New Athearn Bombardier release

[ATSF_Ron]

I received my Athearn Metrolink cars today from NScaleSupply.  I actually forgot that I preordered these last year, lol!  While I'm generally happy with them, they're a bit of a mixed bag.  To the naked eye and from typical N scale layout viewing distances, the paint looks fine.  As I was viewing these photos on the computer, the paint seemed a bit heavy to my eye.  It's not a huge deal as I don't view my layout through a camera and don't post tons of photos online.  One thing that DID bother me was seeing the photo of the front of the cab car.  The attempt at an upper headlight casting is pretty weak, IMO.  I can probably clean it up with an Exacto #11 and put some lenses on it and it'll pass.  These new cars were also supposedly made with "new free rolling trucks."  Yeah, ummm...I wouldn't call them free rolling, but they are a far cry from the garbage they released several years ago.  They roll much better and more quietly than those trucks.

This is interesting.  I was just looking at online photos of an earlier run, and those cab cars have upper headlight lenses installed.  Mine doesn't!  I no longer have the old Metrolink set I had years ago to compare, but that seems like an oversight.  At any rate, these cars all track well through turnouts and run fairly quietly, compared to the earlier releases.  So all in all, a bit of a mixed bag as I said earlier.  Am I happy with them?  Mostly!  Are they my era?  Nope!  But I bought 'em anyway.  I rubber band from 1950s steam to 60s-80s diesel to a few pieces of modern.  It's all fun stuff!  Hopefully these comments will be useful to anyone considering a set of these Bombardier cars.

ATSF_Ron

[jagged ben]

I'd be interested to see a side by side comparison of the old and new trucks.   We had an entire thread on making replacements for those trucks at one point, though I'm not sure it came to fruition.   Thanks for the review.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I’m disappointed to hear that these new trucks are not a hugely significant improvement over the dismal, inexcusably bad rollability that encumbered that first offering.

I was hoping that the new/better trucks might be purchasable as Athearn spare parts, and easily retrofittable to the old coaches, but can’t find any evidence that either is possible.  Anybody?

[Englewood]

Picked up my Railrunner cars yesterday. My first impression was that they looked like Kato passenger cars. I have some from the first run, and hopefully this weekend I'll have time to do a side-by-side comparison.

[MetroRedLine]

Athearn is really late with the Metrolink "wave" livery. Meanwhile, the prototype commuter road has an even newer one:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]


I guess we'll have to wait for Athearn to come out with those in 2032 or something. With the same tooling from 2002, of course.

I still have my first-generation Metrolink set, but I'm expecting Rapido Trains to wipe the floor with their versions.

[peteski]

I’m disappointed to hear that these new trucks are not a hugely significant improvement over the dismal, inexcusably bad rollability that encumbered that first offering.

Unfortunately with inside-bearing trucks there isn't much that can be done to make them roll anywhere as good as the outside bearing ones.  Kato Amfleet ones seem to be best rolling (and it is still a lot worse than outside-bearing trucks with pointy axles).  Actually they roll even better with all the lubricant (grease) removed, which would at a first glance seem counterintuitive. The lubricant viscosity plays role in this.

We did have a good size thread about this. You participated in it.  Here is the post showing that un-lubricated Kato trucks roll the best. https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=42663.msg725050#msg725050 That entire lengthy thread has a lot of interesting ideas.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks Peter - yes, I remember that thread well … it’s full of good stuff.

By posting here, I was hopeful that someone might know if the new run of Athearn trucks might easily replace the old ones, and whether or not they might even be available as a parts order.

[peteski]

Thanks Peter - yes, I remember that thread well … it’s full of good stuff.

By posting here, I was hopeful that someone might know if the new run of Athearn trucks might easily replace the old ones, and whether or not they might even be available as a parts order.

I would also like to see how the new trucks differ from the original ones.