I think you've hit the nail on the head here, a lot of the predominately HO manufacturers seem to treat N scale as a not so important side show to their money making HO business. Look at the problems with recent steam releases from Athearn, Walthers/LL, Bachmann and the now seemingly dead in the water PCM, (I was looking forward to seeing them do some of their ATSF stuff in N). You don't seem to hear many complaints about the quality or quantity of their HO releases. Kato puts out a lot of quality N scale stuff that sells well because it is primarily an N scale company at home in Japan. Back to the show, its great to see some of the new stuff we are getting. The Atlas 'unitrack' could be a winner for them if they develop more pieces. I don't like the long curved leg of the turnout, it would seem to me to make double track or passing sidings spaced to far apart. I hope Athearn speeds up the F45/FP45, we've been seeing those black test shells for quite a while now. Did Circuitron have a booth at the show? I'm waiting on their Smail DCC switch machines for a layout I'm building.
This sounds like the sensible thing to do. No use obsessing over something that may never be a reality. A kitbashed loco may even be a subject of greater pride than a pristine one plucked out of its foam liner. And if you must have the pristine one, buy the HO version. I did just that with the PCM/BLI Santa Fe 4-8-4. It satisfied my desire to the point I could get on to more important things. Ben
The one thing that I'm wondering about from the photos above... looks like the electrical track connection in Atlas True Track is still a normal railjoiner? One of the primary reasons that Kato Unitrack works as well as it does is that the Unijoiner forces electrical contact to a very good degree, and it holds up well over time, as many Unitrack users will attest. I hope that this aspect of insuring electrical contact is also present in the Atlas True Track.
Intermodar Flat car ? Did anyone ask Atlas about the N Scale version of the 89' flatcar, recently released in HO scale ? Were the 48' trailers on display ? Decorated ? ..........
I don't know anything about the Atlas items but I did see that Walthers has some new intermodal items in HO including 40' trailers that I hope filters down to N Scale eventually. Ben
Seems to be the N scale story: waiting for things to filter down from HO. It'd be nice for a change to see something come out in N scale first and then let the HO guys wait five years to get a piece of junk in their scale.
Did not see or ask about an N scale 89' Did not see 48' Traliers Did not like green eggs and ham :tb-biggrin:
PCM/Broadway had a PRR E- unit circling a loop of track, I stopped twice and both times no rep was there, and I had to lean over and get right next to the loco to hear the sound system. I could not help but think...that's it? That is all the sound this sucker makes??
Slerrppp, slerrpppp... slerrrrrrppppp! It's hard to hear the sound of the diesel engine over the sound of your hard earned money being sucked out of your wallet too. I have two sound equiped E7's from PCM... I'm done with their 'experiment'. BTW... thanks for the pictures and reporting. Was Bachmann there? If so did they have anything to show... such as the 'Spectrum' Heavy Mountain? How about the Walthers passenger cars... any word???
I have to say that PCM's website looks really cool. Now, if they could only use some of that enthusiasm and creative energy on their N scale offerings...
That just about sums it up. PCM could have been a big name in N, but now it's "PCM, who are they?" Sound equipped locos are often hard to hear over the noise of a show. Perhaps a reason PCM failed in our scale was that sound in N scale, while getting better, is still not as good as you can get in a HO loco, therefore in N its still a bit of a novelty rather than a major selling point as in the larger scales. I'm not ready to consign my Kato E's and PA's to the scrap line just so I can pay three or four times as much for one with sound.
Did you spot the hot pink radiation loads behind the Milwaukee Road SDs? There were 2 sections of the "Treatment Train" running on the Milwaukee N-Trak layout. One with the pink radiation loads from one of the Milwaukee members to commemorate her 40 radiation treatments for breast cancer. One had 40 blue chemical loads from our Bloomington-Normal NTRAK Club to commemorate his chemo treatments for prostate cancer. FYI, the cars were made available after the show for purchase to support cancer research.
MTL Was there too. Shameless Plug since Micro-Trains seemed to be left out of this review of the show. We had our new Drop Bottom Gondolas on display and had announced our new 3 Dome Tank Car in N Scale for this Spring. I am working on the last few pieces and will drop a few photo's when I have something together. It's got a tiny tank, 6,000 gal, but looks pretty nice. I also had some information on our Heavyweights to share. Cheers Joe MTL
Looks like you're right. Note the second-closest piece - no rail joiner, but the connector in the roadbed left in.
Bachmann was there, and they did have the Heavy mountains out, and to me they looked pretty sweet, although I am by no means a 4-8-2 expert. I will say there were different details for different roads, and I remember thinking "Am I really at Bachmann's display?"
Joe, Sorry I missed talking to you, I came by and was looking for the DOD 89'ers but did not see them so I sorta kept on moseying down the line. (Had wife and 3 year old with me that were at the "end" of their day.)
That's ok, I found it hard to focus on much of anything, there were so many nice models on display there. Always look forward to the Overland booth.. Cheers Joe
