Just a bit, but hey... it's not every day you run into someone really interested in Z Scale online, to find out they are local. Add to that that they know anything about prototype trains too, and you don't want them to slip by and fall in with the wrong crowd, an N Scale crowd.
Robert--His location says Northern California. Since you BAZ guys are in the center third of California maybe he would want to hook-up with the South Oregon guys. State of Jefferson and all that sort of nonsence. We can't supply the decals he needs, but we are having a show in November and Karin, Joe, Loren and I would take good care of him. --Steve from the other Phoenix
Tim, That's not really a fair statement (to transition era modellers, anyway). With the exception of the GP9 and the PS2, almost all of the new tooling has been post 1960. Check back through the releases over the past 5 years for rollingstock and locomotives in pre-1958 paint. Even the GP9s and PS2s have been done in several post 1960 schemes (and they were kind of late transition era, anyway). The rest of the "new" tooling has been focused on post transition era. The 40' PS1 w/o roofwalk (502 series), 50' Ribside (510 series), 50' Ribside (511 series), 60' Flatcar (524 series), 60' Bulkhead Flat (527 series), GP35, and Husky Stacks. The next loc is an SD40-2. The future runner packs are Railbox and Trailer Train. While these items may not be the "latest and greatest" in 21st century railroading, they are certainly not transition era. Even their older rolling stock bear more liveries that are post transition era than transition era. The only company to offer new transition era rolling stock (injection molded) in the past few years has been Full Throttle. Before FT, it was PennZee. And FR was good for transition era, but, speaking as someone that has 70 or so FR 2 bay hoppers, it's an expensive way to build a railroad. So, anway, I guess my point is that MT has been putting most of their focus on producing rollingstock (and their GP9's liveries) to support their GP35s and their pending SD40-2s. The future E8s may be transition era, but that doesn't help freight operators, much. We need a freight replacement for the retired F7. Transition era has seen very little attention in the past few years. You can still see rollingstock from the 60s-90s on the rails today, but seeing a Railbox in 1955 is a bit of a stretch. Dan S.
The AZL car is not a match to the prototype TBOX cars. The AZL car has 9 panels to each side of the door, while both prototype (Gunderson and NSC both) have 8 panels. That's why the door stop appears to be in the wrong location when comparing the model to the proto photos provided. Is the lettering wrong? Well, that assumes that the body shell is correct to begin with. If the body isn't the right one, then there is no correct lettering to put on it.
I think I can clear this up some. AZL went with a prototype car that is used for auto parts. This car has the extra ribbing evident on the model. The photo shows the NS version which AZL is set to release. You can find more information on the Gunderson website: http://www.gbrx.com/PDFtecbulletins/BoxCars60Auto.pdf The TTX High-cube are based on the cars specifically designed for wood products and have less ribbing. Remember, manufacturers must make decisions and try to choose a common platform that can accommodate a number of different road names. These are not brass runs, and thus some compromises must be made. It would have been impractical and costly to make two different tools and dies for this run. Another thing of interest is that it is very difficult to find good photos of rolling stock. Locomotives are easy, but researching freight cars is a struggle. Especially trying to get good detailed photos of lettering and such is often impossible. Rob
