2017 NSE Convention

[Mark5]

Atlas
"2 new loco announcements this year"

Wow! IIRC, the only new Atlas loco this decade was the S-2, so this is HUGE!

Mark

[ljudice]

Jeff - thanks for all the photos and report!!!

Finally someone doing the DODX flats!

[jereising]

Atlas
"2 new loco announcements this year"

Wow! IIRC, the only new Atlas loco this decade was the S-2, so this is HUGE!

Mark

We need to define what "new loco" means - I'd be real nervous and would tend to think it's just probably new paint schemes or minor variation on existing models.

For some reason Atlas and I seem to be on diverging paths. 

The latest Tank Car release is a prime example.  If they had done TILX again, I'd have bought.  But I won't mix PPRX or STAX with my TILX train.  The way these trains are run on the prototype, cars on a given train usually stay together for months or years.  Of course there will be exceptions, but I make the rules on my road, and it's TILX or what I already have.  The casual visitor won't notice (or care) that many of those cars on my tank unit train are ethanol tankers.  So essentially that 's some hundreds of dollars worth of lost sales.

I recall on the old A forum the "beating a dead horse" icon was created.  It had particular application to me, I think, because I kept bugging for an 8-40C.  And had they brought that model out much earlier, I would have been good for a bunch.  As it was, I only picked up four Bs - which didn't get run all that much because the "slow speed" motor was just too slow.  (Yes, you can use DCC to speed match, but when you do, you have to reference the SLOWEST loco and match to it.  The Atlas was simply TOO slow.)   They're gone now.    And in the real world, the Bs and Cs are going to museums and sitting in dead lines.  Missed opportunities.

I hold Atlas in high regard.
But like I said, diverging paths.

[Missaberoad]

Atlas
"2 new loco announcements this year"

Wow! IIRC, the only new Atlas loco this decade was the S-2, so this is HUGE!

Mark

Not that far off the S2 in 2013 and the 4-4-0 in 2012...

Excited to see what they have, making a short list in my head (maybe more of a wish list  )

[mplsjct]

I hope the new Atlas locos are something 1960's to 1980's modelers can use, and not some more wide cab GE's.

[pdx1955]

Well, we'll seem them when Atlas releases their next catalog for the last half of the year which should be coming up soon. When it is released we can see if its "new schemes/numbers" or "new features (i.e. sound-equipped)" or "new" not done before by Atlas that's being talked about here. I would expect that sound will make it through the lineup eventually as locomotives are upgraded and re-released.

Meanwhile, we can all develop our own wishlists and daydream... 

[ljudice]

The latest Tank Car release is a prime example.  If they had done TILX again, I'd have bought.  But I won't mix PPRX or STAX with my TILX train.  The way these trains are run on the prototype, cars on a given train usually stay together for months or years.  Of course there will be exceptions, but I make the rules on my road, and it's TILX or what I already have.  The casual visitor won't notice (or care) that many of those cars on my tank unit train are ethanol tankers.  So essentially that 's some hundreds of dollars worth of lost sales.

Agree on all points, but just one data point - I pretty closely watch NS through WV (Railstream) and I am surprised how common loose crude oil cars are - including all four reporting marks done so far.  Cuts of 1-20 cars with mixed marks on merchandise trains....  Even solid ethanol trains carry ADM and a wide mix of leased cars....

Beware - this may be behavior unique to this lane...

[C855B]

Agree on all points, but just one data point - I pretty closely watch NS through WV (Railstream) and I am surprised how common loose crude oil cars are - including all four reporting marks done so far.  Cuts of 1-20 cars with mixed marks on merchandise trains....  Even solid ethanol trains carry ADM and a wide mix of leased cars....

Beware - this may be behavior unique to this lane...

CN does the same through Illinois. The impression I get is the tanks, especially empty, are used as filler for schedule-committed trains below their power utilization threshold. Apparently the unitizing of the tank trains is not as set-in-stone as unit coal trains.

[basementcalling]

Not that far off the S2 in 2013 and the 4-4-0 in 2012...

Excited to see what they have, making a short list in my head (maybe more of a wish list  )

I guess it depends on whether loco is a noun or a adjective. Noun, we get new engines never before made in N scale; adjective it's just two new announcements about locomotives in new paint schemes

[pdx1955]

CN does the same through Illinois. The impression I get is the tanks, especially empty, are used as filler for schedule-committed trains below their power utilization threshold. Apparently the unitizing of the tank trains is not as set-in-stone as unit coal trains.

I work next to the UP tracks here in Oregon , so I see the same thing. Occasionally a "unit" oil train will show up but it seems to to be clusters of different reporting marks more often than not. Smaller cuts of mixed markings could show up in almost any other merchandise train.

[High Hood]

Any news from Broadway Limited?

[chicken45]

BLI wasn't at the show.

I posted this elsewhere but the Madaboutcars shapeways designer is upgrading all his cars to now be 2 piece models. The car shells will now include windows and the bodies will have interiors.

It's great news! Jens Jahn took my request to make a '71 Valiant to pair with my Duel truck.
He said he wants to do EVERY American car. If anyone has pictures or blueprints to send him, he'll draw it up!

[chicken45]

Also big thanks to @ai5629 for the pics.
Be sure to upvote his posts, and YES I'M looking at you @peteski !

[conrail1973]

If I am to jump on the wish list for the Atlas locomotive announcements, you could wish for the RS32/36 or C424/425 for the 1960s/1970s and short line modelers just based on their recent HO releases/announcements.  I'm sure you can even throw in the GP39-2 as a item to wish for.

[Ike the BN Freak]

Finally someone doing the DODX flats!

Alan Curtis/N Scale Kits has been doing these flats for over 10 years.