Does anyone out there remember who was going to take over the forum car. I am leaving this week. Someone volunteered but I can't remember who. With the Atlas forum down I can't go look it up. Whoever does it needs MS Office since the spreadsheet is in excel. Of course I could just mail a copy of the spreadsheet out also in analog mode.
Doug, Sorry I couldn't remember. It has been quite crazy around here. I also wanted to make sure I had track of the car before I sent the stuff. I will send you the spreadsheet tonight. Tony
What is the forum car and how does it work? Other than the secret handshake, the special codes and the forbidden password?
William, The car is a "generic" freight car done in a white paint scheme, with the altas logo on the end(s?) of it. There are two floating around, an american one and a canadian one. Its only been done in N scale. The idea is you take a pic of it on your layout then display it in the appropiate N scale thread, entitled (in your case) US Forum Car (or something like that). After the pic you pass it on to the next person, who does like wise. I had the Canadian one for ... ah... uhm... a little longer than I should have but it has been passed on, so it is floating around somewhere out east I suspect. It might be fun to do a trainboard one - it would be in N scale since we are the most innovative... lol (no flames please unless you're from Calgary). There are two critical parts to this, first some one has to actually paint up and decal the little beastie, then send it on its merry way after many have volunteered and given their address to this first person. The Trainboard one could be fun because it would be more international, Australia, Canada, the Brits, New Zealand, etc.
The North America Car has been to 34 different layouts so far in a little over a year. It was supposed to be passed within a week but many people never made that deadline. So it goes into it's second year. We did a US only one since you have to pay USPS priority rates to send it on to the next recipient.
The forum is gone, but the forum car lives on.... Sort of like freight cars for long forgotten railroads still roaming about.....
If' it's been tthrough 34 it should be coming my way soon, I think I' 37 o6 38 on the list. I hadn't been able to follow it lately so it's good to know it's still in circulation. I see no reason why we can't keep it going here, and maybe update the ATLAS forum later. Wonder if we could get some of the old pictures on a thread here so the locals can see how it has worked???? Wasn't it West Coast Don who just started the car on his own? Then it kinda took on it's own life! I remember it took awhile to figure out the logistics of doing this (that's why the multiple cars). It would be cool to try one here on TRAINBOARD , but that idea should be a thread of it's own, starting with design etc...
Here are a couple of photos of the car from, my RailImages album. I was the second stop on the "tour".
William Cowie, the Atlas Forum cars were discussed on that forum, the decals were made by Dan Crowley, the painting was done by Don Gould (West Coast Don), and Tony Hammes (BN86) organized the US "tour" of 47 forum members' model railroads. There was a cutoff date after which no further folks were added, and the car was to return to Don at the end of the tour. It was thought at that time that if there was sufficient interest, there would be a second "tour". It was on its way to Victor "Please make an Atlantic" Miranda when the Atlas forum shut down. Victor has not surfaced on any forum I'm on, yet. I have a copy of the list, and two of the remaining participants haven't been heard from in a long while. Doug A., might not be a bad idea to e-mail those left on the list, tell 'em you've taken over for Tony, and ask if they're still interested in participating.
Here is the forum car when it appeared on the Peninsula Model Railroad Club layout in Newport News, VA in February 2004.
Thirdrail, thanks for the complete answer. Am I correct that someone is now making a limited run of these cars?
There were unavoidable delays with the Atlas car. For example, it arrived at our house the day after we left for a 2+ week vacation in Alaska. So, when I got back, I rushed the photo session to get it back on its way. Neither the car nor the railroad were presented in the very best light. Then I think it got "lost" at someone's house, and had to be rescued with the intervention of Forum members. That may be an over-dramatization--but it does show that tracking the car took more work than at first apparent. My first batch of home-made decals came out far better than I expected! While I can't print white on my inkjet, I can print a very light gray or blue that, under many lighting conditions, comes across as white. Pete
D'ya mean like this????? That is the "unofficial" Atlas forum car, made by Kirk Ervin and Victor Miranda. It visited at least a dozen railroads on both sides of the Atlantic a couple of months ahead of the genuine article! So, a tank car's already been done.
