Morning Everyone. Got some great news for those of you looking forward to our new line of Smooth Side Passenger Cars. As you may remember we are doing the 6-6-4 Sleeper, UP Prototype for the Dome Chair Car, the 44 Seat Coach and the 71' Baggage Car. All the cars are based on the UP data, but all served on a numer of other railroads so everyone will get what they need. We are also doing all new Light Weight Passenger Trucks and couplers to make sure you have great operation sessions. Release dates are still pending, but you better start working on that Passenger Station! Well, our good old F7 A&B is a great candidate for pulling these cars, but even better will be the E8 A and B units that will release during the same time period as the Passenger Cars will!! That's right boys and girls, a Z E8 A&B, both powered and at what we hope will be a very reasonable price. We will be using the basic chassis as the SD40-2 with new trucks, and offer lots of paint schemes... ) Have a great week!! Cheers Joe MTL
E8! E 8! Dang! I better finish my layout WERY SOON! SD-40-2, e-8 A and B! Passenger cars! New caboose? I have to get them ALL! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :teeth: :teeth:
That's fantastic news Joe! I can't wait! It's a great time to be in Z, and an even better time to switch to Z!
My cash for your product. Fair deal? (And I have the cash !) Just for stats: SP Daylight is prefered but hey, even a UP would look good. Think I'll stay with the A-B, no A-B-A this time but maybe a second B. As long as I can get up to 8 or more cars to run with it (you know us plywood plains BAZ BoyZ, gotta cover some wide open territory !
Devil's Advocate or..........? Confusing!!! Very Confusing!!! I know that the people at MTL have got to have a mind of their own. Joe, what is going on over there??? Are you the only person who they are not listening too??? E8? SD40-2? What else is MTL going to make that has already been produced by AZL? Yes, there will no doubt be a large price difference and quantity, but their are so many other versions of Locos that have not been produced by anyone!!!!!!! What is the deal? Where are the GP50's, the GP60's, the GP38's, the MP15, the U25's, the U36's, the SW1200/1500's? What did I leave out??? So many to name!!! Why re-runs???? =========================================== Ok, now the good stuff!!! This is great news!!!! Passenger equipment and locos are definitely needed!!!!! Keep on keeping on!!!! Hobo Tim
I suppose this is all set in stone already... (or steel mold bases) but what was the reasoning behind the choice of UP prototypes? Just because Kato did them in N? Because Fred woo woo woo's website says they are good for more railroads than they actually are? The UP dome coach is UP only. The 44 seat coach is UP only, unless you count the ones C&NW paid the bill for during early City service. The 71' baggage is UP only. Closest otherwise might be the CGW cars that later ended up on the GN. It's not really standard for other railroads though. The 6-6-4 is an odd choice too, given that the UP version was (I believe) one of the less popular plans. I believe Walther's has done the other version in HO that hits NYC, IC and others. But, atleast the UP version hits Santa Fe, and SP and C&NW through the Cities trains. So this is the best deal out of the four cars. As far as making a train with these 4 cars though? The 6-6-4's weren't being run all that much by the time the domes arrived. Kato made that mistake too. The other problem with these UP cars, is that having the dome means that to be prototypical, one would have to assemble a Cities train. Now you're talking full length trains with multiple car types that haven't all been done in HO plastic, let alone N... and will likely never be completed in Z. One would need 2-3 other Pullmans, a dome diner and a dome lounge, a lunch counter, an RPO, another coach of the short haul variety, etc. Heck, we won't even be able to do a "Pike Size" passenger train with the coaches since the 44 seat coach is a Long Haul leg rest car. That means cross country long train, not short local service. Sorry to complain so much at a point where there is such a derth of Z scale passenger equipment, but there are passenger cars out there that can hit 5+ railroads and paint schemes prototypically. Why not do them first? :zip:
Choice Hi Mike, Well, I had this long post going over your points here, but dumped it because it wasn't going to to much more than get both of us upset and start some name calling. I'm a single dad with 5 kids and have learned some very important lessons. No matter what you choose, two of them won't like it, and the other three will start a fight over it. I've also learned to pick my battles, better to retire to my bed in one piece with everyone still talking than having a lot of pissed of little folks in the morning. So, instead of a long, boreing defense of my choices and making us both look like we need to get a life, I will rest easy with the knowledge that I didn't make another enemy before going to sleep. Cheers Joe MTL PS... Regardless, I appreciate your input and appreciate the time and effort you put into it. These are only the first 4 cars, so be patient with me...Besides, someone has to keep me honest and I guess you get the job!!. )
I'd just like to use this opportunity to request heavyweight passenger cars with 6 wheel trucks, very similar to what Concor did in N scale.
