MTL "balloon" roofs?

[Maletrain]

I should have bought more of those when they were first available as extra parts.  Now, the MTL website says "see your dealer."  But, I don't see any dealers listing them.

SOOO, is MTL going to make these available again?

[bbussey]

You should call and ask them directly.  They may have parts available.

[Maletrain]

You should call and ask them directly.  They may have parts available.

Or, I could ask here and see if ShipSure knows or can find out.  Asking whoever answers the phone at Micro Trains when their Website already says "see your dealer" is likely to only get me whatever that particular person thinks "see your dealer" means in general and knows at the moment of my call about any plans for the future.

If no joy here, I will probably try their e-mail for "customer service." 

[bbussey]

As I posted — call.  You are more likely than not to be able to purchase what you seek.

[thomasjmdavis]

Or, I could ask here and see if ShipSure knows or can find out.  Asking whoever answers the phone at Micro Trains when their Website already says "see your dealer" is likely to only get me whatever that particular person thinks "see your dealer" means in general and knows at the moment of my call about any plans for the future.

If no joy here, I will probably try their e-mail for "customer service."

Nobody should bother Shipsure with any little detail stuff until after the release of the single window coach.  We don't want him distracted.  If you must ask about balloon roofs, frame the question in the form "will you release the single window coach with a balloon roof?"

That said, it has generally been true that if MT sells out of something, they will make more if the demand is still there. 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I'm in the bathroom, so I have time away from the Single window coach to answer questions    I gotta make it quick, once the red light comes on my implant shocks me until I log into my computer... 

I'll check, we should have some...and I know we are making more.

Cheers

Joe....ZAAAAPPPPPPP   OUCH!!!!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I should have bought more of those when they were first available as extra parts.  Now, the MTL website says "see your dealer."  But, I don't see any dealers listing them.

SOOO, is MTL going to make these available again?

Yes, we have them in stock and you can buy them from us online.  stock number is 49955925...

ZAAAAPPPPPPP  OUCH!!

Joe

[peteski]

I'm in the bathroom, so I have time away from the Single window coach to answer questions    I gotta make it quick, once the red light comes on my implant shocks me until I log into my computer... 

I'll check, we should have some...and I know we are making more.

Cheers

Joe....ZAAAAPPPPPPP   OUCH!!!!

Bathroom breaks?  You have it really good at Micro Trains.  I've heard that at Atlas they have all of their employees sit on potty-chairs. No bathroom breaks for them. 

[wcfn100]

Walthers lists them in stock.

https://www.walthers.com/business-car-roof-3

So does this place.

http://www.toytrainheaven.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/69685247/Microtrains%20N%20Business%20Car%20Balloon%20Roof%203%20Pack%2C%20LIST%20PRICE%20%2411.95

And this place.

http://www.westerndepot.com/product_info.php/products_id/44906

These things are like, everywhere.   

Jason

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Bathroom breaks?  You have it really good at Micro Trains.  I've heard that at Atlas they have all of their employees sit on potty-chairs. No bathroom breaks for them. 

Pull ups  LOL

[Maletrain]

First, Thank you, Joe!  Second, Thanks to Jason for the in-stock dealers list. For some reason, it did not come up when I searched Walthers, and the other two places are now places I can add to my searches.

[brokemoto]

Do the balloon roofs fit the other cars, such as coaches?  Can you do a minimum of alteration to make them fit?  If so, I would make the swap on a couple of the single window coaches, when said coaches appear, that is.

[Maletrain]

Brokemoto, I checked (without actually replacing the roofs) and the balloon roof for the observation cars (business cars) seems to fit the other Pullman cars (12-1 and 10-1-2), but is too long for the coaches, and of course, the baggage and RPOs.  (Forgot to check the diner and parlor cars.)

Modifying these roofs should not be too hard - careful cross cutting and gluing should be able to make shorter and even longer versions.  The ribs may make length modification noticeable if that results in really strange spacing.

