Tom, I'm looking forward to seeing a battered and weathered G26 in your next volume.
I hope they sell well so that we can proceed with the well car and other projects.
BTW ... the G26 actually will traverse 11" radius without the wheel inner faces rubbing against the coupler pockets (tested them on Atlas True-Track) but there is no margin for error (i.e. layout track not exactly 11"), so I didn't want to commit to that in the disclaimer. The cars were tested with both MTL and FVM wheels.
The well car, however, is another issue. The rapid-prototype barely traverses 12.5" radius curves. The pockets on both models have been designed to accept any of the knuckles currently on the market, but this one will have to be redesigned to accept only the MTL 1015 and narrowed on the sides so that the car will traverse 12.5". Can't get any better than that because of the six-wheel Buckeyes tucked under and hitting the sloped sidesills of the well.
Thankfully these are the only two planned models where curve radius is an issue, although probably no future ESM model will traverse anything less than 10.5".
The well car is either the next project or the one after. It depends on how the G26 does and what the projected cost of the well car will be. I was hoping for a Christmas release of the second car, but a spring 2010 date seems more likely. The next car, whether it be the well car or something else, will be announced sometime this summer.
Also - if anyone has a photo or stencil drawing of the New York Central version of the F9 well car (NYC 499084 and 499085, lot 802-F) please PM or email me, thanks.
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