Atlas Master 53' Rebuilt Well Car - Conversion to 2R and Kadee 740 Couplers

It appears some of the detail parts were just pressed in their locating holes in the body but not CAed in place so parts have fallen off in transit. As long as they are not broken off . JMO

Yes, I have already destroyed one of the end grabs on my pink car.  It fell off, I didn't notice it and I stepped on it.

The display car at the Atlas layout in York last week was missing the ladder.

@Mike DeBerg posted:

So having missed pre-ordering these cars, I picked up a couple 3R cars that I needed to covert to 2R and Kadee couplers.   I noticed the load weight which falls between 70T and 100T so I wanted to just try both Atlas trucks to see what the ride height looked like.   

On the right are the Atlas 100T roller bearing trucks needing 3 Micro-Mark shims for the coupler height.  On the left are the Atlas 70T trucks with no shims.  Both cars I just drilled and tapped 2-56 holes for the coupler gear boxes.

One thing I noticed on the packaging of these cars, the end ladders almost fall off just looking at them.  You need to be VERY careful removing these cars for the blister.

Mike,

Caboose Stop Hobbies had quite a few 2-rail cars for sale, last weekend, when I picked up my order at the Hawkeye Model Train Show in Iowa City. They had extras for the Yellow, Pink TTX cars and some of the other road names, all in 2-rail.

They were selling the 53' cars for $95 & the 40' cars for $91 or $92.

They also plan to attend the Train Show in Dubuque, IA on Nov 5.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

I think the 70 ton trucks look better from your photo. My 2 rail ones should get here in a couple days. I can post pictures if you'd like to compare.

I agree fully with the 70 ton trucks.   I think the prototype cars do indeed have 70 ton trucks under them.   And as nice as the new Kadee trucks are, I think the Atlas trucks look just as nice on these cars.