Mike, I guess I should confess. AZL had a real issue with this run, and yes it does have to tight radius curves, but not necessarily because of the steps. Long story short, AZL has originally designed these cars to use the trucks with long shanks, but the manufacturer came up with a clever idea to use body mount self centering trucks. The samples worked great and AZL was able to add steps to the cars (original design did not have them). But when the cars came, there was a big problem. The wrong springs were used and the self centering couplers were actually throwing cars off of the track. Take a look under the car and you will see a working self centering mechanism. Try it out, the spring affect is impressive!
So AZL had a choice, scrap 1,000s of cars or make them work. We punted and made them work. Though we hated to see the stirrups go, the longer shank couplers dictated this for tighter radius curves. We were able to save the run this way. It is interesting, but Robert Allbritton, one of AZL's owners is doing the milling of the cars and I am installing the trucks. I do think there is an opportunity for someone to come up with a little brass piece that would fill the gab and put the stirrup back on the car.
Okay, there you have it. The story of the stirrup.
Rob
