Scale Trains Carbon Black Hoppers are SHIPPING

[Philip H]

Got my notice today.  Paid up.  Can't wait to actually see these. 

[C855B]

Good. Something to look forward to when we get back home and I pick-up e-mail.

[Englewood]

...and the Gevos are now showing for April. I can't wait!

[asarge]

C'mon N scalers, buy 'em up. This is a good car for the modern era.

[Mark5]

Will get a couple Sid Richarsdsons when they arrive at MBK. Common sight on the N&W then NS.

[C855B]

C'mon N scalers, buy 'em up. This is a good car for the modern era.

Provided you define "modern" as going back to the 1970s!

All four "Cities Service" 5750 numbers arrived in the mailbox this morning! Great looking cars. The one I opened had a roofwalk "pop", but this is perfectly normal - to me - on models with etched roofwalks. A tiny spot of CA will fix that.

They brought back memories from later childhood. I've mentioned before that Cities Service had a plant a few miles south of Mojave, and there were also two other carbon black refineries in the area taking advantage of the constant wind to dissipate their very smelly emissions. I saw many of these cars on the switch jobs that plied the former SP back then. While UP didn't have any carbon plants I know of on the LA&SL, since so much of my layout is modeling the open desert of the Southwest it wouldn't hurt me to foob a refinery if only for old time's sake. I might do that instead of the gravel pit east of Afton Canyon. Maybe both.

[bbussey]

My 1970s version arrived today.  Looks good.  I'm hoping the McHenry-style couplers can be replaced but we'll see.

[RockGp40]

Will get a couple Sid Richarsdsons when they arrive at MBK.

Me too.

[C855B]

... I'm hoping the McHenry-style couplers can be replaced but we'll see.

With difficulty. They followed the same approach as with the turbines, a coupler pocket that would be "drop in" for an MTL 1015 shank. Except they made a mistake - the box lid (bottom) is missing the dimple for the alignment dog. The dimple is there for the top of the box, however, so their intent was to make it work. Anyway, as a consequence, if you tighten the lid, the coupler can't move. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to make it work, but I did carve a little to recreate the dimple, but it was going to be more effort than I wanted to put into it at the moment.

Two more problems add to the replacement challenge. First is the draft box lid does not align into position. There is a tab on the bolster end, but you're on your own for aligning the screw hole. Second is one of the details we're raving about, a simulated cut lever, which does a pretty good job confounding putting the non-self-aligning draft box lid back on. The coupler end of the cut lever fits into a hole in the draft box lid, but when loose is springy and wants to get in the way. Bend it out of the way enough to work with the lid, you deform the plastic of the lever and it won't mate with the hole. Very frustrating.

But wait, there's more!

Draft box is molded into the floor. TSC users like myself are going to have a big, unpleasant project grinding off the box, made even more difficult by separately-applied air line details around that area of the frame that appear to want to break from a mere glance, much less move out of harm's way. Just an ugly job no matter how you look at it.

All four of my cars have wheelsets so far out-of-gauge they will not roll through Code 55 turnouts. I measured 0.012" narrow versus RP-25 nominal. They will not pass the NMRA-issue flange gauge, period.

I love my turbines and these cars look great, but damn, guys! I love your enthusiasm and attention to modeling details, but don't you have any N scale modelers on staff or at least on call to verify what you appear to be guessing at? 

[Mark5]

I'm hoping Accumates are a direct swap. I'll know soon. 

[C855B]

Now that I'm back at the bench, wheel width is 0.072", which is RP-25. Axle measures 0.545" tip-to-tip, close enough to MTL 0.540". So since I prefer FVM narrow (0.060") anyway, the out-of-gauge is not going to bother me.

[GaryHinshaw]

I love my turbines and these cars look great, but damn, guys! I love your enthusiasm and attention to modeling details, but don't you have any N scale modelers on staff or at least on call to verify what you appear to be guessing at? 

Did you send this feedback to Scale Trains @C855B ?

I pre-ordered 4 hoppers but when I went to pay and check on shipping options, my $128 order would have been $25 to ship to Canada, so I sent them a note asking if they would hold them until my GEVO pre-order arrives in ~April (if I pay for them now).  Response: sorry, we can only hold for two weeks.   So I cancelled the pre-order and will purchase them through Central Hobbies here instead.

I only pre-ordered because they told us that reservations were slow and I wanted to support the cause.  But I can't really justify MSRP plus 20% shipping on a set of cars I only marginally need.  Kinda frustrating for everyone. 

[C855B]

Not yet. Still separating fact from supposition. I have a hunch they're lurking, as well.

Progress this evening. First was replacing wheelsets with FVM. They don't seem to roll as freely as I would have expected; two were stiff out of the box, two were OK, and changing wheelsets made them all a little balky. Looked at replacing the trucks with MTL. It would not be a straight-across replacement at all, needing bolster work. Stock is screw bolsters with a small-diameter pin, and the screw head is too small for the MTL. MTL also raises ride height about 0.020", as well. I would prefer to use the stock truck anyway as the detail is much finer. Seems we have a theme going here - great detail, operation issues.

Good progress with couplers. I was able to carve away a stock draft box. It turns out the box is cast as part of the frame, which is glued to the bottom of the car. A #17 X-Acto between the box and the floor and cutting the box sides away yielded a good surface for mounting a TSC long-shank box after a bit of scraping. Good looking fit when all was done, with perfect height. The air line detail was gently separated from the side of the original box before starting this, and reattached with CA to the new box. A #78 hole to receive the cut lever in the TSC box solved that issue, looks good. The results speak for themselves... what a difference!:



The stock couplers result in toy-like coupling distance, shades of the 1970s:



TSC to TSC:

[bbussey]

Regarding the missing cavity on the inside face of the coupler box lid for the MTL pivot pin, it can be added fairly easily by chiseling with an X-Acto or milling. BLI couplers also can be swapped in along with AccuMates.

[C855B]

True, but accuracy with the hole shape sort of counts if the intent is magnetic uncoupling. I do believe this was ScaleTrain's intent, accommodating full function for 1015 users. Otherwise, just drilling a big enough hole to clear the dog with a little slop will be fine for normal automatic coupling and running.