I had purchased a set of 3 Atlas 55 ton hoppers that were made several years ago, from a New England dealer. When the cars arrived, the body bolsters had been damaged during shipping where 5 of the 6 truck mounts broke clean off. I mentioned this to the dealer, not looking for any compensation, but asking if perhaps he could get Atlas to install pieces of foam sheet between the truck and body during packaging, to avoid this sort of problem.
The dealer followed up with me about a month later, asking what he could do help, copying his email to the folks at Atlas. Atlas contacted me directly about the damage, where I found out that run was rift with bad die cast frames from the builder. In short, they wound up sending me replacement frames at their insistence.
Yesterday, I started the process of replacing the frames. The die cast frame was indeed 'sick' as it literally crumbled as I was removing it. More importantly I have a new found respect for the engineering of the cars and the manner they are put together. So many of the underbody detail parts had to come off before I could get to the actual frame. It made me realize just what value is built into these models for the price point.
This long-winded note is a thank you to the Atlas staff: Jerry Kimble & Bill Serratelli, and to Norm Pullen of Norm's O Scale for helping me along with us. I appreciate everyone's effort. Truly first class.
