Reposted from the N Scale list at Yahoo! ***** Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 05:38:35 EST From: peachcreek@aol.com Subject: Re: New N scale Steel Mill kit I`m here in Nurnberg at the International Toy Fair and I just got a look at the new Trix (Walthers) blast furnace. This is an N scale version of the same kit that was made in HO scale. It looks good. Trix also has some open top hot metal cars, a very large (and strange) bottle car and some slag pots. All in N scale. Heljan makes the blast furnace for Trix under license from Walthers and they assured me that Walthers will be selling it in the US. They also stated that the now out of production HO scale coke ovens will be available from Walthers in about six months. With this stuff and the steel cars available from us (Peach Creek Shops) it will be possible to put together a really nice N scale mill without being an accomplished scratch builder. John Glaab ********** Verrrry interesting [8=) Don Brown Tucson AZ
Don't tease me!! This is awesome... I've been looking for this for a while now. Any idea when!?! Blast furnaces, hot metal cars, slag pots, mmmm... steel mill! D6 [ 06 February 2001: Message edited by: Deep Sixx ]
Can you imagine! This thing is 28 x 14 x 21-1/2" in HO, so we're talking 15 x 7.5 x 11.6" in N scale. Very cool, or should I say HOT!
Nuremburg is the annual showcase for (mostly)European manufacturers to display their new products for the coming year. No mention of release date yet. As noted the kit is being produced by Heljan and sold in Europe by Trix (parent company of Minitrix). By way of background, Heljan has been making US prototype building kits for over 30 years. In those earlier years ConCor was practically the sole US importer of Heljan kits, but in the past 10 years or so most of their building kits have been sold in the USA under the Walthers Cornerstone label, although they also make kits for Bachmann. Jan Nannestad, the owner/manager of Heljan, has visited the US on many occasions and this may explain why his many of his kits reflect US prototypes. Of course Heljan produces many kits based on European designs too. They are also a general purpose plastics molder, and can basically design and produce any molded product using the latest CAD and EDM technology and any type of plastic available. They have also produced some N freight cars for ConCor such as the wide vision caboose, 60 ft flatcar (plain, TOFC, bulkhead, center-beam), 60 ft hi-cube boxcar, 41 ft tankcar and 57ft mechanical reefer. The reefer is based on a PFE R70-16 car, the last series of these cars to be built (initially) with a roofwalk. The model, made by Heljan in both HO and N scale, was scaled from photos and measurements taken from an actual reefer during a visit to the PFE company shops here in Tucson AZ by yours truly, another ConCor employee and Jim Conway, the owner of ConCor. Just a bit of history and background on Heljan based on my time at ConCor (1988-1993 and 1995-1998). No longer affiliated. Courtesy post only. Regards Don Brown Tucson AZ USA [ 07 February 2001: Message edited by: dbn160 ]
Well, I hope that the kit wont be scaled down as much as the HO one. In N scale we can have huge industries in just a couple of square feet. BTW, at the end of the day I'll post a review of Peach Creek Shop' bottle and slag cars. You'll be surprised about them. Mike
As previously posted on the forum you can also use the Walthers HO kit. See Bernie Kempinski's Alkem Steel 10 ft module set at the Northern VA NTRAK site http://www.nvntrak.org/modules/alkem_steel.php Once you're there, be sure to click on the link to Bernie's article, which gives a detailed background on both prototype and model steel mills N Joy Don Brown Tucson AZ USA [ 07 February 2001: Message edited by: dbn160 ]
OK, heres my rundown on Peach Creek Shops Steel Cars. I normally dont review stuff but figure that I should because these cars are "rare" (only N ones out there) and very expensive. I sent an email to PCS about what I'm about to post here but havent gotten a response in 2 days. Instead of writing up a long commentary, I'll give you guys a good bad list of things I found with these cars. Also, I cannot say whether these cars are prototypical or not, as I have no clue about steel mills or pictures of these types of cars. A friend of mine ordered 6 cars ($285!) for our steel mill we are building. He ordered (2) 200 ton bottle cars, (2) 168 ton bottle cars, and (2) Kling Pig Caster Car and none of the Hot metal cars. The cars were packed in the familiar Micro Train's boxes and "sort of" wrapped in tissues. Here is a run-down of my impression. BTW, dont bother with the ads, they put the cars to shame. Good: The cars are trully ready to run, assembled (with body mounted Micro-Trains couplers), painted, and weathered. The best was that they added the slag that is left on the openings on the cars. The paint and weathering was very nicly done, but the white faded look was airbrushed a bit too heavily. The trucks were screwed on (instead of annoying pins) and also weathered. The cars are very nicely detailed, including a Gold Medal Models scale brakewheel, handrails, and various machinery that I guess turns the bottle cars to spill out the metal. The castings themselves are well done and there was no flash or "plugs" seen on the model. There are some parting lines, but they are more then acceptable. So far, it seems like these cars are A+, but now for the bad. Bad: Because the way the cars were packaged (with tissues just placed around them) there were more then 3 major points of damage. This was very disappointing, considering the fact you dished out $30+ and your cars are broken. On both of the Kling Pig Caster Cars one of the "ears" was broken (the things that hold out the ladles). On one of the 200 ton bottle cars the coupler was completly destroyed and on 2 cars there were minor paint chips (nothing big or easily seen; could be covered with some black paint). When we did a test run, quite honestly, the cars ran like crap. I'm not sure what kind of manf. they used on the wheelsets however. The wheels have the typical huge flanges (bottomed out on some of the code 70 turnouts we had) of old N scale cars. I guess the only reason the cars ran rough is that paint seeped into the "sockets" where the points go from the wheelsets. Most of the couplers have been painted making them inoperable without some cleaning. More then 4 couplers were applied (with screws) crooked but thats an easy fix. Cosmetically the cars are fine except that the handrails are pretty thick. And thats it. Overall, I'll rate this car an A-, because the paint and weathering jobs are a very nice touch and that the cars are now for the first time ever availalbe commercially in N scale (also my standards of rolling stock is very high). My biggest beef is about either the poor packing or the way the cars were originally packed and the way the cars run. Other then that, I find the cars excellent and if you are considering picking them up, do so. Mike
