I just bought a Pillsbury covered hopper. on a whim, because I have friends named Pillsbury. It's a nice looking car. I rarely see any conversation about ExactRail. Am I missing it, or are they not very popular?
They make really nice stuff, I got there CSX waffle boxcars, the TTX Hi-Cube, the Bulkhead flats and Gons. I few people got sore at them when they went direct. I would love for them to do the Bethlehem 3483 hopper in N.
I love my Exactrail cars, I need to place another order with them soon, they've added a few that would look good in my lineup.
I am a big fan of Exact Rail. I have a lot of their cars, just about all of the cars released but the Vert-a-Pacs. With Exact Rail and the other recent startups, I see very little need for Atlas or Micro-Trains cars any more. You can't go wrong with a lot of the new generation manufacturers.
new generation manufacturers... OK, the LHSs here in NJ, don't seem to stock much off Atlas/MT stuff. I can see other manufacturers, from searches, but which other ones are worth a closer look?
You can look at BLMA, Fox Valley, Trainworx, Bluford Shops to name a few. Intermountain is also a little better too since the usually run several road numbers at a time. Easier to get a train running that way than waiting 10 years to build one from MT or Atlas.
Wow, Atlas not relevant? Are we talking about the same Atlas? Any master series cars that Atlas has done--even/especially since Exactrail has existed--are generally far better cars than Exactrail has ever thought of. Don't get me wrong...it's nice to have the variety afforded by some of Exactrail's releases. But to place them on a pedestal above Atlas...I think perhaps a closer look at Exactail's and Atlas' tooling is in order. They do have a slight edge in the trucks/couplers, but that's about it. There is probably an exception or two, but wow....to discount Atlas as not needed? Certainly your prerogative, but I'd be curious what you based that on. Now MTL, I'll give you that. I really only buy their weathered releases these days....and very few of those. But Atlas...coil cars, 89footers, tank cars...and those are just the era-relevant cars I like...the new 40ft boxcars are unbelievably nice.
I see....I guess multi-numbers are important to you. I suppose Exactrail does more numbers. Not sure that makes their cars better though.
I wouldn't call Atlas irrelevant Doug. They do offer a ton of nice stuff and stuff the other guys don't, But the roof and siding detail on my new Exact Rail far outstrip anything I've sen on Atlas rolling stock. And I got it for under $20 shipped new. It might be time to raise the bar a bit. I'm sure Atlas will respond.
The Exactrail cars I have far exceed Atlas on detail. Thier release of some 17 Railgons have some of the best details I have ever seen. Their RailBox box cars were pretty darn good too. Their covered hoppers are also much nicer. I haven't completely given up Atlas, I just do not seem to see much lately that I want or need. I have enough GP7's to last the rest of my life and the next generation or two after that. The same goes with 40 foot box cars. Look at FVM and the 50 Southern coal cars due anytime now. BLMA and Exactrail with the 24 car runs of modern Reefers. You can do much better with these other outfits because they do not only release 1-3 numbers every 5 years or so (so it seems). Look at all the spine cars you can get from BLMA, the detail on those make the Atlas units, which I don't thing have ever been rerun look like ancient manufacturing. So if you got all the sets released thus far that would give you 60 or more to run. I don't know ho many Atlas did release, but I do know it was no where near the BLMA release count. You want to talk about 89 foot flat cars, BLMA beats Atlas there easily too. The are better both in the larger number of road numbers, and the details that go along with them. Atlas has made a lot of cars and a lot of car types. Some of them are very good. But every thing I get lately from my aforementioned list of manufacturers never ceases to amaze me with the consistently good and the efforts made to make them better in each subsequent run. Back on Exactrail directly though and wander back to the poster's topic, their first few runs were not as nice as one may have hoped. The plastic wheels, the McHenry couplers, truck mounted couplers detracted from the quality of the car itself. But they did adopt suggested changes and dropped the McHenry couplers and also came out with their metal wheels and now pretty much are just great from all aspects.
OK, I think we're probably pretty close to being on the same page, actually. The early Exactrail stuff was really nothing special. BLMA was trumping them at every turn...better Trincool cars, better 4000's. Intermountains 5161's were better. But you're right they did listen and have done a few pretty nice cars. Unfortunately they're now much harder to get, and then I had to buy the correct roof for my Southern boxcar and paint it myself. I'm also in the camp that did not appreciate how they used and abused the dealer network to build their brand and then now refuse to sell to them. So that makes it harder for me to spend money with people that operate like that. My biggest objection was the contention that Atlas isn't relevant. Your argument that you have too many 40ft boxcars doesn't make their newly tooled 40ft boxcar any less relevant...it still has detail that rivals Exactrail and FVM and I don't think you're gonna find anyone dispute that. Locomotives weren't part of the original topic and hard to compare since only FVM can really be in that discussion. And comparing the BLMA spine cars to Atlas tooling that is more than 20 years old is completely unfair...and they're not even remotely the same cars either. The Atlas Front Runner was NOT an articulated spine car riding on conventional trucks as the BLMA cars are. It was a specific prototype of a two-axle TOFC car and couldn't be more different. And comparing unit train cars...Atlas doesn't do too many unit train type cars like the Trincools or coal, but some of Atlas' Coalveyor cars have now exceeded 100 unique numbers. And I still stand by my statement that the Atlas 89ft ACF flats are equal/better than the BLMA flats. (again, completely different prototype so the BLMA's do have more detail to represent than the more spartan lines of the ACF car.) And the Atlas coil car is simply a better car than anything Exactrail, FVM, or IMRC has done....BLMA overall has done some stuff that blows all of them away, but they're the only one, in my opinion. What really hurts Atlas in this discussion is the fact that they haven't done as much NEW stuff as the upstarts who had no choice since they obviously have to bring new things to the market given their limited catalog of items to sell at this time. (one area where Exactrail has the advantage over BLMA and FVM)
We are getting closer and closer to the same page Doug. The Atlas Coil cars are extremely cool car and I have a bunch of those. The Atlas tank cars are pretty darn cool and I have a bunch of them to. Just got a batch of 25K tank cars the other day. My determination of relevancy may be a bit different than yours and that may be at the root of our differences in this discussion. When I look at the relevance of a manufacturer, it is in the ratio of products I purchased relative to other manufacturers, not their place in the market. To be fair, it was not Exactrail's plan to build the brand and then take it away from dealers. What really transpired was the costs creeping up and the only way to keep from pricing themselves out of the marketplace was to eliminate the middle market level so they could keep prices reasonable. The people to blame for that are the Chinese manufacturers and and maybe us not wanting to pay the increased costs that came with those manufacturers. I guess you can blame Exactrail because they went to China, but really did they have any choice since aside from Micro-Trains, there are no manufacturers in the USA to use.
I've purchased several Exactrail cars recently. Usually they discount a couple of their cars every month and I've taken advantage of some savings. They are exquisitely detailed and lettered. However I've found that some of the cars don't roll very freely on the track; my Thrall 3564 gondolas and 50' waffle box cars are amongst the most serious offenders. I haven't gotten around to taking a close look at the trucks yet, perhaps some minor tweaking is required to get them to roll better. Anyone else had any isuues with this?
