to" match an SP passenger car, the small window coach. There don't seem to be many light weight plastic HO passenger cars that match what SP used other than the Daylight cars, so I bought it. I was thinking of doing this too, but for the Amtrak HEP version. I could tolerate all the other junky aspects of the car as long as it had the correct square number plate, but it doesn't unfortunately.
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Post by riogrande on Jul 17, 2020 10:30:05 GMT -8
The small window Mainline passenger car window configuration appears to be a dead-on match to some SP passenger cars in the silver with red stripe version. For most SP non-daylight SP passenger cars it's usually a brass only type of thing.
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Post by thunderhawk on Jul 17, 2020 17:57:13 GMT -8
Kinda surprised, and pleased, MTH is doing one more run of the Little Joes. Would have liked to see a tour of Bowser as I'm impressed how they do things and their conversion from a very old line manufacturer to bringing high quality modern products. $365 at Trainworld www.trainworld.com/manufacturers/mth-trains/mth-80-2403-1-milwaukee-road-little-joe-e72-electric-w-proto-sound-3-0/"Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Freight Yard Proto-Effects" - wonder what that entails? Pleasantly surprised they are using Kadee 158's, so one less thing to replace. Would be nicer if they would offer a DC version for those who want to put a decent DCC decoder in. Zero probability of that though. One downside of the MTH marketing machine was they flooded the markets with near and sorta-scale Chinese models. That soaks up a lot of the potential market. Take the Little-Joe's or bi-Polars which should receive top-notch treatment. Let's pick an Athearn as a generally Western-centric manufacturer. Would you buy a Genesis Little Joe or Bi-polar? I sure would as woukd many others. But hundreds (thousands?) of potential buyers already ponied up for the MTH models. For many the MTH are "good enough" and they're not terrible models. I have a bi-Polar (my only MTH loco). How much of the potential market need has already been filled that cuts into the minimum needed for an Athearn (or whoever) to make a top-flight model? MTH produced tons of niche models for the O-scale market. I never found them particularly impressive. Very plasticky and with compromises galore (some necessary in O scale, some not). It was always my worry that they would do the same in HO and drive out really good manufacturers for unusual prototypes. Some of the MTH stuff (sans electronics) isn't bad at all. I'm told their passenger cars are quite good. Since all their heavyweights are available from Walthers or the old Branchline (both of which are excellent, btw not to mention being less expensive) I never saw the need. But Mike wanted to run the HO market like he did the O scale and was pretty soundly rejected, for a variety of reasons. So yes, getting another crack at Little Joe's is good, because odds are we won't see one in plastic for a long time, if ever. Same for the bi-Polars, which is a shame as they are really really interesting beasts. The best brass ones are out of reach for most. MTH didn't touch the boxcab electrics market in HO, so there's hope for a good manufacturer to do the Milwaukee and GN boxcabs. The MTH Joes don't hold a candle to later run Overlands but they don't have the price either. Surprisingly they are priced the same as they were for the first run in 2010. $399.99 retail. They are a decent base to work from but are not detailed correctly, especially the roof. For layout runners they are fine but rivet counters have plenty of nits to pick. The Bi Polars would be nice to see again but apparently that isn't happening. I don't often come across one for sale. Kinda surprised they never did the Boxcabs. I can see the Joes being more popular, especially among those that are not MILW modelers, however the Boxcabs are similar to covered wagons; You need more than one. A minimum of two, unless one is doing the Harlo switcher, up to a 4 unit set was the norm. Bobtails do throw a wrench in some consists of course. Yes, I have eyeballed the Boxcabs. Looks workable, especially as a "hybrid" combination of cast and printed parts, so never say never.
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Post by thebessemerkid on Jul 17, 2020 23:38:05 GMT -8
Blaine's work with the gondola should serve as inspiration for many. Whether it's resin or injection molded plastic, the brass parts truly add another dimension. The thickness compromises for so many elements of a car or loco disappear. Think of any loco that had a sheetmetal cab overhang. Perfect for brass.
One of the big differentiators between the O-scale stuff many of us admired, but knew we'd never have enough room for, was the scale thickness of parts. Take any O scale brass engine and set it next to an equivalent HO version. There's always been that *something* that made the O scale model much, much closer to the prototype.
Over the years HO has improved tremendously, but I rarely saw an HO model that had that "finescale O" look to it. Until Blaine's gondola. Especially underneath, which I'll admit I rarely paid attention to. Until now.
All the complicated curves and details that are cost-prohibitive in brass are perfect for injection molded plastic or good 3D printing.
We really needed a demonstrator that could drive that point home. Now all sorts of different possibilities have been opened.
When someone comes out with a desktop fiber laser that can cut thin sheet metal, it's going to be another big step forward. Locator references for things like Archer rivets and other details can be added. Scribing for bend radii can be done. Even something like replacement mixed media cabs for steam locomotives could be done. So much lies ahead. You younger guys are gonna have a great time!
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Post by thunderhawk on Jul 18, 2020 4:45:47 GMT -8
I so wish O was more popular. Scaled up the parts come out even better. And this is a project that I think will show off some 3D capabilites; Bill Sampson did a video review of one of my cabooses that shows some of the details. All 3D. (Low coupler issue has been fixed. His caboose is about 6 months old.) Pic of an underframe. I can reduce the stepping seen on the bolsters easily. Just takes more time to print and since they really are not visible I don't worry about it. But yes, that is all one piece. If you look close you can see the cotter pins. (And the Made in the USA)
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Post by mdvle on Jul 18, 2020 7:32:19 GMT -8
I so wish O was more popular.
The problem is the 3-rail market, and the extreme compromises required to deal with their curves (and the associated problems of making a "scale" model that the 3-rail market can't run and the publicity and other problems that would cause). Thus it is unlikely to see anything happen.
The best chance would possibly be S as a compromise given that 3-rail S is essentially dead, thus creating an opportunity to create a scale model market without the problems.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jul 18, 2020 7:36:47 GMT -8
I'm not sure you ever had 3-rail S; the tinplate American Flyer used 2-rail track. Some Flyer trains date to pre-WWII and in that era were made to 3/16ths scale but used O-gauge track.
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