NEW BLMA Freight Car & Trucks!

[bbussey]

Yes it's true on the AccuMate fitting in all of the coupler boxes.  Atlas also offers the AccuMate coupler with the coupler box, as a separate part.  Seems an expensive way to get spare boxes for the McHenry though.  Athearn would boost sales of the coupler if they offer a box to go with it.

[sirenwerks]

I don't suppose a 4427 would be in the making too? I've all but given up on Walthers ever re-running it.

[Mark5]

Yes it's true on the AccuMate fitting in all of the coupler boxes.  Atlas also offers the AccuMate coupler with the coupler box, as a separate part.  Seems an expensive way to get spare boxes for the McHenry though.  Athearn would boost sales of the coupler if they offer a box to go with it.

Yeah true. I asked because I don't care for the McHenry's that much. The knuckle seems kinda long to me compared to MT or Accumate. I wish they could have made the knuckles smaller ...

(interestingly the N scale supply pic of the couplers that ednadolski posted seems to run counter to my comment above on the McHenry knuckle - I guess I better do a closer side view examination when I get a chance)

Mark

[wm3798]

The McHenry looks pretty good overall, but that spring is a deal breaker.  Why put all that time into tooling a pretty coupler, then stick a big spring on it... :

The Accumate is actually a pretty good desigh.  As long as the centering springs don't get glued shud during painting or assembly, they hold up reasonably well.  I'd love to see Atlas offer body mounts as a kit, like the 20 pack of 1015's you can get from MT.

Lee

[Chris333]

So the only thing to do is bug Craig to make a whole new N scale coupler! 

[bbussey]

Yeah true. I asked because I don't care for the McHenry's that much. The knuckle seems kinda long to me compared to MT or Accumate. I wish they could have made the knuckles smaller ...

(interestingly the N scale supply pic of the couplers that ednadolski posted seems to run counter to my comment above on the McHenry knuckle - I guess I better do a closer side view examination when I get a chance)

It's not so much long as it suffering from the same symptom as the Accu-Mate - the coupler box extends too far from the bolster.  If you mount the McHenry in the Accu-Mate coupler box, it doesn't stick out too far.

That said, to me the knuckle seems larger and more bulky than either the MTL or the Accu-Mate.  And the spring is an issue for me as well.  I got two advance samples from Louisville, and have the one pair that came with a New Haven PS-1 50' DSD boxcar.  The spring popped out of one of the samples as I was inspecting it, and the New Haven car came with a missing spring.  That's two out of six couplers.  While I was able to get a replacement spring on the first one, it wasn't as if they were being given away in quantity at the time.  The design probably would have benefited from having the spring "lock" into place at one end so that it couldn't easily pop free.

I currently have them on two cars, the Athearn NH boxcar and an Atlas PRR USRA rebuilt, both body-mounted into Accu-Mate boxes.  I like the way they operate and look overall, but I'm not happy with the size.  I'm thinking of changing out the two cars to MTLs.

[pfs]

.... like the 20 pack of 1015's you can get from MT.

Lee

I think they stopped offering them (both N and Z) in bulk.

[TiVoPrince]

Hopefully
we can strongarm Sergent to get in the Nscale 'game'...

[Guilford Guy]

Yep, and then have someone start producing Proto 160 wheelsets and frogs!

[pfs]

Yep, and then have someone start producing Proto 160 wheelsets and frogs!

Frogs and more here:
http://www.proto87.com/n-scale-track.html

[unittrain]

Assume car!! This is truly good to see that N is getting the attention to ride height and detail!! I'll be getting some of these!
It seems that MTL better get with it because the bar is being raised between FVM,ESM,BLMA and even Athearn and Exactrail. Atlas
has always been pretty good.

[Craig Martyn]

VIDEO Posted!

[One of One-Sixty]

Great video Chris, and as always great looking car there.

[Craig Martyn]

It's Craig...  But thanks!   

[One of One-Sixty]

It's Craig...  But thanks!   

Lol, sorry, was talking to someone named Chris when i was replying.....  :-\