Finally we have a shipment of our 3 car DTTX 53´ Well Container set. Over the months to come we will be releasing different paint schemes and roadnumbers with an exiting mix of 53`, 48´and 40´ribbed containers. Single units will also be available. We hope to post photos next week and start delivery the week after.
A little more information: The Shippment is due at our office on Monday. We are trying hard to make pre-holiday customer deliveries. Pricing and products details will follow in a couple of days. Merry Christmas! -Rob(A) AZL
Here is more information on the release. We just received the above photo from AZL. The first release will be a runner pack and single of DTTX Thralls. The runner pack is item 90601-1. It contains three Thralls with a mix of 48' and 53' containers. The car road number and containers are: 620549A-620549B-620549C (53 Schneider-48 Genstar-53 Hub-48 Con-Quest-53 National Fast Freight-48 Santa Fe. The MSRP for this set is $133.00. The single car is a DTTX with road number 620585. The containers are: 53 National Fast Freight and 48 Santa Fe. The car is item 91601-1 and the MSRP is $46.00. At this time, we are still waiting for the shipments to arrive. We will be sending out dealer pre-orders as soon as we have the cars in stock. Rob K
Opportunity Presents Itself!!!! Awesome!!!!! Been waiting for these for quite a long time. The wellcars look fantastic!!! The containers look fantastic!!! I want to Thank Hans and Rob A. for this much needed release in Z> --------------------------------------------------------------- Prototypicality!!! The DTTX 620549 is a three Drawbar'd unit that is 229'-6" in length built by National Steel Car in 2000. TTX purchased 1022 of the "three drawbar 53' units" from National Steel Car. They were built between 1999 - 2001. All Drawbar units are numbered starting with 620000 to 621021. TTX purchased 3090 of the "single 53' units" by National Steel Car. They were built between 2002 - 2003. All Single units are numbered starting with 655000 to 658089. --------------------------------------------------------------- After consulting with my Intermodal sources to obtain the above info, looks like I will be doing some decal mods for the single units. Also will be making some actual drawbars to couple the units together. Stay Tuned for a future "How To" for those who want to also drawbar their units. I'm already devising a simple means to attach each car as opposed to the classic 48' Thrall drawbar or MTL Gunderson Husky Drawbar "How To" found here in Trainboard. --------------------------------------------------------------- Container Choices!!! Although all of these containers are needed, the difference in years as to when they were actually seen on the railroads is spanning 10+ years. Personally I have never seen a Con Quest container but believe them to be late 1990 containers maybe early 2000's. It has been 10+ years since I seen a Santa Fe container. The green HUB containers are less than 3 years old, maybe less than 2. The Schneider National, JB Hunt have been around for many years. I have seen the Genstar in red but cannot guess when they came about, at least within last 5 years. --Being I model about 2005 to 2008/9 looks like I will be doing a few re-paints on some of these containers to better represent my era of modeling or possibly some container swapping with fellow Z scalers. All in all everything about this release is GREAT!!!! * we needed a 53' wellcar * we needed a 48' container * we need a variety of container paint schemes to choose from. [all railroads carry different containers] Hobo Tim
The well cars did in fact arrive from the factory this morning, and they have been forwarded for distribution. They were sent to Ztrack overnight, so I hope delers will have some by the end of the week. They look really good. This is a little more expensive car than normal, but the level of detail on the containers and cars is crazy. We really pushed the envelope on the containers. Good photography with these cars will make you layout look like HO or better. Happy Holidays! -Rob(A) AZL
I can see by the photo the level of detail on the containers, great job and I look forward to getting them just in time for christmas... Will the containers be available seperatly? Thanks Mike..
Hans & Rob, These look fantastic. Been looking forward to seeing this model. And I hope we'll see more than just TTX in the future. But As Robert's signatures says, "see it, get it, for tomorrow it will be gone!" So I'll be ordering mine. BTW Tim, I think your intermodal source(s) need updating. Single units are up to at least 659875.
I just ordered my sets. Fantastic car but like Tim said you have containers in this set that were off the rails before these well cars were even built.
