MTL losing their edge?

Don't fight it, brakie. You'll love it. :tb-wink:

 

Thanks for setting the record straight, Joe.
One of the rules of my modern layout is no roofwalks on boxcars, but I had to buy the Northern Pacific boxcar because it came with a hobo!

 

Joe,
Thanks for your comments. I think that it's commendable that MT has kept it's production in the US when so many other companies have outsourced overseas.

While I don't personally buy the fantasy cars, I know quite a few people (including my wife) who do and they have a ball running their trains at shows.

I guess that I'd have two requests if I may, first would be to offer an assembled 2003 coupler for the Kato AC4400's, SD70MAC's, etc. for those of us who keep launching springs into the great unknown (aka the carpet). Second, would to offer the weathered (your best weathered cars yet) Santa Fe grain hoppers without the graffiti for those of us who don't have it on any of their rolling stock...I model early 1990's before it became a common problem.

Again, thanks for your efforts.

 

Joe,

Thank you for directly addressing this thread. It refreshing for a company to come out and defend itself

Eric

 

AMEN to that!!!

 

One of the things I like about TrainBoard: Joe setting the record straight with some straight shooting. I for one am very glad about the upcoming heavyweights. I'll have to wait for the Western roads to show up, though...

 

I am quite pleased about the heavyweights, too. I am personally pleased with how the GN one came out. I would say that it's nearly on a par with my Wheels of Time Harriman cars but at a lower price point.

I may shave off and re-do the mail hook, but hey, that's an aspect of model railroading - modification and customization.

 

Thanks, Joe. I buy MTL when I can afford it. Prices are up, but I think they were depressed for a long while, and are now just catching up.

 

LOL!!!!!
That thump you just heard was a bunch of collectors grabbing their chests, as they're falling off their collective chairs. Yes, that magic weathering dust gets onto my MTL cars also.:tb-cool:

 

I buy allot of MTL cars and i like them. I don't buy the fantasy cars but i can appreciate the reason that it seems allot of people do. This nashing of teeth everytime somebody brings up MTL is amazing. It seems the MTL bashers come out in droves to discredit the only company to still mfg. in the USA. Yes i buy other brands also but this constant harping on MTL is getting old. Just received the MTL and Athearn caboose, both have plus and minuses. I like both. Lighten up guys it's only toys.

Dave

 

Well having been away and busy for a few weeks I haven't been able to check in here.
And just as well I guess- what a pathetic winey thread to come back to!

Contrary opinion about the new Baggage cars abound thankfully, and many a model, useful stand-in or not, is picked up and used. I'm no more adherent to the MTL or nothing group than most of you- if they are useful and nothing better exists- then it may be worth purchasing.

As for reading these threads, well I'd rather go back to my tech books and manuals and software; sad but true the internet seems to have replaced the neighbourhood booze barns as the last great factorial debate centers of town.
dave

 

They are habit forming..I have several MT modern boxcars.

However,after using a Walthers 0-8-0 its getting hard to avoid buying one and of course I like boxcars and as I mention those 40 footers are getting harder to say no to.

 

Yes, and no......

The M-T SP Bay Window Caboose, compared to the exact same prototype offered by Athearn, is very disappointing.

On the other hand, I strongly disagree with the evaluation of the M-T RPO. I too, took exception to the cast-in RPO Mail Catcher....even sending Joe and Eric at M-T an email about that point.... but having the car in my hands I tend to agree with their decision. Any separate part, designed for customer application (like the Kato Budd RPO and RDCs) would have been objectionably oversized compared to the cast-in version. Those wanting a 0.008 or finer hand fabricated wire version can easily carve off the cast-on one and install their own. Most of us would never install the separate part and wouldn't change the position of the hooks.
The "Prism" glass isn't, or shouldn't be. The horizontal effect behind the glass on an RPO is a series of saftey bars designed to keep mail bags from breaking the windows as they are swung into the sorting racks. The depth of the window glass is not so objectionable; at least not so much so to make me want to pay another $10 or $20 fot the car if it had separate window glass inserts with pad-printed sash frames. Ditto truck pickups....I'm coming over to think that the battery-operated light boards beat track power lighted cars with the flicker anyway... and who wants lights on all the time anyway?
The Heavyweight RPO bodes very well for M-T if they can convince themselves that accurately dimensioned cars that look "right" on their trucks is important. They have the in-house capability of blowing away their competition, but seem like they spaz out when Atlas, Inter-Mountain or Athearn do a car that is better than their 1970-era tooling. The answer is not in Z, HOn3, or "collector" cars..... the secret is in Talent.... which they have in Talent, OR in back of the office...in the design department, tooling room, painting and assembly lines, etc... As a almost totally integrated self-sufficient operation they have a HUGE advantage over companies that have to deal OEM with outside factories that speak different languages and may not truly understand the North American Model Railroad Market.
There are things that M-T still does that prove they can be #1.... they just have to do it more consistently!!!
Charlie Vlk

 

"can easily carve off the cast-on one and install their own."


Just once I'd like this statement to come from someone who's actually done it.


Jason

 

Jason-
I've been doing such modeling projects IN N SCALE since 1964..... yours is a pretty snotty remark from somebody who probably wasn't even born when I switched from HO to N....
A No.11 X-Acto and patience would get it off without damaging the car all that much considering most of the cast-on hook crosses areas that aren't real tricky... flat surfaces.
Charlie Vlk

 

I've done similar work, if not exactly this operation, for about 37 years, and published photos about it.

What amuses me a bit is that I can use model ship railings on my railroad, and vice versa, to fill in gaps in modeling.

 

If you want to buy only R-T-R stuff and run it unmodified that's your business, and a perfectly legitimate way to run your own pike. If you don't get exactly what you want from the manufacturers you're going to have to do some modifications.

I haven't done this EXACT modification, but I have modified plenty of other things to know that if you take a clean, new blade, such as an X-Acto, and carefully shave off the mail hook, drill a couple small holes that match up to your wire size for your new hook, and then make your new hook out of some brass wire, touching it all up with paint when you are done, that you will have something distinctive that sets your model apart from others. Maybe someone here has some pics of something they've done much along these lines.

Rather than get sharp with those of us who are comfortable modifying things you can either get used to your RPO as is, sell it, or get cracking on your own modification.

 

Ditto to the three posts above, in reference to the 4th post above.

I've only done one such modification, but rest assured, it is the first of many to come.

Sure you could require precise detail from the manufacturer and pay more. And I'll be the last to vote for "dumbing down" a model's detail in order to save cost. However, the caboose I modified, shaving off the cast on grab irons and applying my own with brass wire, has added a certain value to the already sentimental piece.