Atlas Coalveyor Bathtub Gondola?

Joe,

I believe there were two or three runs of these cars.

I have the cars with the green end. they are very nice cars but the first runs had questionable couplers I need to r/r before they get run again.

Thank you. I thought there were some already made. I looked at the Atlas site and only saw the latest announcement. When I used the search tool, it came up with the same (cancelled) announcement.

Joe,

Atlas O has been cancelling some modern winners lately in my opinion.

I have most of the runs of coalveyors from the past and would have been there for most of these in the latest run.  What made this latest run worthy is that they represent the scrap metal haulers that these former coal hauling steel fleeters became.

A guy wouldn't have had to buy a whole coal drag worth of these ...we could have gotten 1 or 2 and called it good in a mixed freight.

Additionally, Atlas O cancelled their 89' DODX flatcars...perfect for - L O N G  -

US Army trains.

Our loss...maybe Atlas O's loss as well...I don't care...I don't want to discuss the train business on this thread or any other...only models.

I wish you and I could'a got some.

Rick

Try Toy Train Heaven's O scale dept.,I saw some there about a month ago,I believe.

Al Hummel

Joe,

Caboose Stop Hobbies had a large selection of these cars (from the earlier runs) in different power company names, many in multiple road numbers in unopened outer cartons when I visited them over a year ago. They still have them listed on their website. You could contact them to see if they have your favorite company name available. But unlike the MTH coalporters that are owned by railroads & have railroad logos on them, the Atlas coalveyers are mainly available in the names of the coal-powered power plant companies that owned them, not in a railroad name.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

I feel for you Rick, now you have a better idea why you got mine.  What's it been since the last run; 7 years?  Atlas just blew it not redoing them like they are doing with the Trinity hoppers.

While they are sorta modern, like shipping containers from the '90s they are pretty much gone in the real world, except for scrap haulers.

Why isn't Atlas doing more schemes on their Trinity hopper? They've never done an updated CSX hopper with the HOW TOMORROW MOVES scheme & boxcar logo. They said they're committed to O scale? Must mean only as far as dollars & cents are concerned.

Al Hummel

Its all about reservations primarily from their dealer network and then individuals who reserve directly from them, a lot of the more recently announced repainted reruns have simply not generated enough reservations to justify a run. BTO is the name of the game these days for all of the MFGs/Importers,if it is being made they know it is selling out.

Joe,

I think Atlas missed with that latest announcement. I have all 16 of the 1st run Utility Fuels cars (orange end), but that still isn't enough for a unit train. Atlas didn't run any more and I unwisely did not buy any extra cars thinking that surely they would do more as they ran more of the Wisconsin Power cars. Had they made a short re-run of the UFIX cars I'm sure that they would have been reserve in full and sold, as many people like me want to add to their UFIX fleets. It was also odd that run one had 14xxx car numbers and run two had 15xxx car numbers. There is, however, room to grow.

I note that HO has two versions of this car. The first was produced years ago by MDC, now Athearn (which they have upgraded and re-run), and has more ribs than the later Atlas ACF model. Maybe Atlas could do both.

I'm not a coal train fan particularly, I like manifest freights and grain trains, but on hot afternoons back in the 1990s I would run up from Arvada along the I-76 corridor to Roggin and usually there would be long stretches of UFIX hoppers flanked on either side by BN SD70MACs in Executive Green waiting patiently for clearance into or out of Denver. Yep, those were the days.

I would happily purchase more to grow my fleet, but would probably trade them all in on some Trinity RD-6 Hoppers if they were available or even those smooth sided cars now available from ExactRail in HO.

By the way, I was able to examine Rick Trinkle's latest samples of his coal cars yesterday at the COSM module planning meeting. Nice! Hey, Rick, when will these go into mass production?

Mike,

I  see more Ethanol BNSF trains on CSX tracks plus coal trains with BNSF diesels than CSX coal or Ethanol trains. I know there's limited demand,but seems like someone would make F couplers to go with those hoppers even as dummies as they run in unit trains.(I know fellas,lack of demand,us modern guys understand,but even though we modern modelers may not live to see it,those days will arrive with E&F couplers with

"shelfs.")

