ESM X72s

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I am probably more excited than anyone else of the pending X72 cars from ESM. Please, PLEASE make the underframe kits available for those of us who have painted their own X72s! I think the frame may also work for MDC/Athearn FMC cars as well, which would be a major upgrade for them.

[bbussey]

We'll see!  Depends on what the unit cost is for the floor/underframes, which have to be milled .020" at the ends to fit the Walters/Life-Like body.

[Dave V]

So, you're saying I need to retire my ConCor X72...?



I added ACIs, wheel inspection dots, door lettering, and end reporting marks.

[bbussey]

So, you're saying I need to retire my ConCor X72...?

I added ACIs, wheel inspection dots, door lettering, and end reporting marks.

Is that the one I gave you?  Bev-Bel, not Con-Cor.    If Bev had used accurate artwork for their PC and CR cars, this niche would have been filled long ago! 

[lock4244]

So the CN cars were acquired 2nd hand, iirc... would any of these be the cars in question?

From CANADIAN FREIGHT CARS - CN 400000-499999
CN 410500-410649, XL Boxcar, Qty 150, Svc Dates 10/1988-1/2010, L-50.5 H-11.1 W-10.0, 5140cuft, Bldr USEX, BLT 11/72-4/73, Notes: Stl. Carparment. xPC/CR 229000-229499 series 5-11/88

CN 416243-416475, XL Boxcar, Qty ~233, Svc Dates 4/1988-in svc., L-50.5 H-11.1 W-10.0, 5140cuft, Bldr USEX, BLT 11/72-4/73, Notes: Stl. xPC/CR 229000-229499 series 5-8/88

CN 416481-416566, XL Boxcar, Qty ~86, Svc Dates 4/1988-in svc., L-50.5 H-11.1 W-10.0, 5140cuft, Bldr USEX, BLT 11/72-4/73, Notes: Stl. xPC/CR 229000-229499 series 10/88 (also xPC/CR 266820-266875, 269150-269500 & 269840-269999 series?).

[bbussey]

Yes.  You'll have to wait until later in the year to learn which two of the 450 cars will be replicated.  The artwork was done from photos of the actual cars.

[cv_acr]

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cn416252&o=cn

[Dave V]

Is that the one I gave you?  Bev-Bel, not Con-Cor.    If Bev had used accurate artwork for their PC and CR cars, this niche would have been filled long ago! 

It is, and thanks again!

It also lacks the extended draft gear of the prototype.

With some extra decals and weathering it looks pretty good...just not ESM good.   

[milw156]

Jeez Bryan, you keep this up and people are going to start thinking I'm modeling Conrail instead of Milwaukee! I too would appreciate the availability of the floors, I have put several of your Keystones in other Mfgrs cars already, and have one BevBel to upgrade.
Rick

[ai5629]

I could use some of the ESM floors specifically milled for the X72's also.  Maybe a RW exclusive like the Athearn GSC wood decks from a few years back.  Thank you.

Jeff

[Frank Amato]

+1 on separately available floors; I would be in for at least 4.

  Frank

[Robbman]

They're also a good candidate for the FVM canstock cars...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Would these floors be prototypical for the various FMC boxes put out by MDC/Athearn? If so I could use more than two dozen.

Also, I noticed the regular X58 floors are not in stock on the ESM website.

[Robbman]

Depends on how 'proto' you want to be...

ESM has Keystone and Hydra-Cushion COC (center of car) cushioning device underframes.  So they won't be proto for say... a P-S car with their Hydroframe COC system... or a car with EOC (end of car) devices.

That said... if someone picked your model off the tracks and nitpicked the underframe... smack them.  The ESM frames offer the best way to get the look of extended cushioning and body-mounts... I'd use the keystone for a car with EOC (pretty sure the FMCs all had EOC devices)

[bbussey]

There are supposed to be extra "regular" underframe assemblies coming with this group of X58s in the spring.  Of course, there were supposed to be extras included with the second release of X58s in 2012 and weren't, so we'll see what shows up in a couple of months. 

Regarding extras of the "modified" X72 version, we still haven't finalized the project terms so I'll look into bringing in some extra assemblies.  But the primary contractor is being a little difficult with this one (since the carbody isn't their tooling), so we'll see.  I'm seriously leaning toward moving the project to the contractor making the GSC well flat and having the X58 underframe assemblies sent there.  It may be easier in that scenario to get extras made.