Athearn ACF 4600 (HO and N)

[cjm413]

See below

---- Forwarded Message -----
From: "bn4180@yahoo.com [BNlist]" <BNlist@yahoogroups.com>
To: BNlist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 3, 2016 12:04 PM
Subject: [BNlist] Athearn ACF 4600

  We are working on new tooling for an ACF 4600 (HO and N) and I need some help with photos.

This will be a Genesis model and details are important.  We have five or six different roof hatches and roof top photos are a bear to find. 

For the first run of these cars I need top down photos of BN455800-455999 in as delivered BN green paint.
I also need roof shots of B&O Chessie 606000-606439.

If you have anything please let me know.

Thanks,

Tom Bacarella
Athearn
tbacarella@athearn.com

[Mark5]

This is cool.

Repost of a Darrel Sawyer post on the old Atlas forum:

Eric Neubauer, in his "A History of the Center Flow" eBook notes 6 different phases for the 4600. The differences in the phases have mostly to do with the combination of dimensions (lengths/widths/heights), plus the number of running board supports and the upper chord. The most common phase (6), order-wise, had 32 orders while the next most common (phase 1) had 20 orders. The phase 6 cars have 9 welded side panels, the fluted upper chord, short end ladders and 9 running board supports
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=261158
ACFX, ACTX, ATSF, B&O, BN, C&O, CEI, CNW, HCRC, L&N, LUCX, MP, ROCK, SCL, SOO, STAX, WP, UP, VTR (1st hand owners)

while the phase 1 cars have 4 welded side panels, the welded stiffener, full-height end ladders and 13 running board supports
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1056193
ACY, B&O, C&O, CB&Q, FWD, GM&O, GTW, L&N, N&W, PRR, RDG, SHPX, UP (1st hand owners)

The sills are also slightly different (the phase 6 has a notch at the ends). It would be tough to accurately model both versions from the same set of tooling because of the side sill differences and the different number of weld seams.

Darrell Sawyer
Freight Cars Illustrated
www.fcix.info

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=57617

Mark

[cjm413]

More from MFCL:

Re: Fw: [BNlist] Athearn ACF 4600

Wed Aug 3, 2016 5:47 pm (PDT) . Posted by:

"Jim Eager" jeagerca

> We are working on new tooling for an ACF 4600 (HO and N) and I need some help with photos.
>
> This will be a Genesis model and details are important. We have five or six different roof hatches and roof top photos are a bear to find.
>
> For the first run of these cars I need top down photos of BN455800-455999 in as delivered BN green paint.
> I also need roof shots of B&O Chessie 606000-606439.

Those BN car numbers (1970) would be an early CF4600 carbody with the
canted smooth side plate and side reinforcing angle irons, while the
B&O numbers (1978) would be the later carbody with beaded side plate
and no angle iron, suggesting they are doing two different carbodies
as Atlas did with their CF4650. The high brake wheel on the L&N car
also suggest this.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Needs more 5200.

[nkalanaga]

cjm413:  Atlas did a 4650?  Was this only in HO, which I didn't pay attention to, or did I miss the N scale version?  Those are the ones I need for GN, NP, and repainted BN.  For some reason they bought the Plate C 4650s, while the CB&Q and later BN bought Plate B 4600s.

[cjm413]

Needs more 5200.

New 5250 would be nice, but 4600 does fill a bigger void in the market.

Accurail's HO 4600 is a better model than Athearn's HO 5250, but the fact that Athearn already has a 5250 allows them to fill a void in their own line of products.

In N, there are no 4600's available.

[cjm413]

cjm413:  Atlas did a 4650?  Was this only in HO, which I didn't pay attention to, or did I miss the N scale version?  Those are the ones I need for GN, NP, and repainted BN.  For some reason they bought the Plate C 4650s, while the CB&Q and later BN bought Plate B 4600s.

Atlas 4650 was HO, don't know why they didn't offer it in N.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

These are the cars that IM and MTL already make, right?

[Missaberoad]

These are the cars that IM and MTL already make, right?

Yes, they both make the later version.

If Athearn makes the early version in N it will be a never before released model, and judging by their two bay ACF hopper both versions will blow both the MTL and IMRC cars out of the water...

My mistake, I saw an incorrect reference. See below...

[cjm413]

Yes, they both make the later version.

If Athearn makes the early version in N it will be a never before released model, and judging by their two bay ACF hopper both versions will blow both the MTL and IMRC cars out of the water...

4600 is a noticeably different car than the 4650.

It's the same length as the 5250 (and longer than the 4650), but isn't as tall as the 4650 and 5250.

Lee Gautreaux (a/k/a Railgoat) has some partial roster info and pics here:

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/acf/acf_3bay_cf.htm

[Missaberoad]

Thanks for the correction... Saw a bad reference to the microtrains car and ran with it.

Some good info in this trainorders thread aswell...

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,461157

[GaryHinshaw]

4600 is a noticeably different car than the 4650.

It's the same length as the 5250 (and longer than the 4650), but isn't as tall as the 4650 and 5250.

Cool.  Thanks for the info.  In doing some cursory research, I noticed the length difference as well, but it was hard to tell the difference between a 4600 and a 4650 in isolated photos.  It would be obvious side by side (e.g. in a train) though.

[jagged ben]

Hope these don't come out too soon, the wallet needs a break.   

[nkalanaga]

The 4600 is both longer and lower than the 4650.  As Gary said, not noticeable sitting alone, but side by side it's obvious.  The 4600 will be useful for me, as proper CB&Q CFs haven't been available before in N scale.

The MT 4650 car is usable for the GN and NP cars, but is too modern.  It needs the earlier side rib, and continuous trough hatches, but is still better than kitbashing the 1970s Atlas 4-bay.

[basementcalling]

So ride height becomes a bigger N scale issue with this release.