I don't understand why you think we're going to resort to name calling so soon! I'm certainly not "pissed off." I was just asking for more insight about the choices, and hope you didn't take any of my facts as an attack against your character or anything. I'm just talking about models here, and was hoping for more information like "Hey, it's no big deal, because every car is designed around a core kit of sorts so lots of prototypes are coming." Or, something equally interesting that solves the question in my head as to why the UP prototypes were chosen. The defense of your choices would probably be interesting to a lot of people, not just me. If I was worried about people thinking I needed a life, I don't think I'd still be in model railroading. :thumbs_up: Please, please don't take my post as a personal attack. It was never meant to be.
Joe, great news! I think I have to increase my budget! In my opinion affortable equipment is what makes Z more popular, it doesn't help the "Z-world" when we only get high price extreme limited models presented. There are a lot of us with smaller pockets. Thanks Joe!
Joe, I'm also glad to hear this news. Also, regarding the new radius track, will it be released in June or July? Have the powers that be at MTL given you permission to state the anticpated release date of the SD40-2? Thanks, Joe
Mike Mike, I wasn't mad at all, just messing around...it was late, I was tired and my kids were having a wet toilet paper fight and we were out of hot water...sorry. Yes, cores are the same and we will be doing additional side slides for more prototypes. The cars I picked all had a number of roads they were used on and that helped me sell the concept to Management. I used UP only as photographic reference since there is so much of it I could get my hands on. When we design a car we try and find a common photo and use that to dial in all our drawings....since we don't always get builders prints. UP seemed natural as well so I could guarantee at least one prototypical consist, a good sized fan base and sales, another requirement. As you know in the world of Passenger Car modeling there's a lot of fudging, nature of the prototype. I suspect if things go well, I can do the diners and the other cars too. Dome cars were a tough call, but I felt it necessary to get the eye of the casual shopper, it's one of those cars that everyone loves to have, and discussions with other manufacturers who make Passenger Cars noted that as well. Being a small company we don't have huge resources, so we have to take baby steps at the begining. Heck, it took 3 years to get the GP-35 and now in my 5th year we have the GP35, GP9, SD40-2 and the E8's in production or in development. It just takes us awhile to hit our stride as sales support growth. Like I said, I appreciate what you shared, all valid points and taken in the spirit they were offered. No harm, no foul. If you have some ideas for the next 4 cars, speak now because I'm putting together the development plan now. Thanks again Joe MTL
Track Morning, Off the top of my head, not sure but I suspect July at this point, but don't quote me. I will know later in the week. As for a release date of the SD40-2, waiting for Ben to give me the OK, but I can say we are working on developing road names and schemes now. ) Cheers Joe
Well, I would think the most attractive train would have to be the North Coast Limited in the 2 tone Lowey Green, but it needs F7 ABA sets to pull it. Oh, you do F7's too!
i wondering if a combine would be a good choice. many railroads had them, but i'm especially interested in the kitbashing possibilities of one. MTL could open up a whole new avenue for modelers with a combine that could be made/remade into a doodlebug. Santa Fe had many, and most mainline roads experimented with them in the '30s. many of ATSFs doodlebugs pulled a smoothside coach as well. http://www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com/m160.html so for several reasons i would like to see a combine in the batch. dave f.
Hey Dave et al. Right now I have to focus on Smoothsides and eventually Corrigated as well. Once we see what goes with these, then I can start talking about Heavyweights, but that's a much more difficult sell to be honest. The first question I get is, "what's going to pull it?" "Why do we want to make a product that relies on AZL or Marklin Steam to sell our's?" (nothing wrong with their's, just not good business to invest in something that relies on a product you have no control over) Heavyweights are early, early diesel and steam, made a stab at it with the E8's so we are moving in that direction. My comeback is to give me the resources to do Steam, but that's too big for us right now given the size of the market and scale. But with time, anything is possible. I do want to do an 85' Baggage car and Combine that were heavyweight conversions with 6 wheel trucks, so that might be the toe in the water? Cheers Joe
