I'm thrilled Atlas is doing the Hamersley Iron C-628 for us Aussies. Maybe this could convince Kato to the SD70ACe in BHP Billiton? Cheers David
I sure can't find that information anywhere. Maybe it's not announced in the USA yet? I thought I would sign up for the Atlas email info, but I couldn't find that either.
This info is in the Atlas Spring Catalog which I guess was posted yesterday. http://download.atlasrr.com/Apr09Catalog/25-38.pdf
Wow, another modern tanker. Great for me, since I love the droopy versions. My modern era layout will finally have realistic tankers. As to paint schemes for the C628/630, I wonder if they will ever do the Minnesota Commercial (Old GBW red) Seems like it would sell enough, but as always, what do I know.
The Atlas shipping schedule still shows an April shipping date (from China) but no specific date is mentioned. They'll show up in hobby shops about 5 or 6 weeks after the specific container shipping date, which hasn't even been posted yet. I'm afraid we're still looking at May at the earliest.
In general add about a month to announced shipping dates. They have to get here > get to distributors > get to etailers and retailers > finally to you.
"This info is in the Atlas Spring Catalog which I guess was posted yesterday." Imagine that... posted on April Fools Day. You sure its legit???
I'd buy one of those BHP Billiton locos. It's a great looking scheme. They have several offices here in Houston.
And someone to do modern ore cars to go with them, priced so you can afford a couple of hundred of them? What good are the locos on their own?
But they also have the Code 55 rerailers & curved turnouts showing as March 2009 in hobby shops and I believe that has come and gone without happening. Not sure if I want the wide cab Dash 8s sooner or later (budget). Jamie
Once again, you can expect stuff in hobby shops about 5 or 6 weeks after the container shipping date--a week or so after the Atlas shipping date. Just check the schedule. Atlas Model Railroad Co.
BCR, a fine paint scheme! But still with the wrong fuel tank. And all the other Canadian specialties seem to be missing as well. Not even headlights on the low hood. It's a shame. I still hate having bought two of the CPs.
Reading and C&O C-630'S On top of that, Atlas prints in their April catalog that the second order of the Reading C-630's and the C&O C-630's, both with the Alco Hi-Adhesion trucks on these prototypes, will NOT be so equipped, using the standard tri-mount trucks instead!!!!! What gives, Atlas? They have used different trucks on their GE and EMD models for a few years now so why the hang-up about the Hi-Adhesions? I was tickled to death when i noticed the release of these two roadnames that had these trucks, until i noticed the small print at the bottom of the page. My giddiness quickly turned to major letdown!!!!! Which person at Atlas could i E-Mail to let them know how we feel about this major omission? I was seriously thinking about all 4 C&O numbers and the 3 numbers of the Reading to order, now i may not order any if Atlas insists on doing these versions wrong!!!!! Berkmeister
Berkmeister,You may want to contract Paul Graf and air your concerns. I suspect those C&O Alco will sell out quickly.. Also the Chessie(C&O)GP7s has the wrong style end railings for the 5705 and 5713. The 5705 http://www.trainweb.org/chessiephotos/photos/GP7/5705cs-c&o.jpg The 5713. http://www.trainweb.org/chessiephotos/photos/GP7/5713cs-c&o.jpg I also pointed this out on the Atlas forum when the HO 5705 and 5713 was release with no Atlas reply.
Hi-Ads aren't just different sideframes, but different axle spacing. They've been given as the reason Atlas won't do the C636.
The small print in Atlas announcements seems to be increasing. My major complaint used to be that Atlas would not make a frame that accepted a small fuel tank. Paul said somewhere along the line that they were overlooking fuel tank size, horn placement, and other "minor" items so that more roads would be available. I can address these issues for myself, and probably most modelers don't really care, so it maybe isn't a big deal. Now we're beginning to see wierd little symbols with footnotes saying that certain models (for certain road names) lack appropriate details or phase variation tooling. The upcoming MILW H16-44 is an example. The footnote for these reads, "Paint scheme accurate for MILW "Phase 1a" H16-44s which included different features than our "Phase 1" model." This likely means, in the case of the C630's, that Atlas will never produce hi-ad trucks. Some after-market manufacturer may fill this need. I hope so. Maybe, just maybe, if these innacurate truck models sell OK, Atlas might consider doing the C636 (sans hi-ad trucks) as well. To me, the lack of hi-ad trucks is as glaring an innacuracy as a wrong sized fuel tank, so I hope someone can make hi-ad truck frames even if the axle spacing isn't quite right, which offhand I don't know anything about, but I would accept a slight innacuracy in that respect just to have to overall appearance of hi-ad trucks.
C&O and Reading C-630's Triplex, i didn't know about the axle spacing, so it must be a cost expense that Atlas don't want to deal with for the time being. Too bad, those Hi-Adhesion trucks look so distictive! Curious, but if Atlas did these in HO, would they go through the expense to develop and produce Hi-Adhesion trucks? I'd bet they would, based on the fact that the HO market is much larger than N-Scale. But, as N is approaching 50 years of existance, i would think that N has become a well-established "mature" scale, still the second-most popular scale in model railroading. It should have been out of the novelty or "toy" scale perception at least 10 years ago! It might be interesting to note that when the Reading ordered their first six C-630's not only did these have the tri-mount trucks, but the "Bee Line Service" motto was not on this first batch of Alcos. The other six-axles, the GE U-30C's and the EMD SD-45's had this "Bee Line Service" motto. When the Reading ordered their next six and final order of 630's they had the Hi-Adheson trucks AND the motto on them. The drawing for this run of the C-630's has the motto, but has the tri-mount trucks drawn instead. So i guess that was Atlas' intentions. Berkmeister
I agree. And I think most here could live with the wrong axle spacing if that is the only reason more obviously visible features are omitted.
