These have apparently just come out. If I remember correctly, they were due in August, so they may be early. These are Athearn's run of the MDC Overlands that were produced shortly before MDC was purchased. I picked up a B & O model at the LHS this morning. Overall, I like it. Nice paint & lettering. A very nice touch is the trim between the clerestory windows and the back part of the steps are painted. Also, the 'glass' in the clerestory windows is green which I thought was a nice detail also. Of course it has trussrods on the underframe and that is a must for my era. However: I think it rides a little high over its trucks, but that may be personal taste. The trucks are attached to the bolster with screws. I had lowered the ride of the MDC models by filing the top of the bolster a little, so lowering these should not be a problem either. It has a working knuckle coupler but it may couple to the next car a little far apart (I should have bought 2 so I could give a better opinion here). It comes with plastic wheels and in my opinion it does not roll all that freely. This may improve with some track miles. It is painted a nice shade of blue, but I may try to tone it down a little with dullcoat. I don't know whether this sceme or the MDC blue and cream sceme is more historically accurate. There were also Santa Fe, Southern, V & T, DRG (I think), and a PRR sceme in white, green and maroon that I would have never dreamt of. Again, I'm no expert on this stuff. I did not see whether the 4 piece sets with coach, combine, sleeper and business cars were in the store. I do like the model I bought and I intend to buy another coach to go with it very soon.
Boxies: You can close the coupling distance between the coaches by body mounting MT Z scale # 905 couplers. This would give you a much closer and more realistic coupling distance between the cars. Stay cool and run steam......
Now, if they would only make an undecorated kit, or allow disassembly of the decorated cars, then I could do a few for the Rutland.
PSG Bob: That's exactly what I did on the MDC Overlands that are my "Home Road" passenger equipment. These were ATSF cars that I stripped the roadname off of- left the green paint underneath intact. The z-scale MTL's work really well for these. Rutland Richard: Don't I wish, too! That was the worse thing about MDC being sold: They were going to release all of the Overlands types in undec. I am considering trying to see if I can totally strip one using alcohol or nail polish remover. Maybe Athearn will eventually see that there is a market for undecs. Or, what if they made them assembled and painted in, say, maroon / red, or green, or yellow - simple overall scemes that we could then add our desired lettering to...
At $40 discount, they look like a good value. I am curious as to what locomotive(s) would look right pulling them.
If these are the 30' jobs, they look great being pulled by a MDC 2-6-0. I bought a set of these coaches from Trainworld for $20 but hey only have two roadnames. These were in MDC boxes, I guess before Athearn bought MDC.
Don't use the nail polish remover, or you will be looking for another car body. Either the alcohol, ELO, or Chameleon works fine.
You can rework these cars into the older 48 and 50 foot cars by combining these cars. Two version of a RPO/Coach/Combine. FineNscale flatcar bodies with trussrod underframes were used with the steps from the Overton grafted on. One 48 ft. and one 5o ft. car. The remaining two Overton chassis were used for these. The 50 footers can be used the same way for older wood 70 ft. cars.
Nice job on the combines, J. Moore. You can use the MDC 2-8-0, Athearn 2-8-0 or MDC 2-6-0 to pull these. The fifty foot cars tend to overwhelm the Bachmann 4-4-0 or the Atlas 2-6-0, but it would not be unprototypical for either of the last two to be pulling these cars. The thirty-four foot cars do look better with the Atlas mogul or the B-mann eight-wheeler, though. I saw one of these at the Timonium, Maryland show, at MailBag's table, but I did not buy it. I, too, would like to see a full baggage in these. I might try the bashing route by cutting up two combines and making a baggage and a funny coach out of them. I did this with two B-mann shorty HWs. Athearn Representatives at the WGH On Tour show did tell me that they would be doing the mogul. I would also like to see an N scale version of the eight-wheeler that they announced in Horrendiferously Oversized. I did try to suggest to the Athearn Representatives that they take the consolidated/mogul body and chassis and increase the driver size and re-arrange the wheels, but it did not appear that either Representative could grssp what I was trying to tell him. TrainWorld also has MDC moguls for fifty bananas apiece, an EXCELLENT price for these EXCELLENT locomotives.
I would really love to be able to buy Overland cars individually for kitbashing. Preferably undecorated but it's not essential. Making the coach car available on its own is a good start. Cheers David
1. I am pretty sure the Trainworld cars are the short Overtons, not the Overlands. 2. The 50' ones absolutely will not take a 9 3/4" turn on my layout.
I emailed Athearn and got a reply within 12 hours. "It is possible that we might offer these cars this way at some point in the future but there are currently no plans to do so. We will forward your suggestion to the Product Development Group." If they get enough queries like this they might realise there is a market for individual cars. Cheers David
I have managed to find the Ovetons at shows for as little as $8-10 apiece and sometimes even cheaper. Bashes using these or using the 50 footers are possible even to the point of bashing the chassis. I just happened to use the FineNscale flatcar chassis which was a trussrod unit. Another car I offer for consideration is the Bmann duckbill roof cars. They are a little harder to find, but still around and have a combine version.
I am surprised that anyone is having trouble getting the fifty foot cars around a nine-and-three-quarter curve. I have not bought any of the new cars, but the old MDC fifty foot cars, with body mounted MT 1023s, mind you, will go around nine-and-three-quarter curves on my nineteenth centrury pike, as will the MDC or Athearn 2-8-0 and the MDC 2-6-0.
