NEW BLMA Products Delivered!

[asarge]

Ooohh! Gons and the 4000's. BLMA is gonna cost me a bundle this month.

[unittrain]

What is the time frame on the Burlington Northern gray and black scheme? Is this before 1980?

[Dave Schneider]

Craig,

It would be great to see the Milwaukee Road in a future run of the PS4000. I have not purchased the EXR version as I think that yours is the superior model.

Best wishes, Dave

[Mark5]

Luckily (for my wallet) BLMA skipped N&W for the 2nd release of the 4000s. ER did N&W but they didn't get the lettering quite right (B-) and I'm pretty sure BLMA will get an A+ whenever they get around to N&W.

BLMA will get me with the F89s when they start to hit the streets though, so its all good.

On a side note the new truck looks amazing:

http://www.blmamodels.com/images/store/9045b.jpg

Although the flange on the opposite side looks warped and disfigured - bad photo edit?

Mark

[bbussey]

I think that's an optical illusion in the photo due to the lighting.  I have the trucks in hand and they look great.  Now I'm going to see how much they lower the MTL 20000-series boxcars and then determine which coupler is needed.  I'm guessing 2004 knuckles in 1015 coupler boxes.

[bbussey]

I installed a set of the ASF A-3 trucks this evening on a Micro-Trains 40' PS-1.  It lowered the car so that the floor height matches the ESM XIH, and the wheel flanges do not touch the underframe.  Turns out that a standard 1015 coupler sits at the correct height.





It will be more expensive than just replacing the wheels to modify most of the Kadee/MTL boxcar fleet, but it will save a ton of time on getting the cars to sit at the proper height over the rail.  The bonus is that the trucks are now in proper alignment with the bolster detail on the car body.

[Bob Bufkin]

Bryan, slight change of subject.  The Jan/Feb issue of Diesel Era has a decent article on NH FA/FBs in case you haven't seen it.

[sundowner]

Any word on the spines?

[ai5629]

It looks like the BN cars (with logo) have a June 85 repaint date.  This is what I could discern from the BLMA photo and the Tangent car in HO.  I like that the new trucks will lower MTL cars.  I am going to order some now to try them out.  Thanks.

Jeff

[christoph]

Bryan,

thank you for the pictures.  It inspires me to try this, too.  Did you move the 1015 coupler box so far to the end of the car body that the axle of the outer wheelset is behind it?  Because this is always the main question, how to separate the axle and the coupler box.

But this would lead to Intermountain and Deluxe box cars as the next candidates.  Craig should introduce a discount for orders of very large numbers of trucks  ;D

I also wonder whether this truck would work for the N Scale Kits Pennsylvania F30 kits (though it is not 100% correct for this car).

[Mark5]

I like that the new trucks will lower MTL cars.  I am going to order some now to try them out.  Thanks.

Jeff

The BLMA trucks (all of them) will lower any manuafacturer's cars (except, of course, BLMA's) ;D

Mark

[bbussey]

Bryan, slight change of subject.  The Jan/Feb issue of Diesel Era has a decent article on NH FA/FBs in case you haven't seen it.

Thanks Bob, I'll check it out.

Any word on the spines?

Craig said they would be arriving with the F89J.  I believe he said early summer.

Did you move the 1015 coupler box so far to the end of the car body that the axle of the outer wheelset is behind it?  Because this is always the main question, how to separate the axle and the coupler box.

I mounted the 1015 coupler in the outer hole with a standard flat-head 00-90 brass screw.  The clearance is tight, but the outer BLMA axle spins freely.

I also wonder whether this truck would work for the N Scale Kits Pennsylvania F30 kits (though it is not 100% correct for this car).

The National C-1 truck on the Atlas Hart ballast car is the correct truck for the F30.  Although, you will have to file the bolster to lower the car to a better height.  I haven't done that yet, but I noticed it when I was on a treasure hunt for the trucks (which sad to say are not sold separately by Atlas).

The BLMA trucks (all of them) will lower any manuafacturer's cars (except, of course, BLMA's) ;D

Yeah, but if you lower the ESM cars you'll have to reclassify them for flanger duty! 

[sirenwerks]

Craig,

Will we get the late PRR paint scheme on the gon eventually? I snagged one of the earlier schemes to weather the heck out of, but the late scheme would better fit alongside the three CGW 4000s I picked up.

[ai5629]

With the 1015's, you can enlarge the lid screw hole so that the screw will be mostly recessed when assembled lid side down.  You also have to remove some of the plastic screw channel in the main part of the body (the part that holds the body to the lid).  Once you do this, you have to weld (heat seal) the lid and body together.  I have done this, and it helps with FVM wheel axles hitting MTL coupler screws.  An alternative to the 1015 is the Atlas body mount.  The screw is recessed and is flush with the bottom of the coupler box.  You could put 1015's into the Atlas box if you don't like Accumates.

Tangent Scale Models released Pennsy in the PK scheme in their second run of ACF gondolas.  It would only make sense that they will be in Craig's second release.  I am anxiously awaiting my Pennsy CK's and Penn Central's I preordered.  Thanks.

Jeff

[Craig Martyn]

Great write-up Bryan!  Also, it's good to see the trucks under earlier cars...we'll have to post photos of that on our website for comparison sake.

Any word on the spines?

Last word from the factory was '40 days to completion' - that was about three days ago.  If they hold to that completion date, we're looking at delivery in May.