New Atlas catalog

If the new plan is for a monthly catalog,will this format follow the monthly product announcement that is under the new products heading?  I would be interested in knowing what to expect since I buy more Atlas products than Lionel or MTH.

How about a clarification for your loyal customers,unless I missed something.

Norm

I think Beth from public delivery track still has her special run Atlas O SP Hy-Cube still in stock.

Norm posted:

If the new plan is for a monthly catalog,will this format follow the monthly product announcement that is under the new products heading?  I would be interested in knowing what to expect since I buy more Atlas products than Lionel or MTH.

How about a clarification for your loyal customers,unless I missed something.

Norm

I checked their website. The monthly products are under the new products heading. I already miss the six month catalog as I like to plan out what I'd consider pre-ordering from Atlas O.

This is an actual Chessie System high-cube box car numbered C&O 488117. Atlas O might not be able to make these exact box cars, so I might order the Chessie C&O 40' hy-cube box cars.

Andrew

40' cubes were Western roads only. Cars were made during a 1966 boom in appliance demand and didn't last long as they were too short.

Chessie never had the ugly duckling series as far as I can tell. All the correct roads have been offered by Atlas through the years. Guess they finally ran out of those limited options?

The 50' car above was offered by them as a B&O 60' auto parts box car which only navigates around long 3r curves.

Buy some of the new road names and the MILWAUKEE ROAD 40' Hy-Cube box cars then weather them realistically. 

Andrew

C&O 488104-488116 and C&O 488117-488135 are 60' long box cars built by Pullman-Standard.

Norm posted:

If the new plan is for a monthly catalog,will this format follow the monthly product announcement that is under the new products heading?  I would be interested in knowing what to expect since I buy more Atlas products than Lionel or MTH.

How about a clarification for your loyal customers,unless I missed something.

Norm

Yes, the monthly catalogs are exactly the same as in the past. 

Thanks Steve,

I hope the big dealers can help Atlas right the ship. I looked at my inventory spread sheet earlier this week and out of 500 freight cars on my roster I think over 200 are Atlas. I love Atlas, they make the best and most detailed freight cars in the market place. They have great folks like Bill in customer service who are a pleasure to work with, and he has always gone above and beyond when working with me to resolve the very few issues I have had with locomotives, or ordering replacement part for those pesky grab irons and stirrups that break on freight cars from time to time. Atlas has allowed us to resurrect our broken Weaver Troop Sleeper cars, and brought new Troop Sleeper cars back to the market.

Having said this, and I admit I have no idea how the ins and outs of dealing with factories in China works, the long delays between product announcement and delivery to the dealer needs to be solved. I have always wondered why the big three, Atlas, Lionel, and MTH have not been able to combine their purchasing power in order to find a way to solve the production problems that lead to years of delays in some cases.

Finally the lack of new prototypes  coming to the market is a concern. I have just about maxed out on the Steam Era Classic freight car names and prototypes that are available  and that I am interested in. We need 2 and 3 doom tank  cars, dynamometer cars, depressed center flat cars, and the list could go on and on. The loyal Atlas customer needs something new to look forward to in the Steam era fright car product line.

Thanks for listing to my rant,

Richard

Do you mean Super Fine-Detailed 3-Dome and 2-Dome tank cars?

There are plenty of chunky detailed 3-Dome and 2-Dome tank cars from Lionel, MTH, Williams/Bachmann. 

If you say the wrong thing they will skip your request.

Andrew

The ICG pulpwood flat car has the graphics of bulkhead flat cars that once came through on the GTW.  Perhaps I would do those.

Andrew

Somehow this thread has derailed. The topic post says - New Atlas catalog. 

Heard today that Atlas is working on reenginerring efforts on their signal system ..the old 21st century one.  Rich Melvin mentioned it in another thread so at least that is something new to look forward to.

I too would like a Master three dome tank car.

