Exactrail.com

[Robbman]

Hopefully
those Vegas won't leak oil all over our layouts...

They were drained of all fluids before shipping... just don't drive them after delivery

[Erik W]

The fanfair and promises all sound very similar to Precision Craft Models.  Time will tell if the product delivery can match the marketing hype.

Erik

[TiVoPrince]

Hopefully
those Vegas won't leak oil all over our layouts...

They were drained of all fluids before shipping... just don't drive them after delivery

Really?
They were test started then driven off the assembly line and to load/unload them without oil, coolant or ATF?  Does not seem plausable to me...

[DKS]

Pfff. Modern stuff.

Modern?  Vert-a-Pacs were built 30 years ago...

Well, I'm sure that the term "modern" is relative. For me, anything built after the 60s is modern.

After the 60's?  The SP chip car is ~1965, I don't know the build date on the PC&F boxcars, but that UP 'automated railway' scheme was started in 1963 and didn't last too long, and the Vert-A-Pac is just out of your reach at 1970. 

OK, fine. I'll put it this way instead: if it's got a low brakewheel, I'm not interested.

Anyway, I'm already really leery with all of this secrecy over who is responsible for what's claimed to be the next best thing to ever happen to model railroading. What's the point of the 20-questions drill between the folks who know and those who don't?

[GaryHinshaw]

Vert-a-pac?  I forgot all about those.  Secrecy aside, is anyone chomping at the bit for a trainload of them?

[Dave Schneider]

Hopefully
those Vegas won't leak oil all over our layouts...

True enough! As a teenager, I was in a minor car accident with my brother-in-law (an organic, natural foods, tye-dye wearing hippy) in his 1972 Vega wagon. We were hauling a load of cow manure (no sh*t) from the Milwaukee stockyards and rear ended the car in front of us (so to speak!) due to the <drumroll> "heavy load" </drumroll>. To make a long story short (if still possible) the hood was damaged so that it could no longer be opened. Now he didn't have the money or desire to fix it and the thing wouldn't go more than 50 miles without needing more oil, so he decided to cut a hole through the hood so that this could be accomplished. Only problem was, he couldn't remember exactly where that was (he liked to kill off brain cells in a variety of ways). So, we ended up with 3 or 4 holes until we found the correct spot. I still remember my dad shaking his head, wondering why he didn't keep this guy away from his daughter when he had the chance...a cautionary tail in many ways.  My fondest dream is that some will make an N scale '72 Vega so that I can recreate this scene.

Best wishes, Dave

p.s. Who was the president of Chevrolet during the development of the Vega...which some call the worst car of all time? Need a hint? He liked to build cars out of stainless steel later in life...

[Bob Bufkin]

1972 Vega.  The car my wife owned when I got married.  What a piece of *****.

[Robbman]

Hopefully
those Vegas won't leak oil all over our layouts...

They were drained of all fluids before shipping... just don't drive them after delivery

Really?
They were test started then driven off the assembly line and to load/unload them without oil, coolant or ATF?  Does not seem plausable to me...

It's not plausible... what is plausible is that they were drained of all fuids before shipping... oh wait, that's exactly what I wrote  

[Sokramiketes]

Pfff. Modern stuff.

Modern?  Vert-a-Pacs were built 30 years ago...

Well, I'm sure that the term "modern" is relative. For me, anything built after the 60s is modern.

After the 60's?  The SP chip car is ~1965, I don't know the build date on the PC&F boxcars, but that UP 'automated railway' scheme was started in 1963 and didn't last too long, and the Vert-A-Pac is just out of your reach at 1970. 

OK, fine. I'll put it this way instead: if it's got a low brakewheel, I'm not interested.

Well, when you put it that way...   

[asarge]

Waellll......A little buzz is good and fun. I don;t mind falling for the marketing ploy. Hopefully they will produce some great models at a resonable price. But the bigger the buzz, the bigger the disappointment. The dapole fiasco is a good very recent lesson in that.

[Robbman]

OK, fine. I'll put it this way instead: if it's got a low brakewheel, I'm not interested.

Youre interested in NS Coalporters?

[Walkercolt]

OK guys, Vega's were shipped at an angle with the rear wheels on the floor of the "Vert-i-Pac", with the juices in them. I saw thousands of them unloaded with a forklift's help at Cherokee Yard. GM tried a similar thing with Chevettes. The Chevettes ended up with bent unibodies and flat tires. If you've seen a medium duty truck with three more "stacked" on it's frame, that's what the "Vert-i-Pac" worked like. Many Vegas arrived with blown-out tires and bent rims, and even broken rear springs. GM also tried a similar system to ship the "X" body cars, but it punched too many of their front struts thru the hoods.(I did that to a Pontiac 6000 on an oil rig road semi-near Borger, TX when I hit a "wash-out" in the gravel road. Struts came right thru the hood.) Now they do ship the Sprinter Vans at a rather steep angle to get more of them into a two-level Maxi-Stack. It looks very very strange, noses down, back wheels over the one behind it's hood. If you want really strange auto shipping, look inside a container with four Hundyai/Kia's in each. I think they use skinny 12 year-olds to get inside the container and get at the keys in the one car's glove box.

[Robbman]

OK guys, Vega's were shipped at an angle with the rear wheels on the floor of the "Vert-i-Pac", with the juices in them.

They were shipped nose down (rear wheels downward would have made the car very top-heavy) and drained... thus the forklift you saw being used...

[Chris333]

Pic I found:
http://www.barkbarkwoofwoof.com/Chevy%20Vega%2012-05-05.jpg

[sirenwerks]

he liked to kill off brain cells in a variety of ways

I was wondering what the cow dung was for, but now I think I do. Did you stop at the hydroponic store before you picked up your sh@! or were you going to do that on the way home?