What did y'all get for Christmas? Santa brought me electrical components for my control panel and some interesting prototype reading.
Santa could not produce a prototypical NCL from Kato... so he sent me a sock full of lignite coal... jeez not even the good stuff! Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
Cars sit to low out of the box, I added one MT shim under each truck and that solve this issue. I am running 30 car train with no issue.
I have a couple ScaleTrains hoppers on the way. I do hope they don't make the other units look poor, otherwise I might have to replace them all.
Thanks for that update sundowner, will go rummage through my bolster coupler parts, Think I have a bunch of washers somewhere.
Vince, Yes, those are the 2 different block sets I am showing as a comparison. The smaller chocks on each block set are for the axles to sit on the flat. After talking with the Hobby shop some more it is now noted to complete the kit only 4 of the small chocks out of the 6 provided for each kit are required. The hobby shop is adamant they received the cut sprue from Micro-Trains that way and since it is an item that is not needed there is no reason to even contact MTL about the product being cut in advance.
Athearn new release Fire Trucks availability on 12/27/18 was short-lived. I managed to buy 4 of the 5 available. Athearn N 10274 Ford C Fire Truck, White Athearn N 10276 Ford C Fire Truck, Red/White Cab Athearn N 10277 Ford C Fire Truck, Red and White Athearn N 10278 Ford C Fire Truck, Safety Green Went out of Stock as it was in my shopping cart - Athearn N 10273 Ford C Fire Truck, Red
All, I received these shortly after I called and spoke to a kalmbach model railroader rep. which was when I received these. Tom
Just arrived, I've missed out on Athearn Fire Trucks last couple MFG runs. Got lucky to get 4 out of 5 this run. These are really well done and glad I had not resorted to those resin attempts on ebay. Would like to get lucky with those Rescue trucks hoping to be released soon.
This Athearn Bulkhead Flat Model looked really nice in online photos! Really Disappointing the warping when viewing this in your hands. The deck risers on one particular side are really bad, I can;t see how I can possibly remedy this at home. I think I will just need to create a load to disguise warping deck risers. This pic is not bad right off Here is where it is noticeable
Can't you return it? If not, I would send it back to the manufacturer and complain! That's really unacceptable. It's not even "slight".
Checking with the online store first to see if other models in stock are this bad. I was shocked material this large was that warped. The MTL covered hoppers I have with the real thin plastic mesh on top (walks) I can see how they keep warping, I have about 5 MTL with that thin mesh (walks) on top and keeps warping, I sent one of the MTL back but they couldn't correct it and received it warped again. This was the newest MTL Hopper purchase with the thin mesh warped but RTR, I did not even bother to try to return this. Here is the model that had warped and I sent back for repair but was returned back to me warped. I did try to use a needle point to apply a touch of glue underneath at the support but the area is so small I am worried about getting glue on the car so I just run them this way.
A common problem when dissimilar materials are glued together. I have been seeing this happen since Athearn began replacing plastic running boards on boxcars with thin brass about 15 years ago. The plastic expands and contracts differently than brass causing warping of the brass piece. Even a couple of millimeters of contraction (cold weather will do that) causes the warping and ungluing of the brass. Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
Kato Soundbox. So far so good. I only have the EMD first generation sound card so far. I will have to get used to the built in momentum.
That is a good point Calzephyr, If I don't here back from hobby shop or Athearn on this problem I may try to perform a small directed heat gun to the affected areas with a slight coaxing on the 2 end plates. Of course heat gun temp and distance along with applied pressure will be paramount. I may still try to disguise poor quality with a load first. I can guarantee these 2 companies specific products I will not buy again. (noting other Nscale items are fine that they both produce)