Trainfest Report

[asarge]

Trainfest is an awesome show. I spent almost all day talking to manufacturers and visiting layouts. I will add pictures in some different reply's on this thread but here is the report. It was a good news bad news day. I was very dis-heartened by a couple of big manufacturers. It's very plain to see that over the next couple of years some players will fall way behind in N scale and the small and new players will play a much bigger role in N scale product development. Atlas is still the king of the N scale world and nobody is going to take that throne away. One other item that almost every manufacturer hit on was issues with the factories in China and increasing willingness to look elsewhere to get stuff produced. But for right now that will continue to play havoc with production and delivery schedules.

Athearn –  Did not ask about the FEF. Figured way too much has already been written.  The PS 2600’ Covered Hopper looks excellent.  The trailers look very good and I asked about doing an 85’ AP Flat and got shot down right away. BUT, I was told to check the Athearn Email soon for a 53’ Flat modified for piggyback service. I asked about the possibility of getting the SD40-2 line like they are doing in HO. Was told that Kato already did an SD40-2 so there was no need for them to ever get into it. They are delving into the T55 tooling now for HO but was scoffed at for even mentioning GEVO’s in N scale. I must say I was quite unimpressed by John’s attitude towards my questions.  Maybe it seemed I had my pet projects, but I have no interest in what I asked about, but I know some of my customers did as well as some of you.

Atlas – I held the Magor Caboose in my hand, I may not wash this hand for awhile, at least not tonight as I need the stamp on that hand to get back in tomorrow. AWESOME car!! They got it right. Weight is good and detail is amazing or a Trainman product. Rob said the Magor was their best-selling HO car at the moment. I told them they could expect the same in N scale.

Dave Casdorph said we can expect more cabeese from Atlas in the future as there has been so much that hasn’t been done.  The Dash 8-40C’s are inbound. Hopefully by Thanksgiving but more likely just after it. The samples they had look great. Saw the C&O 2-bays and the new 40’ Double Door Boxcar, both look excellent.

Bluford Shops – The 86’ Boxcars are AWESOME. The weight is screwed into the floor
d of the car, not glued. The way they set up the coupler is cool also. 11” radius is no problem at all for this car in that it will make the turn, just will look funny rearrange any scenery around the radius. The next batch of cars has been announced, NYC Green and B&O 8 door and L&N Blue 4 door.

Bachman – the 44 tonners look nice. The handrails have been manhandled as the pictures show, but they look excellent and are on schedule for a first quarter arrival. The DD40 is all new tooling. They did confirm that the reason for DCC in the 44 Tonners and the DD40 is it costs them almost nothing to have it integrated into the circuit board and it would be difficult for most to add DCC to the switcher. No new announcements  at all and don’t expect any for awhile, probably first quarter next year.

Deluxe  Innovations – Boxcars are going to be delayed for awhile as they had to get some new shells done. The Maxi IV samples were there and they look pretty cool. The GN and SOO covered hoppers looked good and Dave has some plans for interesting things in the works to modify the Covered hoppers. The ARMCO buildings look great and we will see them very soon. The ready to place stores are in the works but he has been having trouble getting the Chinese to do the runs. The Spine Cars are due late first or second quarter next year.  Look for them to use the new McHenry’s on a couple of things next year.

Fox Valley – The Milwaukee Road Horizontal Ribbed Boxcars look EXCELLENT. Matt may have really hita home with this one and it his first earlier era car. He will not release all the different cars so people don't have to ante up all at once. The SOO Boxcars also look great. He just got some wheels in and some more on the way, he says thanks for being patient and he’ll get them out as fast as he can. He is one of the guys I floated the idea of a PS4427CD High side Grain Hopper that on of MY wants and he said patience. So somebody is gonna do it, hopefully FVM

Intermountain – The passenger cars look great. New interiors and battery powered lighting you activate with a wand like the Rapido cars. The trucks will still be MT’s, but I’m excited as they look much better than before.  The Cab-Forwards look pretty good for a Jan-Feb arrival.

Kato – Straight from the source, they have no tooling planned, done or whatever for the GEVO, it has been the SD70ACE all along. They might do the GEVO later but not anytime soon and it’s not even on the boards at the moment. As Lashed Up said, the next passenger train will be a Western one. I asked if it was just a Western train or a Midwestern train, the reply was “it depends on what time of day it is”. Rumor away guys, I like that reply.

McHenry – Couplers will be in the shops in the next 1-2 months  according to the old owner. Right now everything has been going to equipping the new Athearn releases. Also 2 new varying shank length couplers will be coming out next year, probably by June at the latest.

Micro-Trains – They have been doubling their Z scale sales every year, so expect them to keep expanding that line. Joe said they were looking at announcing the first schemes on the 4 HW cars sometime first quarter ’09 with delivery in the summer for the 28-1, 12-1 and USRA RPO, but I can’t remember the 4th car. I’m very tired about now.

Walthers – Tim Wickerham wasn’t there today. Hopefully I’ll get to see him tomorrow and get some re-assurance about N scale offerings, so I’ll hold judgement until tomorrow night.

