Scale Trains Carbon Black Hoppers are SHIPPING

[C855B]

Yesterday I sent a nice e-mail about the issues, then slightly scolded them that "N is not a shrunken HO", that some HO-isms like screw bolsters and cast-in draft gear boxes assuming a standard coupler design weren't necessarily best practice in N. No response yet.

I was able to get them to roll better by carefully hand-twirling the smallest Dremel round burr in the axle cups. Still not MTL-quality free-rolling, but better than the way they came.

[Jbub]

I was going to pick up a couple just because, and also because ST is in Tennessee, and am (was) looking forward to their T4 ES44s.  The reports here are bothering me.  Do I REALLY want to spend $32 on a car with truck issues?    The coupler boxes - well, I have some McHenrys running successfully, so that at least is not a deal breaker. 

I'd sure like for one of the the ST guys to let us know how those wheels/trucks got that way.  There are knowledgeable, experienced N scalers within a couple hours of their facility that would be happy to assist with product testing...all it would take is an ask...

They had all of their n scale equipment at the hostlers show in Ogden utah last weekend. Everything looked really good but when I shed if they had any running models to test it was a big nope. Of course I'm a nobody but the club I'm in had the best layout at the show (better than the HO guys that put the show on imo) and it would have been cool to see there stuff running around against some good scenery.

[bobdobbs]

Not that easy of a solution, as these are not available currently, we had a whole thread about it.

Well some of us did a little stockpiling for a rainy day......

[soo]

Well isn't this just wonderful ( church lady)
Dropping a C note on three cars..with these issues
Do I pay or cancel my pre order of three cars?
Hmm
Cya y-it

[mu26aeh]

Don't see any of these on the sub, so I am not in need of any.  Outside of the upcoming Gunderson hoppers, I haven't been thrilled with any of the releases.  They'd (gunderson) be brand new as I model into late 2000's but  LHS doesn't carry them anyway, so no loss for me.

[Glenn Poole]

Just got my eight.  They rolled freely out of the box.  Although, the wheels all measured slightly narrow they ran just great on my Peco code 55 track and #6 switches.

[transitionalman]

Still waiting on my package from ScaleTrains, Bob's ManCave has a review on YouTube with both models:

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LOOKS GOOD!!!!

[C855B]

Interesting. Looks like doing a TSC conversion on the later (4727) car would be a challenge involving fabricating a frame filler plate. The 5750 has a flat floor there, where once you cut the end of the frame (draft gear box) off it's an easy mount.

The reviewer noted the "slam" coupling the boxing gloves require, and somehow justified that a 30-35 smph coupling is going to be prototypical. -1 for that. Didn't say a thing about how poorly they rolled, although the stiffness was fairly evident around 11:50.

No doubt the details are well-executed and it's a very fine model. Absolutely no quarrel here, these are great-looking cars. But the reviewer is apparently not an operations guy, and aside from the couplers and showing-off the sound-equipped Toaster made no attempt to assess how they ran. Maybe not his fault; we've been so used to good runners out of the box from MTL, Atlas and most of the other N scale makers that it might not have crossed his mind to do basic checks... like the wheel gauge, or how well they negotiated anything other than that bit of mild curve.

[Englewood]

I got four of them a few days ago. A couple of the wheels were a little out of gauge, but that's it. Didn't take but a few seconds to fix. The rolling quality on mine are not quite as good as most of my other cars, but I don't think it's to the point that it needs to be fixed. They have great details and I like the paint job. I see these at work all the time and am glad to add these to the fleet. I will probably order a few more.

[reinhardtjh]

I honestly never remember seeing any before, but just last Thursday I was stopped for gas and I saw a train going by a few hundred feet away and there they were, a block of 5-6 carbon black cars.  I didn't get the road name on them but they looked just like ST's pictures.

[C855B]

Just for grins, I tried to find a modern carbon black plant on Google Maps, to get an idea of the source industry for these cars. Instead, I found two, next to each other:

https://goo.gl/maps/mAhqDEfNZw22

Really, really interesting. Really, really dirty! What a mess! 

[SAH]

For those interested, I wrote an article about Carbon Black for the AC&YHS Newsletter a few years back.  It's general in nature but covers the manufacture, shipping and uses as related to the rubber industry and the AC&Y in particular.  Unfortunately it's not available for download from the AC&YHS website but I'll send a pdf to anyone who wants one and sends a PM with their e-mail address.  It's an 8 Mb file.

Steve

[Philip H]

For those interested, I wrote an article about Carbon Black for the AC&YHS Newsletter a few years back.  It's general in nature but covers the manufacture, shipping and uses as related to the rubber industry and the AC&Y in particular.  Unfortunately it's not available for download from the AC&YHS website but I'll send a pdf to anyone who wants one and sends a PM with their e-mail address.  It's an 8 Mb file.

Steve

What time period were you referencing?

[Nato]

         I received my Sid Caesar (Richardson) car and my other one on Saturday. These are the most f@#**#@en amazingly detailed N Scale cars I have ever seen or had the pleasure to own, they out class any brass models, the ultra fine details like pipes' along the lower part of the car, the complete underbody detailing, micro fine lettering, then the effect is ruined by the Mc Henry style couplers, which I suppose I can live with for now considering that I was one of the original beta testers for those. One of my two cars did not roll freely at first until I reset the wheel set back in to the side frame it had been knocked loose during shipping even though the packaging is superb also I cannot see where the small loose flat grab came from that was lying in the bottom of the box, it was not a stirrup that broke off. My cars do roll freely and go through Peco Code 80 switches (remember my layout is code 80) and I have not had a chance to measure the gauge of the wheels. I' am very very impressed. "Wowie Zowie!"                  Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Just for grins, I tried to find a modern carbon black plant on Google Maps, to get an idea of the source industry for these cars. Instead, I found two, next to each other:

https://goo.gl/maps/mAhqDEfNZw22

Really, really interesting. Really, really dirty! What a mess! 

Take a look at this tank, and how the side facing the plant if filthy and the other side much cleaner.

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