I intend to use these, with mods, on coaches, baggage and RPOs, as well as some bashed C-15 express cars, so I expect to be cutting them all.  The B&O rebuilt Pullmans all seem to have had roofs made to look like stream-lined cars, with the ends NOT rounded down. So, the fact that these seem to fit the Pullmans is of little use to me.

[brokemoto]

In addition to rebuilding HW Pullmans into intercity coaches, B&O also rebuilt some HW coaches into intercity coaches.  The noticeable changes are the rounded roof (likely done to accommodate the A/C), one door blanked out and rounded windows.  The roofs on the rebuilt coaches do curve down at the ends.

If the MT balloon roofs can be altered to fit, that would work.  Blanking out a door is not difficult.  One some of the rebuilts, it is obvious that the shops blanked out a door.  On some of them, it is not so obvious.  Likely someone could fashion some sort of insert to round off the corners of the windows.  It might be tedious to alter the windows, but that is a noticeable feature.

I have not compared the window count on the NYCS single window coach with that of other roads, say Reading.  Some of the Reading HW coaches had balloon roofs, some had this flattened, rounded roof, similar to that on the Bachpersonn doodlebug (I have seen that captioned as a "Bethlehem roof").  Some rebuilt N&W passenger cars also had similar roofs.  Reading rebuilt some HWs into cars that look similar to the American flyer cars.  You would have to take the Rapido car, get rid of one of the windows, take out the window dividers and add some rivet decals.

The upcoming MT single window coach is supposed to be based on a NYCS coach.  Most of those had four wheel trucks, although there is a rumour that MT will issue them with six wheel trucks for roads that had single window coaches with six wheel trucks.

At some point, I hope to see a NYCS Runner Pack with these NYCS coaches:  one NYC, one B&A, one P&E and one P&LE.

Micro Scale has decal sheets for NYCS passenger cars, including the subsidiaries, so if you do not want to wait for the runner pack (assuming that it appears, that is), you could strip and re-paint your own.  After 1939, the subsidiaries had Central Gothic NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM in gold on the letterboard and the road number with the subsidiary's reporting marks below the window line.  The one exception is Boston and Albany, which had that road name on the letterboard.  Microscale has all of the above on its NYCS passenger decal sheets.  Fellow The Rail Wire poster peteski has made available Peoria and Eastern heralds so that you can erase the road number on the cab of the B-mann "NYC" GP-7. replace it with the P&E herald and use a larger road number from one of the Microscale sheets on the short hood.  The MT baggage/mail is available in NYC, so you could couple it to a re-lettered P&E coach, power it with the Bachmann re-lettered GP-7 (with the s/g details added--available from more than one source) and have a P&E Peoria to Indianapolis passenger train. 

[thomasjmdavis]

How much modification is required to fit for the pediment end/non-pediment end/observation end of the various cars?  I would expect the balloon roof to fit the obs car and business cars "out of the box", but ends of the roof different on the two ends (one end being for a pedimented car end, the other for the observation end "ceiling").  The MT sleepers are pediment ends on both ends- so easiest route here would be to splice the pediment ends from 2 of the obs balloon roofs, the coaches are non-pediment ends.  Granted, the work involved is less that creating a balloon roof, but do be aware of the need to modify the ends of the roof or ends of the car to get it to fit.

On baggage cars, the recent NH release included a balloon roof, so I would anticipate those will be available as spares shortly, if not already on the way.  I am planning to wait on those for the baggage and baggage mail cars, rather than modifying.  And I would expect you could combine 2 of those to make the slightly longer coach roof, and use the two left over parts for an RPO roof, if you were so inclined.

Brokemoto- I like your P&E train idea.  Maybe we should have a "I want this runner pack" thread.  My personal runner pack would be a baggage, baggage mail, and 2 single window coaches all in Erie 2 tone green.  If they wanted to, they could make it 5 cars, and add a 10-1-2 Lake Worth. (Be wary on car names there, as Erie, IIRC, also had some of the 10sec-2DB-1DR cars that have a different window arrangement from the MT car)