Wheels of time. – The new baggage cars look great. The artwork on the Mack City bus was available and that is going to be REALLY, REALLY cool, but pricey at $25.95 a pop.  The first releases should be available March ’09 and some schemes will have an ad with them. A couple will have a TWA ad, one has an RCA ad, one a Chef Boyardee as and The MBTA bus has an ad for WBZ-TV. Oh yeah. The schemes are
NYC Ave B and East Broadway Transit, MBTA, Montreal Transportation, the CTA, Seattle Transit, SFO Muni, Pacific Greyhound Suburban, LA Transit, Milwaukee & Suburban and St  Louis Public transit. Buses will have interiors

[ljudice]

Thanks for the great report!  Don't you wish Kato would just answer your freaking question, instead of getting all existential?

No hint of any more SD40-2 or SD70M variations or paintschemes coming from Kato?

The Wheelsoftime bus diagrams are up at http://www.nscaledivision.com, btw...

[asarge]

Forgot to ask about the SD70M's. No plans on more variations of the SD40-2's, which is why Athearn's attitude is all the more frustrating.

Here are some pics I uploaded to picasa

http://picasaweb.google.com/BigECV6/Trainfest2008#

[Dave Schneider]

The news on the rib side boxcars is just great. Could someone ask Fox Valley for an update on their brass Milwaukee Road Transfer Caboose? I would appreciate any news on these models. The high side PS4427 would also be a great model...good suggestion.
Thanks. Dave

Fox Valley – The Milwaukee Road Horizontal Ribbed Boxcars look EXCELLENT. Matt may have really hita home with this one and it his first earlier era car. He will not release all the different cars so people don't have to ante up all at once. The SOO Boxcars also loom great. He just got some wheels in and some more on the way, he says thanks for being patient and he’ll get them out as fast as he can. He is one of the guys I floated the idea of a PS4427CD High side Grain Hopper that on of MY wants and he said patience. So somebody is gonna do it, hopefully FVM

[jmlaboda - RIP]

http://picasaweb.google.com/BigECV6/Trainfest2008#5266517681745992002

One problem I see with the cowling for the headlights... the lower parts should be clear so that the numbers can be put on them so that they will be illuminated at night, showing the number.  Shouldn't be that difficult to change though.  Definitely looking nice!!!

[up1950s]

Note the models end handrail loop height at the steps compared to this prototype , I hope the mode's just aren't seated all the way .

[David Leonard]

In back of the Bachmann Centennial is what appears to be one of their 2-6-6-2's. Is this model being reworked, or was it just there to take up space?

[asarge]

David, It was a 4-8-2 Heavy Mountain.

I went back for a couple of hours today. more good news bad news.

First off, let me say that Tim Wickerham of Walthers is a great guy and usually very informative. Unfortunately he did not have any news on more new N scale as he does not know when any will be released. He said they have been working on some things but as far as he knew nothing was imminent and their costs had increased dramatically over the summer so.......I don;t we have to worry about any big news from Walthers anytime soon, it appears we n scalers have been banished to the Walthers dungeon again. Oh well.

Also, I talked to Dave Casdorph again specifically to ask about the possibility of High Hood GP30's/35's. He said it would be interesting but that they were not working on it at the moment. So guys if anybody is interested in High Hood 30's or 35's. Email them in and keep posting on the forum....sooner or later it'll grab their attention

[ljudice]

Asarge, anything from Red Caboose in N?? They announced a new bulkhead flat in HO, which a lot of people are raving about.

Thanks again for your report!!

[Sokramiketes]

Asarge, anything from Red Caboose in N?? They announced a new bulkhead flat in HO, which a lot of people are raving about.

Thanks again for your report!!

Yeah, the bulkhead was announced in N scale as well... Gunderson 73' car.

[asarge]

Skibbe is correct, nobody was at the booth when I stopped by yesterday and I wasn't going to report on anything unless I talked to somebody first.

I'll have layout pics posted tomorrow or tusday. I'm at the Comfort Inn in Moline getting packed and ready so i can leave early tomorrow and hunt for Iowa Interstate GEVO's b4 I fly home.

it was nice meeting and talking to Skytop today. Skibbe, you guys have a nice modular setup going!

[ljudice]

whoo-hoo... that's one of the cars I really hoped to see!

Another thing the HO'-ers are talking about is a new 25k Trinity tank car from Atlas that supposedly can be offered in hundreds of different configuations.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The 44 tonners are looking very good. The DD40AX isn't too bad as well. 73' bulkhead flats will fill a void, these haul phone poles and pipes all over and while not common, they can be justified virtually anywhere.

I kinda thought Walthers was taking a breather. One thing that did have me encouraged was that they had said in the past that their re-issed freight cars sold well and the passenger cars sold out pretty fast in many schemes.

[asciibaron]

this is pr0n:



i need a cigarette.

[Sokramiketes]

it was nice meeting and talking to Skytop today. Skibbe, you guys have a nice modular setup going!

Thanks!