Thank you But of course they are, at least. My source is a compiled list of near every well car by roadnumber that was produced to about 2005/2006. Anything beyond that I open for debate or photograph(which you provided). MY MAIN POINT WAS that AZL has released a single in a drawbar roadnumber. Something those with ALPS printers can fix. I was being very suttle with my approach to the issue but you have just blown it clean out of the water. Knowingly or unknowingly! Cat's out of the bag folkZ. Hobo Tim
Yeah, the container choices are really odd. Maybe the next release could just be empty cars? We're paying a lot for containers we might not need in this release, so I only bought one of each.
Modeled after...... AZL has claimed that they modeled the containers after no certain version having been or currently built, just the fact that they have rib sides. (if you are a member of the Yahoo Z_Intermodal group you would have read this in a posted message) Here is a little bit of fact for you! My only interest in AZL's containers, at this time, are the 53' Schneider National and the JB Hunt containers. Are they prototypical in every aspect? I don't know and don't care, just that the era modeling I do has a majority of them in it. As far as roadnumbers on the wellcars, that is a bit of a different story. I have an ALPS printer and can change a roadnumber with ease. As far as re-painting the unwanted containers into Wanted Containers, that will come later or as stated yesterday, I'll happily swap them with other modelers who want them. Any takers? Wanna trade me your 53' Schneider National and JB Hunt containers for my 48' Santa Fe, Genstar, ConQuest or 53' HUB containers????????? Let me know!!!!! Hobo Tim
Hi Tim, Yes, we are aware that the road numberes released were part of a draw bar trio. In fact we considered including the draw bars in the package for more advanced modelers, but the project was so very delayed that we did not want to cause another 3 month wait while the draw bars were being produced. At the end of the day, we decided that it was not that had for people to add their own draw bars if they want them, and many folks prefer to easily couple up the cars for storage, normal use, etc. As for the containers: yes it is an "interesting" mix! Lots of folks model various eras - some more modern, some older, so we produced a little of each. We probably should have done a better job picking which containers went in each set, but honestly we made the decision in a Lounge in Seoul Korea one night while completely jet lagged and after more than a few beers. I'm lucky I found my hotel room! Cheers! -Rob(A) AZL
I tell you guys, no one is ever freakin happy. You should all go into the small volume manufacturing business. If you don't like it, don't buy it (or adapt it like some do). Jees. This is the kind of stuff that scares off new manufacturers. I, could say that I don't like a lot of the small manufacturers where they try to make their own casting, machining or etched brass parts to emulate the real proto but its not close. To me, even farther off than the manufacturers that put great detail into their parts but have a wrong window, railing, lettering, placement, etc. but I buy them too because, well just because. Maybe the uniqueness, sometimes just to say thanks for the hard work. I love the mix of containers and I'm glad I have something else to run in my string of IM's from MTL, FR, Tim and now AZL. Variety is the spice of life for me, besides the joy of just running trains. (I sleep better knowing I ran trains, not that it was the wrong one with the wrong that). .
I'd like to counter that doing it right doesn't cost more money, and those that don't care, still won't care if the containers are of the proper era. Doing it non-prototypical will cost sales from the "rivet counters". Yes, others will still buy them, but you're missing part of the market. Doing it prototypical you get the whole market. And if we don't say anything now, how can AZL improve their research for the next round?
Here is the AH MEN chorus for the ending from the choir. I also think Rob(A) has it right if you want em draw barred most of us can figure that out and would rather have the car now than later. my penny's worth cheerz Garth
AZL UPDATE First, the runner packs (90601-1) of DTTX well cars are now sold out at the distributor. The final sets will be shipping to dealers tomorrow. The single DTTX cars (91601-1) have been held back by AZL. AZL has discovered a printing error that was deemed unacceptable for release. These single cars are being shipped back to the manufacturer for correction. We apologize for getting hopes up on these cars, but the error was one AZL could not overlook. Due to the huge demand, AZL has decided to release immediately the nest set and single of the 53' well cars. Here is one for our Canadian friends! The runner pack contains three cars and four different containers, including Canadian tire, SeaLand, CP, Hub Group, Genstar and TOTE. The runner pack is item 90602-1. The MSRP is $133.00. A single car is also being released. The road number on the car is different from the runner pack, but the containers do match ones in the set. The single car is item 91602-1. The MSRP is $46.00. Shipment of these cars to dealers will begin tomorrow. Supplies of the sets are very limited. Rob
