Micro Trains SW1500

Allamuchy Joe Jul 2, 2014

  1. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I agree, that manufacturers should get big details like trucks right, and MTL did....
    http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=575923
     
  2. wcfn100

    wcfn100 TrainBoard Member

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  3. jpwisc

    jpwisc TrainBoard Member

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    So close, but still soooo wrong. The MTL version has friction bearing trucks and NS 2202 has roller bearings, which have been common practice since the mid-60's. The bearings MTL used are 50 years out of date. Even in 1976, when NS 2202 was a Penn Central 9507 it already had roller bearings:
    [​IMG]
     
  4. Point353

    Point353 TrainBoard Member

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  5. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    That is the problem of using a chassis that was designed for an older generation of switchers as is basically. Then on the other hand maybe MT did not have the rights or permission to modify the chassis from Walthers so had to go with what they had or incurre the cost of designing a new power chassis from the ground up.
     
  6. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    That irk'd me about these, MTL said they were tooling up roller bearing trucks for these units...and here we are, with friction bearings.
     
  7. steamghost

    steamghost TrainBoard Member

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    Which type of trucks did MTL say they were tooling as roller bearing? NS SW1500s come with 2 different styles at least.

    Got a link to the announcement?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 6, 2014
  8. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    Joe mentioned this over on therailwire. Going to do AAR type A's as rollerbearing and Flexicoils. However the locos are coming with friction bearing trucks.
     
  9. steamghost

    steamghost TrainBoard Member

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    I've gone through the major SW1500 threads and through all of Joe's posts back to early 2013 over there. No such mention found. Any help here?

    Now I know the first look artwork showed roller bearing trucks, but the pilot model pic posted by Joe shows journal boxes. Very confusing.
     
  10. uptoday

    uptoday TrainBoard Member

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    n scale modelers do not want to buy things that are wrong!!!!!!!!!!like a loco with the wrong trucks,body too high,hood too wide,etc!!!its not 1969 anymore!get it right or recall it!shame on you MTL,i am going to stop buying your products.
    UPTODAY
     
  11. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    The WC bought a pair of SW1500s in the mid 90s that still had plain bearings on the AAR type switcher trucks. Roller bearings were either an option or added later by the owners. The SW1500s also came with the floating bolster type truck with the older style Hyatt roller bearings with the large lateral blocks.

    The Timken GG type bearings that everyone seems to want here did not come in the mid 60s.. more like the mid 80s.

    Very often these small switchers were built with trucks provided by donor locomotives and many of them had plain bearings.

    Micro trains didn't get it wrong.
     
  12. PacRail

    PacRail TrainBoard Supporter

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    I understand many of their employees have now requested this be put on their tombstones.
     
  13. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    1434_1259209190.jpg 9182_1254511406.jpg So tell me again how bad ole micro trains got the trucks wrong ? All of these engines with the AAR trucks came with plain bearings, the GG bearing wasn't an option for many years after they were originally built.
     
  14. Allen H

    Allen H TrainBoard Supporter

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    I don't think anybody likes to buy things that are wrong.

    If your that upset with MTL, then send them an email, they normally listen. That's why they gave us the SW1500.
    If your that unhappy about it, then don't buy from them anymore, it'll just leave more for us.
     
  15. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    The NS units all come with roller bearings. All of the BN units have roller bearings or Flexicoil trucks, none have the plain bearings, so for those two roadnames, they are wrong.
     
  16. jpwisc

    jpwisc TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you Ike! I don't get why people are having such a tough time grasping this concept.
     
  17. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    Really want to be confused, the first sets of drawings all showed Bloomberg trucks.
     
  18. thx712517

    thx712517 TrainBoard Member

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    I'm looking forward to a Conrail SW1500. Might be on the old Christmas wish list.
     
  19. mcjaco

    mcjaco TrainBoard Member

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    Talk to a manufacturer, and I think you'll find that only about 10% of N scale modelers care about details like this. Small market share in a pretty small market.
     
  20. Joe D'Amato

    Joe D'Amato TrainBoard Member

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    There was a comment that things may have gone better for us on other forums if we had been showing more, more often. If I remember correctly we had two posts beyond the one that currently runs elsewhere, the second shut down because of the predictable ugly tact it was taking. Details are muddy as I am experiencing a form of PTSD from it all :) If it seemed as if there were things being held back, I don't think so, but given past history, offering up anything in some venues requires a level of risk taking not for the faint of heart. I offered up as much transparency as possible and given my day is packed with all sorts of other tasks than making sure that everyone is appeased at every turn, is fill in at best. All the points discussed were addressed over and over again and each time it was presented as if we never said anything, never offered any clarity or for some been honest. Most of the comments were reasoned and rational, some were, frankly, shocking...given what the product is. I won't re-litigate the SW1500 here, but as I noted, up front at the very beginning, the SW1500 was only intended to be an engine we could use in our sets as other resources had dried up. I made the suggestion that we offer it to the general public thinking I was doing something positive...seems I was dead wrong. It is what it is, we made mistakes and have owned up to them and offered to fix production issues on our own dime. I'm sad that some folks take what we did as a personal affront or a calculated attempt to drive the scale back to the early 90's or some other odd notion. Things happen. For some it doesn't matter and they will still stomp around demanding that it be what they think it should be and for them, I'm sorry. So goes my day :)

    Joe
     

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