Andrew,

Yes,

Highly detailed 2 and three dome tanks cars. The Lionel has never made a detailed 2 dome tank car, let alone a scale one . The Lionel post war three domes tank cars along with the modern era ones are nice, have correct private owner names, but apart from hand rails , brake wheel and running boards have little or no detail. MTH 3 dome tank cars are nice, but almost always come with railroad road names, and  very few private ownership names.

I have posted these pictures before, but here again are example of some freight cars that I wish atlas would produce.

IC side door caboose and a couple of two dome tank cars The caboose is a kit  bashed Lionel caboose, the two tank cars are  brass US hobbies cars, I think.

Here is a US Hobbies three dome tank car.

Finally here is an SP caboose possibly by Brother Love here on the forum.

I have no concept of R&D expenses but new products are the live blood of any business.

Richard

Any updates on the 40' pulpwood flats?  I did a search and this was the latest posting that came up.

I just "Pre-ordered" 2 from Public Delivery Track, the Atlas site says Aug 30 2018 for a shipping date I think.

Bob Delbridge posted:

Any updates on the 40' pulpwood flats?  I did a search and this was the latest posting that came up.

I just "Pre-ordered" 2 from Public Delivery Track, the Atlas site says Aug 30 2018 for a shipping date I think.

They made it out of the factory and are on the water now... along with the PRR H21A Hoppers and the Trainman 50'6" Boxcars.... Probably be here by York..... 

I don't expect any additional announcements from Atlas for awhile.... 

I guess the Golden Spike Club Car for 2018 might be delivered some time in 2021 at this rate.

Richard Gonzales posted:

Andrew,

Yes,

Highly detailed 2 and three dome tanks cars. The Lionel has never made a detailed 2 dome tank car, let alone a scale one . The Lionel post war three domes tank cars along with the modern era ones are nice, have correct private owner names, but apart from hand rails , brake wheel and running boards have little or no detail. MTH 3 dome tank cars are nice, but almost always come with railroad road names, and  very few private ownership names.

I have posted these pictures before, but here again are example of some freight cars that I wish atlas would produce.

IC side door caboose and a couple of two dome tank cars The caboose is a kit  bashed Lionel caboose, the two tank cars are  brass US hobbies cars, I think.

Here is a US Hobbies three dome tank car.

 

Finally here is an SP caboose possibly by Brother Love here on the forum.

I have no concept of R&D expenses but new products are the live blood of any business.

Richard

The SP caboose is clearly a well detailed brass import, just saying.

hibar posted

Finally here is an SP caboose possibly by Brother Love here on the forum.

I have no concept of R&D expenses but new products are the live blood of any business.

Richard

The SP caboose is clearly a well detailed brass import, just saying.

By scanning back through Brother Love's posts, it's also an HO brass model he was going to use as reference for building an O scale model.

Rusty

Thank you Mr. Muffin!!!

Did I miss anything in this thread?  I expect that since  Atlas has no factory they will suspend monthly announcements of products.  Here we are on 9/5 and there has been nothing sent out.

Norm

At the National Train Show Atlas did announce plans for an HO Masterline 3230cf Covered hopper, obviously in their current situation it will be some time before any future catalog announcements will be made. The current postings represent the last of the produced products that have been shipped.

Only ONE of their production plants has been closed. 

Items in shipping containers on August 30th, 2018 are:

O Pulpwood Flat Car

O PRR H21A Hopper

Atlas apparently has other manufacturing partners in China, but Affatech was likely its biggest partner, producing items in three scales. Only track production isn’t affected by Affatech’s closing.

Last we heard in July, Atlas was attempting to get access to its tooling there and move it to another production facility. Even when that is done, Atlas will need to schedule production time and possibly train workers, depending on a number of factors. So it could be months before certain products originally planned for production this summer are released.

We have no idea how much of Atlas’ production will be delayed, of course. That truly is proprietary information. But it will eventually become obvious to those of us who get Atlas’ emails about new products.

I am not going to let it bother me.

I have three diesels on order, and, someday, when Atlas is able to get them produced and delivered, I'll put them into service.  Meanwhile I have higher priorities.