Well I think it's great that Athearn is bringing back serviceable MDC boxcar tooling that was neglected. And I think it's lame (as I said in a previous thread) that they invested development resources in a hopper that's already done well by two other companies. If they'd done the low side that Exactrail will probably never rerun...
Well, I believe there were more schemes in the low side version. I'd have to check. MTL has dribbled out their 4427....and the 4780 is such small amounts, it's ridiculous for us. Trainworx has done some nice ones and I hope they do more once the manufacturing issues are resolved. At least with the Athearns, we are getting a bunch of schemes in as delivered and second generation to make it more interesting.
I see your point about grain hoppers, but there have been an awful lot of them out on the rails since the 70's so it's probably good to see some of the older car's getting done. There are quite a few still on the rails operated by leasing companies even though most no longer haul grain. That won't be the case in a few more years.
