Micro Trains - February 2025 announcements

[Mark5]

Looking at the MFCL group there are a number of discussions about orange BNFE cars and the consensus seems to be there was never such a prototype and the number of models produced have been in error.

https://groups.io/g/MFCL/search?q=Bnfe%20orange

I think I'm confident enough to say the cars should be yellow, but I stand to be corrected.

I have a memory of an orange car but it may just be models playing tricks on my memory.

Uh oh. Wallet thanks you.

[sundowner]

Yay more flats.

[thomasjmdavis]

@JoeD ,  Would I be correct that even though they don't show up in the online graphics, the WP Sugar cars include the roof hatches that are shown in prototype photos of the cars?  I know roof hatches came with the somewhat similar SP cars a couple years ago. 

https://myp48.wordpress.com/2022/08/15/prototype-information-wp-sugar-car/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I love that PRR wire train set.

I have a late Pennsy GP9 that's just gathering dust. This might be a fun thing to do with it.

[nkalanaga]

Some of the BNFE (and WFEX/WFCX cars before them) seemed to weather to light orange, but, as far as I know, the ex-WFEX (GN) cars should all be yellow.

[GaryHinshaw]

On the subject of these new flats, I was just trying to take the trucks off of one of the recent OTTX models and both bolster pin heads severed in the process.  The only way I could get the rest of the pin out was to drill it out.  To add insult to injury, the pin is a non-standard size with a smaller diameter than the usual MTL style, so I presently have no way to re-attach the trucks without modifying the car or ordering new pins.    Anyone else here experience this?

I can see how the bolster was designed to accommodate the (excellent) low ride height on these cars, without needing to tool an all-new truck.  That apparently led to the need for a narrower bolster pin.  But @JoeD, could you please request that the pins be re-tooled to make the head more robust and the shaft a wee bit smaller, so we don't have to destroy them to remove them?   

[wazzou]

@GaryHinshaw
I cannot help with your specific issue, but I can offer that the best way I’ve found to remove trucks/pins is using…forgive my description, bent (approximately 45 degrees) sharp nosed tweezers, between the frame and bolster, using leverage to work it loose.
I got mine from a Dentist friend, but I know there are hobby equivalents.

[turbowhiz]

On the subject of these new flats, I was just trying to take the trucks off of one of the recent OTTX models and both bolster pin heads severed in the process.  The only way I could get the rest of the pin out was to drill it out.  To add insult to injury, the pin is a non-standard size with a smaller diameter than the usual MTL style, so I presently have no way to re-attach the trucks without modifying the car or ordering new pins.    Anyone else here experience this?

I can see how the bolster was designed to accommodate the (excellent) low ride height on these cars, without needing to tool an all-new truck.  That apparently led to the need for a narrower bolster pin.  But @JoeD, could you please request that the pins be re-tooled to make the head more robust and the shaft a wee bit smaller, so we don't have to destroy them to remove them?   

Yes! I broke one, and then gave up removing any more trucks on these cars. For milling coupler installs (why you wanted to remove the trucks in the first place by chance?), there is technically no need to remove the truck at all, and so I just left them them alone for further installs after I broke the pin the first time. I just cut space freehand with a Dremel cutoff wheel.

These bolster pins are completely unlike any other MTL pins.

I just drilled and tapped for a 00-90, and used the original pin as a bushing, so I didn't have to source an OEM replacement. I can't recall but probably drilled/tapped into the original pin stump left in the hole.

I will say these pins/trucks fit wonderfully with no slop, which is really a nice change from the traditional kind, which are very sloppy.

First install, with repaired bolster pin:



More refined install, no truck removal required or attempted:

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks.  @wazzou curved tweezers are exactly what I used -- to no avail.  (That technique usually works well for me.)  The pin head on this car is actually much more fragile than the normal pins, so even gentle pressure is not sufficient to coax them out without snapping.  The best solution is for MTL to tweak the pin tooling - it won't take much of a change.

@turbowhiz - of course you knew the end game.  And I agree that removing the trucks is not necessary for the N-Possible conversion (I like your cut-off wheel solution, BTW).  But I normally remove trucks when I go to weather a car and - honestly - it should just be possible to do so out of the box.

