New Atlas Freight Cars

Will there be loads, like lumber, for the flats?

@GregK posted:

Will there be loads, like lumber, for the flats?

There will be wrapped lumber loads.  The factory wasn't able to complete those in time for the show.

Still waiting for the 85’ trash cars and tropicana cars

How about some opera window lumber cars for the future?

@Paul Graf posted:

We are pleased to announce two all new freight cars.  The 73' Center Partition Flat, and the PS5344 box car.  Details are in the new catalog and on our website.

Paul,

Thanks for offering the 73’, Center Divider cars as Master cars, of diecast make. I will be reserving all 4 of the TTX cars.

When I first read your announcement, I was concerned that these might be the former MTH Premier, plastic cars but was relieved to learn from the Atlas website that these would be diecast, Master cars.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Nice! Is the new catalog online yet?

@Stinky1 posted:

Nice! Is the new catalog online yet?

Yes, it is up now.

@Paul Graf posted:

We are pleased to announce two all new freight cars.  The 73' Center Partition Flat, and the PS5344 box car.  Details are in the new catalog and on our website.

I have been waiting for the Center Partition  cars and the Tropicana  cars in O scale. One down, One to go.

Nice job on the center beam

In the future, 85' trash train cars would be nice

@Paul Graf posted:

We are pleased to announce two all new freight cars.  The 73' Center Partition Flat, and the PS5344 box car.  Details are in the new catalog and on our website.

Paul, these are both very satisfying releases.   We've been asking for the 73' center partition flats since you brought them out in HO.  I'll be investing fairly heavily in the first release schemes, and hope you put IC, GTW, WC in future releases.   I'm excited by this release and while these are just announced I am hoping you'll do the spine cars and modern reefers down the line!   Both would be fantastic sellers, and you could expand the trailer line as well.

One question I have and noticed from the new catalog, could you provide more details on the included loads for the 73' center partition cars?

Did I read that the Premier car will now have actual roller bearing trucks?

@Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

Did I read that the Premier car will now have actual roller bearing trucks?

Chris, great catch...   Nice upgrade Atlas! From Page 21 of the new catalog.

@Mike DeBerg posted:

One question I have and noticed from the new catalog, could you provide more details on the included loads for the 73' center partition cars?

There will be removable pieces for the loads that will be printed as wrapped lumber.  There are small steel pieces embedded in the deck, and the loads will have small magnets to hold them in place.  These are still under development.  As soon as we can show something, we will.

@Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

Did I read that the Premier car will now have actual roller bearing trucks?

Yes, we tooled new trucks that will fit the Premier product line. These will have the same thinner profile frames as the Master series cars, but the bolster will work with the Premier mounts.

@naveenrajan posted:

Paul,

Thanks for offering the 73’, Center Divider cars as Master cars, of diecast make. I will be reserving all 4 of the TTX cars.

When I first read your announcement, I was concerned that these might be the former MTH Premier, plastic cars but was relieved to learn from the Atlas website that these would be diecast, Master cars.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Naveen,

Both of these cars are completely new tooling. 

@Paul Graf posted:

Yes, we tooled new trucks that will fit the Premier product line. These will have the same thinner profile frames as the Master series cars, but the bolster will work with the Premier mounts.

Terrific. I’ve been swapping trucks on the premier cars, and it’s been costing a bunch. This is great to hear.

Excellent!

@Paul Graf posted:

There will be removable pieces for the loads that will be printed as wrapped lumber.  There are small steel pieces embedded in the deck, and the loads will have small magnets to hold them in place.  These are still under development.  As soon as we can show something, we will.

Will each road name have a different wrapping? For example, will BNSF have a different "company" than TTX?

The PS 5344 box cars in the Texas Mexican Railway scheme is a great idea.

Andrew

You would be able to make the center partition flat cars out of flat sheets of steel that are laser cut then laser welded together in several layers.

Andrew

Will the wrapped loads have names like Georgia Pacific, CanFor, Weyerhauser, etc? It's exciting and encouraging to see Atlas investing in new Master and Premier tooling for the modern modeler.

I'll be ordering 2-4 of the PS5344 boxcars and 4-6 of the '73 flat cars. I can see spine cars and and an expanded lineup of more modern freight cars in the future. The Gunderson Maxi IV well cars and Multi-Max auto carriers were a nice start. Don't forget about the Gunderson Twin Stacks! These haven't been done in quite awhile.

@Paul Graf this is a great announcement! I’m really looking forward to these. For the centerbeam cars, it might be nice if the loads are sold separately so that customers can mix and match to their delight. As an example, I’m imagining a train of multiple roadnames leaving a factory loaded with all the same type of load. Alternatively, it could be the same roadname delivering a variety of different building supply loads to a local distributor. This is just a suggestion.