First shots of MTL Airslide Hopper

[Missaberoad]

Did Milw Road, Northern Pacific, Great Northern and CB&Q have this car?
Steve

Not sure if they are the correct phase but I was able to find Milwaukee, GN and NP cars couldn't find any CB&Q but I've seen models...

Great Northern
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=8953
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=bn410041_2&o=bn

Northern Pacific
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=58271
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=61586

Milwaukee Road
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=milw97242&o=milw
http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=milw109903&o=milw
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=5287

[Catt]

Are these cars still in revenue service.It has been so long since I have seen a train up close and personal I barely know what kind of cars are in use anymore.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

There are a few left. Many of them are in the light blue with vertical GATX logo.

[ljudice]

A bunch of BNSF ones are famously in use as buffer cars on Crude Oil trains.

[nkalanaga]

Ryan:  If they make a 1015 compatible 903, they could sell it with a thin box, for looks, or as just the coupler and spring, to replace factory-supplied couplers.  It wouldn't be any more work for them, and would make both camps happy.

[bbussey]

@daniel_leavitt2000 — are you sure there were only a dozen Wonder/Hostess PDs?  I photographed three of them together while in Chicago for an MRIA show in November 1991.

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[ljudice]

@daniel_leavitt2000 — are you sure there were only a dozen Wonder/Hostess PDs?  I photographed three of them together while in Chicago for an MRIA show in November 1991.

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That is amazing.  I just can't recall seeing them - ever - while the Airslides were very common - in groups of 2-3 on the Pittsburgh to Oak Island trains.

Used on different routes/different unloading facilities?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Yep, very sure there was only 12-15 at the very most. It was a very small series and the numbers were mixed in with other NACC lease cars at the time. My notes are sitting at home about 10,000 miles away at the moment, but I spent years tracking down car numbers by going through photos and slides. I even went as far as to do a phone interview with the ops manager at the Bartlett ME facility that took over after Natick closed. It was one of the last rail served Hostess bakeries.

The cars were only part of Continental Baking. When Interstate took over, these cars were mixed in with the PCIX Pressureaid cars as previously mentioned. I don't have numbers on those - they were far too boring to put as much effort into - but they seemed to moderately outnumber the WB cars.

One very telling clue on how few cars were in use - try finding a photo of the prototype that wasn't  included with the Walthers release or in the WB decal set.

Any chance you can get a better resolution on that photo. I would love to see the car numbers on the rear two.

[JoeD]

This question should not even have to be asked, but will it ride at the correct height?

Define "correct height"?   LOL 

Joe

[JoeD]

I got a few emails over the weekend from folks frothed up over the lack of rivets...  They are there, just really, really faint. This was the first shot and were modeled very faintly.  We do this because it's easier to make them bigger and deeper in the tooling then the other way around.  Once we get everything settled we will go back and make them a bit more obvious...or out of scale   lol 

Joe

[bbussey]

Any chance you can get a better resolution on that photo. I would love to see the car numbers on the rear two.

It's been 25 years.  I think it was print film and not Kodachrome.  I'd have to dig to see if I still have the negatives.  I will check the physical picture to see if they are legible there ... or, look for the slides.

It was a dark dreary snowy day, that much I remember, so I don't know how much more the photo can be cleaned up.

Update — Kodachrome slide, and it's much sharper than the scan above.  Viewing under an 8x lupe, the first two cars are NAHX 550315 and 550322.  The third one appears to be 550310.  I will find a projector or hi-rez scanner to confirm.

[peteski]

I got a few emails over the weekend from folks frothed up over the lack of rivets...  They are there, just really, really faint. This was the first shot and were modeled very faintly.  We do this because it's easier to make them bigger and deeper in the tooling then the other way around.  Once we get everything settled we will go back and make them a bit more obvious...or out of scale   lol 

Joe

Thanks Joe for doing it that way.

That is one of the reasons I like MTL models - the details like gaps between the wooden reefer boards are shallow, panel lines and rivets are faintly molded, and stirrups are nice and thin.  While I'm sure they are still exaggerated (to show up on a 1:160 scale model), the exaggeration is not in-your-face like on models from many other manufacturers.   That delicate detail modeling gives the MT models the "right look", even if some other features aren't 100% accurate.   Keep the engraving shallow please! Keep the rivets pronounced enough not to be buried by paint, but not exaggerated to the point where they can be used as pegs for an N scale person to climb to the roof (and 3 scale inches in diameter)! 

As a point of reference, the rivet detail on the MTL heavyweight cars is just about perfect.

[Missaberoad]

Define "correct height"?   LOL 

Joe

As far as this subject goes I would much prefer the car to have correct dimensions and ride too high over the rails then have the car compressed to sit at the correct height... Ride height I can fix easily... a squished boxcar not so much... 

[wcfn100]

We do this because it's easier to make them bigger and deeper in the tooling then the other way around. 

If you do go back on the tooling, there are two things that stood out to me.  First were the stirrups.  Maybe it's the picture, but they don't appear to be angled enough even for the later builds.  Second are the vibrator castings/brackets.  As they appear in the photo, they wouldn't even be able to do their job e.g. have  the motor slide into the brackets.

A thinner roof section would make the car look much better too.  Several companies have shown that it can be done, but as seen in the photo, roof corners can take the grunt of abuse as well.


Jason

[cjm413]

Not sure if they are the correct phase but I was able to find Milwaukee, GN and NP cars couldn't find any CB&Q but I've seen models...

Check the ends for a high brakewheel vs. a low brakewheel, also the location of the two horizontal ribs on the ends of the car.