I have several Atlas 100 ton 3 bay hoppers in the new NS scheme, but I have noticed Micro-Trains makes the same car, though better, so should I invest in Micro-Trains cars instead of Atlas? By the way I'll more than likely get one to try it though.
I've been thinking the same thing... The Atlas car is kind of old tooling, while the MTL car is closer in detail, thin end parts etc to cars like the BLMA TopGon and the FVM RD4. I'm leaning towards concentrating on the MTL cars for bottom dumping 3 bays...
The Atlas car is a 90 ton car while the MT car is a 100 ton car. . . or so they say. If you're going to make a unit train I would go for the Atlas car just on price alone. At full retail the MT car is $19.80 while the Atlas is $12.95. Etailers will probably discount the MT car to around $15.00 and the Atlas to about $9.00.
MT or Atlas cars would be the most cars because of the H65 and H49 classes. I would have to decal up H49 cars, but there nearly alike, but Trainworx cars would also be preasent, but I'm planning on maybe 20 cars not including BLMA's AWSOMENESS:tb-biggrin:!
Atlas @ P.O. pricing s/b $8.42. MTL @ P.O. using above price s/b 14.26. Currently there is a 3-pack available of the Atlas cars and we have one or more 3-packs in MTL consignments.
I do what inkaneer said. I use Atlas cars for 95% of my triple bay hoppers. I got a few MTs, but for the cost of an MT car, I was able to get 3 Atlas ones. Also Atlas ones come up real cheap on ebay all the time
I just wish the Atlas cars didn't look so awful sans coal load - that weight is awful. I could use a bunch of 100T 3 bays.
Guys I took an Atlas and a MT side by side at the LHS. same height everything. I have both in a 32 car train, most are atlas but as far as cost? I throw away the atlas trucks and put on 1035's anyway. I get rid of both loads and put in new ones. After all that the cost is similar but you can find the Atlas more often.
I've made a compramise! MT for H49 and H65 cars, Atlas for H65 and any N&W cars along with other companies cras as well.
