My Chuck-pak arrived today and I was so impressed with these cars that I had to share a few thoughts and some quick out-of-the-box pics. These are clearly designed by the same team that did the ethanol tankers and the overall impression they leave when seen in person is 'just right': exquisite detail, but still sturdy. My only complaint is that the Athearn trucks are just average, and the McHenry couplers stick out too far. But that can be remedied.
One of the late-style models:
one of the early style with BLMA trucks (a very simple changeout):
The roof walks on the early-style model are great:
A pair of long overdue prototypes: (pardon the dust)
Now what's missing from this picture?:
How about a nice shelf-style coupler that we could easily mount to these end platform?
These models fill a big roster gap in such a spectacular way -- well done Athearn! [And for an MSRP that's less than the Walthers LL caboose rerun...
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