Oh man, you opened up a can of worms with this one... So much to list... but how about another run of Pullman Heavyweight 60' Railroad Post Office cars? I really love Micro-trains. Probably more than I should...
I was actually thinking about new items, rather than re-releases. Another is Express Mail versions of the "troop sleeper cars" that so many railroads used after the war was over. They were rebuilt with no windows, and the typical center door from the troop carrying days.
A combine is the next logical car, I agree with that plan. I am very much satisfied with the equipment MT has already released and I have many examples. After a combine I would look for some different sleeping cars like the 14-16 sec tourist cars , the 8-5 single vestibule cars and That said there is a large list of equipment that MT could do and do well. I think it would be appropriate for some additional wooden freight cars. I like their USRA outside braced boxcar but there are other designs also. The Fowler and their clones are neat and would provide some more variety in a train consist. I realize there are dozens of detail differences but I'd be happy for a stand in based on the Fowler design. I would love to see a larger variety of tanks cars as I really like the 3 dome car they did. Possibly a high walkway car 6-10,000 gallon . Randy
A single windowed coach is long overdue and needs to be finished so modelers can either be happy about them or complain out the yazoo. You do know that Skytop Models has several replacement shells for modeling a variety of cars don't you? These are a quick and easy way of modeling a variety of cars that were rebuilt by railroads.
Having trouble with your dumping operation? http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/barry_turriff/2011/12-18/photo.jpg
This was my choice as well. I think they should have produced these long before more obscure models like horse cars.
Thanks for the link to Skytop. I had not checked their site for a long time, and had not seen those troop car shells. But, those shells are not what I am seeing in old B&O photos, which show what lool like new, flat sides with rivets along box car-like panels, and no hints of windows from days past. I think those type of rebuilds would be more along the line of what I want from Micro Trains. Frankly, I could make the Skytop versions from the existing Micro Trains versions more easily than starting with a whole new, undecorated shell, simply by gluing some squares of plastic over the existing windows. But, when I start my next thread "Skytop Models wish you would make...", I have some B&O-specific things that I think would fit their market better than a mass marketer like Micro Trains.
"A single windowed coach is long overdue and needs to be finished so modelers can either be happy about them or complain out the yazoo." I'm good with it either way. If it is perfect, I get the cars I want without much work. If they are not perfect, then I get to buy them cheap for kitbashing and cores. If they don't get them out soon, I've read that Geoff Gooderham is working on a "generic" US prototype in addition to his CP single window car- so there may be an alternative. And I have a rule- if I go to the trouble to build a car from a kit or sides, I won't be replacing it even if I think the manufactured one is better. I suspect that there will be griping, especially over the number of windows, and specific arrangement. I can only imagine MT really, really wish they could iron out the production wrinkles. They have over a decade of pent up demand. I want at least 4, plus whatever number I might use for kitbashing or cores. Combines also a good choice, as well as the rebuilt troop cars (although as Jerry points out, several variations available from Bill Denton/Skytop if you are willing to paint and decal). And I think they might consider some 60' baggage variants rebuilt from RPOs, and for that matter, the later RPOs that had all 6 (or in some cases 5) windows grouped together- a more common arrangement for cars that survived into the 50s and 60s. OK, how about this Micro-trains: you keep making passenger cars, and I will keep buying them. I don't need any more 12-1s or 10-1-2s (unless someone wants to market the "E" rebuilt version that ran on the ATSF), other than perhaps for kitbashing fodder. But coaches, head end, some rebuilt sleepers and the occasional diner or whatnot, I'm in.
I have seen that photo, too, and many others with cars just like it. There are others in some hard-copy books that show somewhat more distant pictures of the cars in trains, where even the the raised horizontal bar-like surfaces where there used to be windows are not apparent. But, perhaps the lighting in those simply highlighted the vertically and hid the horizontally-raised surfaces, while this one tends to emphasize horizontal over vertical. At any rate, the nature of the vertical rivet lines in the picture above and the others tend to indicate that the windows were sheathed-over, rather than just plugged, like the Sky Top Models versions appear to be. I would be happy with Micro Trains models of exaclty what is shown above.
Agree on the prototypical heavyweight sets. I can get a Z scale Sunset Limited heavyweight consist, but there is nothing in N.
