Micro Trains N February 2022 Releases

[GonzoCRFan]

https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=63_64

I'm intrigued by the Chessie flatcar load. They're not quite big enough to be slag pots...?

[reinhardtjh]

That 8-pack of FGE reefers looks interesting.  Either the clean or weathered have possibilities.  I just noticed the road numbers are different between the weathered and clean sets. I wonder if that's a typo.  If not you could get 16 different numbers for a reefer block.

Ah.. Rats...

Happy to see the FGE reefers, although eight cars are way too many for me.

Its nice to see MTL finally do a FGE paintscheme on this model!

Looks like a post 1956 paintscheme. The original wooden roofs would be pretty rare by the 1950s, retrofitting the hutchens roof from the Intermountain FGE car would make an interesting variation.

The FGE cars are interesting to me as well, but if it's a 1954 scheme then it's too new for me.  I'd be late 1940's. 

I did some more digging and it looks like FGE switched to the sans serif lettering circa 1959. So unfortunately they aren't able to be backdated to the 1940s...

I'm hoping these are a success and Microtrains also makes a version of the earlier Optik font lettered cars...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Personally I'm glad I get a month off.

[southernman]

What is the significance of the red dot 🔴 on the UP cars ?

[thomasjmdavis]

Personally I'm glad I get a month off.

I think they have laid me off until the combines arrive.

[Missaberoad]

What is the significance of the red dot 🔴 on the UP cars ?

Still a mystery... There is a number of theories but nothing official or documented.

https://harley-trains.smugmug.com/UP-PLN-FRT/Red-Dot-Boxcars/
https://groups.io/g/MFCL/topic/17222627#77933

[Englewood]

Third month in a row with nothing for me. Weird.

[CodyO]

Personally I'm glad I get a month off.

I'm just a little upset about those FGE cars, maybe I'll get em anyway...

[bbussey]

I bought the SCL/ex-SAL boxcar last month because it was a better and modernized version of the prototype that we released a model of decades ago. That is the first MTL model I have bought in a while, I think since the weathered PC and RDG boxcars. I’m on the fence regarding this month’s SCL/ex-ACL boxcar. I helped with the FGE sets and I’m receiving two of the “clean” cars as a result.

[thomasjmdavis]

I'm just a little upset about those FGE cars, maybe I'll get em anyway...

If they had packaged them in smaller quantities, I might have been in for one or two.  No doubt someone will break up sets and sell them on eBay, so I might pick up a couple that way. But what makes you upset about them? (Did I miss something in an earlier thread?)

OOPS, nevermind.  Now that I look more carefully at the post from @reinhardtjh up above, that 1959 lettering probably explains it, and in any case, takes them out of my era by several years.  Oh well, I have plenty of reefers already.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I bought the SCL/ex-SAL boxcar last month because it was a better and modernized version of the prototype that we released a model of decades ago. That is the first MTL model I have bought in a while, I think since the weathered PC and RDG boxcars. I’m on the fence regarding this month’s SCL/ex-ACL boxcar. I helped with the FGE sets and I’m receiving two of the “clean” cars as a result.

Yeah, last month's SCL car was a real hottie. I didn't see COTS stencils on this month's so I think I'm safe with it.
These things are particularly dangerous for me since I model a north/south stretch of railroad that is a link from the south to the northeast.

I cannot say how much I hope/fear for the day that MTL re-tools its 50' exterior post cars to match the quality of these things.

[bbussey]

Your hopes probably will be dashed and your fears never realized.  Those bodystyles and others that are proportionally off sell well enough that they decide to use their tooling budget on producing new models.  The positive is that the newer models with few exceptions are proportionally correct.  And, there are viable alternatives for most of the older models that are compromised, such as the Atlas PS-1 40' boxcar, the Athearn/MDC PS-1 50' boxcar, the FVM FMC boxcars, the BLMA ACF gondola, etc.

[wazzou]

What is the significance of the red dot 🔴 on the UP cars ?

I've been told that the purpose was a short lived test on cars with the dots applied to track the cars; whereabouts, lading history and repair/maintenance schedules.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Your hopes probably will be dashed and your fears never realized.  Those bodystyles and others that are proportionally off sell well enough that they decide to use their tooling budget on producing new models.  The positive is that the newer models with few exceptions are proportionally correct.  And, there are viable alternatives for most of the older models that are compromised, such as the Atlas PS-1 40' boxcar, the Athearn/MDC PS-1 50' boxcar, the FVM FMC boxcars, the BLMA ACF gondola, etc.

That's all true, but those don't come in those sexy paint schemes. And they have re-tooled the 50' boxcars with better underframes and etched crossover platforms, so I am going to continue to hold out hope.

[ntex]

https://www.micro-trains.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=63_64

I'm intrigued by the Chessie flatcar load. They're not quite big enough to be slag pots...?

End caps for pressure vessels? “ Includes Pallet with Vessel Head Load”