Al Hummel

Not for nothing but that was to be the 5th run of those cars first advertised in June 2004 and 5th announcement in 2013 as we have seen in recent years you can only go to the well so many times before sufficient demand is no longer available for these repainted reruns, BTO, minimum inventory is the standard business practice for  the current MFGs.

My only comment now could be....

it seems like O is all or nothing. You better have a big bank account and grab everything when you can. It all comes at once. Atlas announces something new. Mth releases their's first. Lionel takes a stab at it too. Urrggg.

 I had to go and make an outdoor G scale layout that absorbs all the cash!

I saw the Atlas cars coming out fast. I figured I had some time to get them. They went fast. Only the biggest cars that demand some bigger curves seemed to linger around for some time.

Joe,

To a large extent, you're right, when modelers see something they really really want, they should act. "He who hesitates is lost!".....but financially that's not always possible so we do the best we can. I think a narrow focus helps. As to the UFIX cars, to my knowledge, they came in two runs, not four as has been suggested, two orders of four cars per run. UFIX, by far was the most popular, selling out the quickest as far as I can judge based on how quickly they went and how few pop up on the secondary market. It's true, the others lingered a little longer, at least around these parts. So I don't think that well is dry yet. I just think that few people were all that excited about the paint schemes offered when so many have incomplete sets of the original cars to build acceptable sized unit trains. Now if the "market spoke, I'd like to see Atlas, at least, offer another set of UFIX hoppers and see where that goes, and if the "market" speaks similarly, then we'll done with that model, but you never know until you ask!

I do think that while short runs to fill orders and keep merchandise moving out the door is the business plan de Jour in many endeavors, I can't help but notice that it also results in the "empty peg" syndrome at many hobby stores. If you can't see it, you don't even know to ask to buy it, order it, etc.....and if your can't get it, or nobody stocks it, or the manufacturer won't produce more, many potential customers are turned away and turned off. I know the internet is changing the way we purchase trains and that has had a big impact on the "brick and mortar" stores....and forums like this have had their influence on the manufacturers as well.

And because this media can be so powerful, I wonder how many cool projects were shouted down by a vocal minority with no dog in the fight other than they wouldn't buy it themselves? I can readily see hesitant manufacturers looking for a quick return on their cash getting cold feet after reading forum comments. I'd wager that happened more than any one could guess on the Atlas Forum (rest in peace). In that same vein, many people commented on the CZ project and Atlas really listened to those comments so you just never, ever know. Words do have power, for good, and for bad. 

So I suppose, that in the end, we just need to keep indicating our preferences on forums like these and hope the manufacturers hear....but, as you say, be ready to strike with $$$ when good things appear. 

My post stated correctly that Atlas made 4 runs of the Coalveyor cars although only 2 of those runs included the UFIX cars.

there's a real train video posted today and I swear these cars are in it.

https://ogrforum.com/topic/ns-dash-9-cw-s

I see a couple of sets on the auction site. My focus is too large for my wallet!

Hibar,

Point to you! After trolling the Atlas site again, I came up with a total of four runs as you indicated, only the first two containing UFIX orders as you pointed out. Cudos.

There were 8 numbers in each of the two runs of the UFIX and UNSX coalveyors.  I got 2 of each number of the UNSX.  Rich Trinkle now has them cause I got tired of waiting for another run.  I believe Atlas has done 4 runs of 8 numbers of the Trinity hoppers in BNSF and still going strong.  I moved on to MTH and Lionel bathtub gondolas and converting them to 2-rail.

Mike,

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the 5 Bay Ortners!

Still working 3D printer issues on car ends.

rdunniii,

Thanks for remembering our transaction...I am still very greatful that you sold those USNX cars to me and now that our COSM group is getting double mainline radius...expect to see multiple Atlas O coal drags operating in 2016!

Maybe sooner...LTN...TECO show Fall 2015 even!