http://www.micro-trains.com/ Pictures up on their website Don't forget to look for MOW Cabeese @ $17 6 painted colors 105th Body Style: 2 Bay Panel Hoppers(Wab) Check Special Runs for Generator Loads Zscalers may want the Army Set?
Maybe the multi-color printing, especially the American flag at the upper left?? Maybe it has a load of shredded Pan AM stock certificates inside?? We'll await a more authoritative reply.
Pan AM Good Morning, The price of our cars is always something I end up addressing at the begining of every month. While I don't decide such things I do see what it takes to print something like that car. The high price is due to the number of prints we had to execute...all that white on the dark colors takes more than one hit...maybe three sometimes. Also, figure just to get the first run of images on a car body it takes two or three fixtures since we can only print in sections and not the whole length of the body. There's no way to maintain any consistancy going that wide with it. So the girls will print the first series on the car, box it till it dries and then run them through several more times to get a solid white image. Your right, very expensive car, but a striking one, probably one of the most striking we've done in a really long time. Even so, I wasn't at the shop on Friday (opening day of Meet the Robinsons!!) but I understand the dealers scooped them up and in some instances upped their order! Hope there are a few left for me to get. Have a great weekend Joe MTL
Nice car indeed .. I will be making my own though .. there are decals available, and the appropriate car can be had from MDC .. or even a less expensive MT car .. I don't care how many colors it has .. that price is over the top for my tastes ..
Thanks for the info Joe. If they're selling quickly, then the price must not be too high (free market and all..). While you're on the line, do you know if MTL has considered pre-blackening the coupler trip pins? That would seem to be an easy step that would make your products noticeably more attractive straight out of the box.
I have been told that the proto car is differently printed on both sides and that would also drive up the MSRP of the model. MTL did receive photos of both sides of the real car from one of my readers. Apparently those that hesitated, lost, as the car is already reported as sold out and discontinued. And I haven't even started the April UMTRR yet as I was traveling all last week...
N Scale Supply is sold out. Wow, a one day car! Other dealers will have them but if you are a collector, better grab one quick. Disappearing faster than the namesake airline did.
This will be fun to watch. I haven't followed the MT releases very closely for a while, but it seems like these one day sellouts haven't happened as much as they used to. eBay will likely be a source of some discussion as the profit-takers swoop in to clear out store shelves and start posting them at inflated prices. Does anyone remember the last time we had a car sell out this quickly? (George?)
O.K., I am not in the race for the PanAm car, but could not resist the models with loads. And I preordered that new hopper coming next month.
Trip Pins We tried that, but the pinning machine doesn't like the blackening on the wire stock...gums things up as I understand it. These are made up on a machine we have at MTL that takes the wire, bends, cuts and glues them in strips like staples. These are then mounted in a pinner and driven into 6 knuckles at a time. If we were just doing them one at a time, we could color them, but I don't think we can do that right now! And your right about the price...very expensive, but it's one of those unique cars that take a lot of prints to pull off. Cheers Joe
How is the Pan Am car so different from other dark 25000 series cars with white graphics, like GTW and A&N, is it because of newer mediums being used?
ATSF [FONT=""Trebuchet MS""]:thumbs_up: The ATSF 60 footer works for me. I really appreciate the fabrication date information on the MTL website. It makes it very easy to know if a car fits within my era. [/FONT]
Be careful; fabrication (build) date doesn't necessarily match paint scheme date... The "plain with reporting marks" scheme is not the "as delivered" ATSF scheme on that 60 foot car, which came with the large circle cross (MTL's Catalog 103030 from August 1998). Of course the April UMTRR will have more information... (shameless plug) Jack, I think the SP Hy-Cube boxcar from last month went in the same day of release also. The Illinois boxcar, I'm told, was out in a couple of hours. Then, of course, there is the first Sclair covered hopper...