Still a beautiful car though!

[bbussey]

Are those new wheels?  They don’t look like the standard plastic wheels and they don’t look machined. Back to cast wheels again?  Looks like the wheel treads are dirt/lint magnets in both photos.

[bigdawgks]

They look like 403 wheel sets to me:
https://micro-trains.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2691

And I can confirm they are terrible, at least in my experience. The cast wheels aren't even the worst part, the axles are about a hundredth undersized and because they're plastic they flex a bit and this causes them to regularly pop out of the trucks while handling. Some previous members have unfortunately installed these on almost all our club's rolling stock and we've been slowly replacing them with ESM sets as often as our budget allows.

[GaryHinshaw]

Right, one of the reasons I wanted to remove the trucks was to replace the rough wheels.

One thing you can see in Andrew's pic is how large the hole in the pin head is.  What you can't see is how narrow the pin shaft is; the combination means there is very little material joining the head to the shaft, so it is very easy to shear off.  Making the shaft 1-2% smaller and filling the hole in the head would solve the problem @JoeD .

[nickelplate759]

Right, one of the reasons I wanted to remove the trucks was to replace the rough wheels.

One thing you can see in Andrew's pic is how large the hole in the pin head is.  What you can't see is how narrow the pin shaft is; the combination means there is very little material joining the head to the shaft, so it is very easy to shear off.  Making the shaft 1-2% smaller and filling the hole in the head would solve the problem @JoeD .

I'll bet that hole is there to make assembly of the car more efficient in manufacturing, and the hole size is probably related to the shape of the tool used.

[turbowhiz]

Are those new wheels?  They don’t look like the standard plastic wheels and they don’t look machined. Back to cast wheels again?  Looks like the wheel treads are dirt/lint magnets in both photos.

Yes, back to cast wheels on plastic axles on these cars. The dirt situation could be more a function of how I've been using these cars though.

And I can confirm they are terrible, at least in my experience. The cast wheels aren't even the worst part, the axles are about a hundredth undersized and because they're plastic they flex a bit and this causes them to regularly pop out of the trucks while handling. Some previous members have unfortunately installed these on almost all our club's rolling stock and we've been slowly replacing them with ESM sets as often as our budget allows.

I have noticed the wheelsets are more inclined to come loose on these flats too, but mine are being handled extensively by non-modelers in many cases. They don't come out without at least a little bit of extraneous force.

@turbowhiz - of course you knew the end game.  And I agree that removing the trucks is not necessary for the N-Possible conversion (I like your cut-off wheel solution, BTW).  But I normally remove trucks when I go to weather a car and - honestly - it should just be possible to do so out of the box.

Still a beautiful car though!

Agreed on both points. The trucks should be non-destructively removable.  I hit my cars with a liberal coat of vallejo matt varnish, trucks and all. It makes all the difference in terms of improving the UV printed models like these, and the trucks benefitted a lot too. I recall removing the wheelsets when I did that, they do very easily come out.

For reference, the screw on truck removed... I did drill/tap the original pin in place, and I put the screw through the original hole of the broken pin (probably enlarging it) as a washer. You can see the difference where the bolster is not made from the pin, but rather the pin just holds on the truck. I like this, and the most recent of MTL designs all take the same approach.



I'm pretty sure an identical pin is found on the mill gondolas. A solid top version of the same is found on the PS/2 hoppers, not sure if later releases get the hole version, but all of my PS/2 examples have a solid top pin (the gondola/PS2 pins are interchangeable). I think the zinc body of these flats is proving just a little too grippy, and the pins fail on removal. I didn't have this problem with the mill gondola.

New style MTL pins, from Gondola and presumably identical on these flats, and the PS/2 hopper that is solid on right:



Using a solid top pin on the flats would probably make the trucks removable, but as has been suggested probably the hole is there for use in the assembly process.

My wish would be to include that little extra space behind the 1015/1016's in future releases, as it will make lives easier for those who want to adopt my couplers, and won't compromise anything in the original model.

[basementcalling]

Why is there a spring at the back of what I assume is the coupler pocket?

It's always the small details that make or brake a model.