<font color="750001">My new Ready to run Impack cars are now available, They feature Microtrains Trucks with Lo Pro wheels and couplers. they come in: Southern Pacific (4 unit) Cotton Belt (4 and 8 unit) Burlington Northern (5 and 10 unit) Trailer Train (5 unit) Itel (4 and 10 unit) check out my web site for more photos Curtis Hobbies
They look great! Your links for the BN and all others don't have pics though. What do they look like and what kind of supply do you have of these. I will be ordering soon and am curious. Bryan
<font color="336633">So farthe only finished units are the SP and SSW ones. The BN units will be decaled first thing tomorrow and the photos will be up later in the day, as for the TT and Itel ones, I am still waiting for the decals to arrive. Providing I have enough trucks/lo pro wheels/decals in stock I can normally get things of within a week. Thanks </font>
I am in the process of installing some new mold making equipment, when this is ready, and the production molds are made, I will be selling them as kits Up to now I have been travelling 60 miles each way to use someone else's equipment, so thought it was about time bought one of my own
Dang! They sure look good but I have myself one small(er) problem! I thought they were going to be HO! But keep up the great work! They're lookin' good! Alan or Matt, What HO scale items may be in the planing? Or what is already made? Anything? I sure am interested in seeing you's 2 come up with something in the order of HO. I recently got into the newer stuff with intermodal and so on and for the reasons of a Lady friend got me a Athearn C-44-9W CSX for Christmas... Well I guess that was the first step into another era! So now i'm looking to get some newer frieght trains going to put with my C44-9W. It sure does not look right pulling 1930's and 1940's cars with a 1990's loco!
John, some HO items are planned, when I get some more equipment to produce my own resin castings. Most HO items would be too heavy if cast entirely in metal, so a mix of metal and resin should enable lots more models to be produced. Maybe later this year. Could start with 53ft Spine cars
Alan, May I suggest a resin casting of the deep well spine cars in a 5 unit set? I can not relate to the right name of the car at the moment. Ohh yeah Gunderson Husky stack II or III. Don't quote me on that being it might not be correct but the ones that are low bellied and able to handle double stacks. In any of the spine cars or articulated cars I like the Gunderson Husky stacks and the ones like Matt posted in this tread that are spine cars. In my own words and to my own thoughts some of those cars are litterally ugly in appearance. However the Gunderson Husky stacks are nice looking in apearance as well as the spine cars like Matt has posted those caught my eye! Unlike some of the other ones! I'm also thinking of getting some double and triple autoracks as well... But the Walthers cars are nice but dang the price of them! And honestly I don't honestly believe their all that in a figure of speech. I have quite the collection of Walthers cars and personally aren't nothing like the ones I have bought from Athearn! I've found Athearn runs more smoothly and has no injection molded problems like the Walthers cars have. I've gotten the 75 foot 4 trucked depressed center flat car from Walthers and ended up buying Kadee sprung roller bearing trucks for it and had to redesign the coupler draft gear boxes to make it track and run smoothly and not derail. The thing had a nast twist in the depressed section of the car that would raise the front truck on the one end up off the track, and the inside truck on the opposite end of the car and would not run no matter what I did to it. So I bought equilized and sprung trucks! And dumped a EMD "567" diesel motor on it and filled the motor full of BB's from the local sporting goods store that were lead shot for reloading shot gun shells and then poured wood glue in to it so to keep the BB's from rattling. With the extra weight supported by the sprung and equilized trucks it not only runs smoothly, but only weighs in at 4 to 4.5 onces. But let me take off the motor load off and I would not be able to run the car at all.... So It kinda ruined my thoughts on Walthers cars! As for the Athearn cars and even MDC "Roundhouse" cars both of these manufacturers have wonderfull cars I have never had any trouble with either of their cars beside a normal coupler conversion on certain cars I had to do things a little differently to get my KD's to mate up at a normal height to my height gauge. This is the only thing with those cars, some have slightly different draft gear boxes to the other. But for the Walthers cars and that thing that call a draft gear box cover! A piece of plastic with a plastic pin that press fits into the draft gear box, how do you fix a broken coupler or replace an old X2f coupler with a KD once the covers pressed into the journal in the draft gear? Its almost impossible to pull off that cover plate without breaking the pin in the draft gear box. I just like the design of the Athearn cars and MDC cars alot better for obvious reasons... And to see your work, they sure look great compared to the compition of Walthers... Just my opponion guys... Keep up the good work for what I can see of it Alan....
<font color="336633">Photos of BN 10 unit set have been added Curtis Hobbies </font> [ 16 March 2002, 14:58: Message edited by: StickyMonk ]
Alan or Matthew, What would the minimum radius be to run these excellent looking cars and I see on your site that the price included shipping, is that to the USA also. Thanks, Bob
Bob, the impack cars will go around my layout ok, and the min curve is about 11" I think at the tightest point. The price includes air mail shipping anywhere in the world
