I was on the fence whether to post this here, or in the Crew Lounge (since I think it's humorous), but here it goes:
I received email from Bachmann:
New in N Scale:
From gravel to grain, Bachmann's hopper cars can haul it all!
No matter what you transport, Bachmann's N scale Hopper cars are what you need to get the job done. New road names in our 4-Bay Center-Flow hoppers and Cylindrical Grain cars in vibrant paint schemes are now available! Click below to see them all.
Features include:
Silver Series® rolling stock – fully assembled
highly detailed painted bodies with precision graphics
blackened, machined-metal wheels with RP25 contours
body-mounted E-Z Mate® couplers
non-magnetic, blackened-brass axles with needle-point bearings
Celcon® trucks
added weight for optimum tracking performance
N Scale 1:160
Then came the photos. Here is a sample:
Anything there sticks out like a sore thumb (no, not the boxing-glove coupler)? Yes, black unpainted plastic brake wheels! What is this? And those brake wheels are just toyish moldings - they do not represent any specific prototype. Are we going back to the '70s and '80s when this was expected in N scale? Did they forget that we are in the 2nd decade of the 21st Century?
Plus, are these really "new"? The end ladder details seem rather heavy, and the trucks are probably wrong too (I didn't verify - I gave up after seeing the brake wheels).
I have to admit that some other roadnames seem to have brake wheels painted to match the body, but the ones above don't. Very strange. Of course at $34, these are a bargain.
Maybe this should be in the Crew Lounge.
