Atlas new announcements.

That's great news, Beth.
Nice to see Atlas hitting the ground running with the MTH tooling!

Great news, Beth. From one of the illustrations on the 44-tonner, I'm wondering if there are plans for 2-rail or 3-2 offerings down the road. Hopefully on the former-MTH rolling stock they'll retain the Kadee mounting options.

I'm surprised by the announcement of the new Gunderson Multi Max auto carriers. They're rather pricey at $145 but I'll probably be in for a couple. I have 4 of the articulated auto carriers reserved with Merlyn at Caboose Stop Hobbies.

Yes, this auto rack announcement was a bit of a surprise.  I mean....  why this car!??!?!  I guess the articulated auto rack cars must have sold pretty good and they wanted to follow up with these.  I don't doubt that they are going to be really nice cars but I think to get more of the 2-Rail market, I would have picked a different car.  I would have maybe picked something not quite as big and not something quite as new.  But I do give them points for maybe trying to attract younger modelers to O Scale with this quite modern car, even though I think most of these modelers will end up being 3-Railers.  These cars are going to be some real space eaters regardless...

That being said, what I did find interesting is that they noted that it was designed in the USA in the PDF.   Could that be where the bottleneck has been for Atlas to get new models made?  Maybe???  However, I am sure that this also reflected in the model's price.  But hey, at least it put more domestic work on this side of the pond and it got a new model built so even though I don't really have any skin in the game for this model (too new for my era) I think the price is not out of line for this big of a car that will most likely contain a lot of die cast parts.  The fact that they even considered doing some of the design work in the US, let alone following through with it just shows that China is no longer the well of cheap labor and Atlas is basically saying, this is the new pricing model and not much Atlas can do about it.  If you want nice model trains, this is what it is going to cost as they can't negotiate much more out of the price with China any longer.

Scott

I see where the trucks have been redesigned. I wonder if this was done to accommodate the 28" wheels on which the prototype rides.

Question - I have plenty of Atlas rolling stock, but no engines. Does anyone know if the engines are just MTH products under the Atlas brand or are they a mix of each.  I am solid DCS and reluctant to move to anything else for engine control, other than basic transformer control. Atlas rolling stock tends to be more detailed than those of MTH, wondering if that will be the same with the powered units.

The new engines announced today will have DCS/proto 3.0.  I expect they will be exactly the same as the last run of same type that MTH did regarding electronics and detail.

beth

ScoutingDad these are DCS so don’t hesitate. All the new engines will be DCS.

I was hoping to see these in O-Scale and I will definitely be reserving these 89' auto racks. I had been envying the Atlas HO models of these cars and the MSRP of the O-Scale car is just $45 more / per car for the 2-rail models.

I will likely reserve 4 Union Pacific cars and possibly others too depending on the preorder prices.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

@ScoutingDad

Please note that you are posting on a 2 Rail forum and it looks like these will only be offered in 3-Rail only as there is only one part number given.  It says that the 44-Tonner will have Kadee compatible coupler mounting pads, but no mention of even that on the SD40-2.  Also, no mention if 2R conversion kits (scale wheels and stationary pilots) will be available for these models.

Scott

ScottKay - interesting - this post shows as Atlas new announcements - under the "recent post headings" there is no indication this is a sub-post under 2 Rail. Seems to me the original post might be in the wrong place based on your observation - however I do not see any other objections to its placement nor to any other posts which also seem to be not related to 2 Rail. Any explanation?  BTW MTH Premier engines are convertible to 2 rail and have mounting pads for the KaDees for scale and high rail wheel sets are common. 

From prior readings this relatively common misplacement of posts seems more of an issue with the underlying structural organization of the forums than anything else. If I had seen several posts under 2 rail, 3 rail , etc I might have picked 3 rail. Regardless, the question is still valid in any forum, Atlas offers both 2R and 3R scale equipment, and typically has more detail than MTH. Are they going to upgrade the MTH stuff or leave it alone?

Happy Railroading to all.

I posted this on the 2 rail forum cause a lot of ppl convert the MTH 3 rail cars to 2 rail.  Also the auto racks will be available in 2 rail.   I wish the engines were avbl in 2 rail.  Im always pushing Atlas and MTH for more 2 rail.    If some of the MTH cars are not to difficult to convert,  I may be able to offer them converted, as I have a Pile of 2 rail trucks coming from MTH...

The limiting factor with MTH is the availability of the 2 rail trucks. They only make them every so often, when they see a demand for 500 pcs or so.

beth

@ScoutingDad

I had no problem with your post, I just wanted you to be aware that in case you were wanting these locomotives in 2-Rail (since your post and questions were in a 2R forum) that these are not 2R locos.  I just didn't want you to make a mistake and reserve one (or more) thinking that it was going to arrive as a 2 rail model or others that might see the replies to your post in a 2R forum making that mistake either. 

@Beth Marshall-The Public Delivery Track

Those Gunderson 50 ft high cube cars have been popular with 2-Rail modelers (the Premier line of these cars were always nicely detailed cars with nice wire grab irons and etched walkway on the ends above the couplers) and might be easy to convert if they come equipped with Kadee compatible mounting pads.  You might want to try looking into those cars for a possible 2-Rail option.  This car would be equipped with 100 Ton trucks with 36" wheelsets.

I converted a 50 ft. airslide to 2R but I found that I had to mill out a little of the plastic frame under the trucks in order to fit the correct 36" diameter wheelsets, so they didn't rub.  33" wheelsets might work without any modification needed but this is a 100T car and really requires 36" wheelsets as well.

Scott

Thats for the response.  I know its mostly 3 rail...but i just want to let the 2 railers know whats out there, so if they do want to convert, they can.  Im  also trying to get more 2 rail made, if I can get support from the 2 rail community.  I cant say everything i know about the goings on at Atlas and MTH, but if the 2 railers want more stuff made in 2 rail...they need t let the manufacturers know.

Also regarding 33 wheels and 36" wheels... I know all about it .  I know way too much about actual real live trains.   Its tough enough just getting  the correct trucks made on any model freight car.  There is so much done that is incorrect, just do to the limitations of manufacturing within  a budget, and in some cases expediency and parts available

beth