Atlas Trainman?

Oh yes!  Atlas Trainman is the beginner type stuff with much MUCH less detail than regular Atlas.

 

Regular Atlas is to MTH Premier, as Trainman is to RailKing.

Trainman is scale, but not as detailed (few or no fragile add-on parts).  I guess you could say it is the low end of their scale products.

 

Andy

Yes. They are dimensionally correct, but not as much "separately applied" pieces. I have a few of the "door & half", outside braced boxcars, and from three feet away, and weathered,  they look very nice in a long freight train.

They are far from low end  The Industrial rail line is low end  The Trainman line is the best bang for your buck for scale cars

I agree with that.  Which is why I just ordered two Trainman NYC passenger cars a couple of weeks ago.

 

"They are far from low end  The Industrial rail line is low end  The Trainman line is the best bang for your buck for scale cars" I will also agree with that statement. In fact Most of my Trainman have better detail than some of my MTH Premiere cars.

Thanks everyone.You have been a huge help.Nick

Trainman is more like weaver models freight car and locos. Scale sized but not much separately applied details.

I prefer Trainman to Atlas' Master series - less delicate - and with detail that is ANYTHING but "low-end".

Well above RK in detailing (and size, of course).

 

Not that I'm putting down RK or MTH RS in general - I still prefer MTH scale RS, by and large.

It is, or at least used to be, well-detailed but more robust than the others. 

Nick: I just purchased a Trainman boxcar as a birthday gift for a gentleman who has been collecting for 70+ years. I'm very happy with my decision; I think he's going to really like it.

I have 15 Atlas AAR 70 ton 3-bay hoppers and a couple of PS2 3-bay hoppers and they are far from low end. Their level of detail is beyond Weaver Ultra Line, in my opinion, and on a par with MTH Rail King and Premier.

 

My Lionel PS2 2-bay hoppers, by the way, are my most detailed pieces of rolling stock, excluding cabooses, and that includes my Big O/Master Rolling Stock.

 

Speaking of cabooses, I don't care much for the Trainman cabooses. The older Big O and newer Master Rolling Stock extended vision cabooses are the best that I have seen made by anyone.

I  have several Trainman car. and when mixed in with other scale cars and running they look great. you wont regret  buying a few

With exception to the Cabooses. The Weavers are no way near the quality of the Atlas trainman line.

Have a few Atlas Trainman modern bulkhead flats and find them to be very nice. Yes separately applied ladders, more under body detail, etc. would be nice, but for the price they are a great value. 

So how do you identify Atlas from Trainman? I have purchased Trainman cars on ebay. Detail is good enough but the wheel and coupler performance is not to my liking.

Atlas Trainman cars aren't what I'd call beginner cars.  I'm not sure they are any better bang for the buck than Weaver cars are.  I like them both, as you don't need a bank loan to buy them.  I also like the fact that my Weaver cars were made in Pennsylvania.

Trainman cars are a good value in a scale-sized car. They don't have a lot of the intricate detail of Atlas Masterline cars, but they're less expensive and not as fragile. You may need to add weight to them as well as they can sometimes be a bit light. They present well in a consist. One of their best offerings is the 62' bulkhead flat car which seems to be very popular. There have also been Trainman locomotive offerings which, in the 3-rail versions, were offered with or without TMCC while the 2-rail versions were conventional DC only (though I know of a couple of people who installed DCC or PS2).

 

Wouldn't call them low-end, though. Here's my first pair with a little weathering. Haven't decided on the loads yet.

Atlas Trainman freight cars are comparable, if not better, than some of the MTH Premier freight cars. You can't go wrong for the money, especially trucks with rotating bearing caps. 

My favorite Trainman rolling stock is the 52' flatcars.  They even come with rotating bearings caps.

 

I also have a couple of Trainman conventional GP15s.  Great engines for the money.

 

Jim

Trainman is made by Atlas. Atlas has three lines of O gauge.  Industrial Rail which is thier entry level line. O27 scale.  Trainman, which is scale with alot of detail, and Master line, Scale and highly detailed. Trainman and Master line come in either 2R or 3R. Their couplers are the best on the market . For years you could remove the coupler and use Kadees. They also offfered adjust a Coupler , which was a Kadee style coupler that mounted to the truck assembly instead of the carbody like Kadees. This option was never offered by any othe manufacturer. In fact other than Weaver(which started offering metal trucks recently), Atlas was the only manufacturer to give you the ability to remove the lobster claw coupler . The  wheels although not required, do need a drop of lubrication oil once in a while for smooth operation . Thier entry level line, Industrial Rail trucks are just like MTH as you can not remove the lobster claw coupler.

 

 

I have two Trainman box cars.  I have an SP 1951 SAC 40' box car #102199, original scheme.  I also have an SP 1955 SAC 40' box car #103098, later scheme.  They both have fairly good detail.

 

Matt

Here is a video review of atlas trainman chessie caboose i did.

Low end or not (they are) I LOVE Trainman boxcars. I have a collection of them and would add new road names anytime. Running on your train with other more expensive cars you notice little difference.

And that -- along with the "best-bang-for-your-buck pricing" that Ben mentioned -- is all that really matters at the end of the day.  

 

David

Thanks for all the input.I bought 3 Trainman gondolas from a forum member and I could not be happier with them.Nick

They are taking orders for the Train Man PS-4750 3-bay covered hoppers in Chicago & North Western Zito Yellow, IC/CN brown, ROCK ISLAND early 1970's, and Union Pacific centered shield.

 

Andrew