Any News from IMRC at NTS about TBOXes and FBOXes

[ljudice]

Well any? 

[ljudice]

No word on these?   Kind of the biggest hole in modern freight rosters....

[GaryHinshaw]

I got nothing.  I'm about to add these back on to my top-5 list along with the NSC 53' well car from PWRS.   But thanks to Trainworx, I can scratch off my current #1: 53' trailers.   

[ljudice]

I got nothing.  I'm about to add these back on to my top-5 list along with the NSC 53' well car from PWRS.   But thanks to Trainworx, I can scratch off my current #1: 53' trailers.   

I agree...   On a related note, do you think we shall ever see reruns of the ER FBOXes and bulkhead flat?

[GaryHinshaw]

I certainly hope so.  They have been sold out for a long time and I don't understand why rerunning them would not be like printing money, since they have the tooling and they know the demand.

I did write to ER last year about tooling a TBOX car, but I don't expect anything to come of it.  I also gave them crap about flaws with their bulkhead flat (very poor assembly that was hard to repair, and way too light to track well).  I wonder if that complaint killed their appetite for N scale.

[Smike]

From reading a few things from Blaine at ER Exact Rail, they have lost money on N Scale overall. Not because of any one car, but I think the overall product line and strategy has not worked for them in the N Scale Market.(HO different story)  I think they are selling out what they have and then that’s it for N Scale. (For a while they were giving away free n scale cars with orders $75+)

Atlas or MT could use a new tooling or two in something modern. Their lines haven’t really evolved much for the modern era. 

But agree with Gary, the #1 spot (53’ trailers) finally is filled.

[ljudice]

I heard that too...

I love their products - in general - and personally have no issue ordering direct.

I think they did too many duplicates of other mfgs on cars of limited popularity.

Their strategy in N confounds me and it is not like they are not internet literate and could easily hear from customers!!!

On the other hand I can't fathom how models like their 60' gon are still in stock after 2 years?  They are super common,
a great bunch of roadnames and very nice models.

I'd love to see Atlas pick up their tooling.  I guess the positive is the tooling HAS to show up again....


- Lou

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I would think Athearn would have first dibs on the ER tooling: ER tooled many of their prior cars and you can see similarities in construction method and assembly. In fact, I believe parts such as under frames and roofs were tooled off the same CAD drawings: Athearn roofs are a direct fit for several ER cars. Of course they also tooled LBF cars, and you can see the heritage there as well.

Done right, the ER cars can be profitable, but not using ERs business strategy.

[GaryHinshaw]

I am sad about ER and N scale, but I am optimistic that IM will step up with the FBOX/TBOX cars eventually.  And it's not like there isn't a ton of good N scale coming out from other channels too.

BTW, I think Atlas does a respectable job supporting modern N with their coil car, Thrall gon, 4-bay hoppers, tank cars, trash flats, and a smattering of box cars.  When I analyzed my roster last year, Atlas cars formed the biggest fraction of my fleet at over 20%, while MTL was in 10th place at less than 3%.  At the time, I think I counted intermodal sets as single cars, so BLMA (spines) and Kato (well cars) should probably rank higher than they do in my fleet.

[nkalanaga]

daniel_leavitt2000:  If ER and Athearn are that closely related, I hope Athearn will buy their tooling.  The cars themselves are nicely done, and it would be a shame for them to simply disappear.  I'd still like to get one of their SP&S Gunderson boxcars, but have given up hope of them ever being rerun.

I'd paint my own, but can't find proper decals either...  I HAVE a car, already in BN Green, if the decals ever become available.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Maybe, if they had a dealer network pushing their products, they'd have had better luck.

[eja]

I used to work in the Department of Defense (DoD) environment, but I don't think I have ever seen a higher acronyms or initials vs word percentage in any document in that world as compared to this thread. 


Words please for the rest of us....

[GaryHinshaw]

Taking it from the top:

IMRC - InterMountain Railway Co. (model manufacturer)
NTS - National Train Show (event)
TBOX - Reporting marks for the most-needed box car of the modern era
FBOX - Reporting marks for the 50' cousin of the 60' TBOX
NSC - National Steel Co. (prototype freight car manufacturer)
PWRS - Pacific Western Rail Supply (model vendor based in BC, Canada)
ER - ExactRail (model manufacturer)
BLMA - Best Looking Models Around (model manufacturer)

Welcome to the secret club!

[GonzoCRFan]

Maybe, if they had a dealer network pushing their products, they'd have had better luck.

Or if they didn't do stuff as blatantly douchey as mirroring another manufacturer's relase?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Or if they didn't do stuff as blatantly douchey as mirroring another manufacturer's relase?

Truth.