Drifting along; RTR quality, Couplers, EMD cabs...

[ScaleCraft]

Somehow there seems to be a confusion introduced here, and I hope I'm not the source.

Roger would have been proud of this thread.

[sarge]

Rather demonstrates the value of conversation. I never understood why some people can't manage at least one unfocussed thread that wanders about rather aimlessly, ploughing the odd short furrow, the sort of thing we indulge freely at the club but never on the fora. I never understood it.

Back to Atlas for a moment, I must say there is a lot of good that has come from them in all fairness. Their flex itself is lovely, those of us who indulge the 60s-90s era have a lot of kitbashing and detailing material to work with that didn't exist, the SW-series and MP15 are what RTR should be.

I've been going back through my set of "Mainline" magazines, a year at a time staged on the cistern of the bog for my morning reading pleasure. What a great time that was, when the mainstream scales suddenly were almost inundated with bodies, cabs, castings, all to improve the breed by ones own hand. That exercise is what puts me in mind of how much could be done today with 3d printing of, say, RS-1 cabs that slip on the Atlas body which is otherwise gorgeous, or a range of good drives that snap into the better carbodies out there that were done.

All is not gloom and doom by any means!

[up148]

Gleaning through the ads & "new products" section in OSR is very positive and uplifting. Lot's to be thankful for. Jay's new rail spikes are incredible and many other new products in every issue I never thought we'd see in O scale. Technology seems to be making it easier to introduce new products......I just hope they are profitable for the makers, so this trend continues.

[sarge]

I for one am very glad to see new building supplies backfilling the losses we suffered during the China RTR bubble. Things like Floquil and Champ decals drying up and blowing away as people bought in-the-box being backfilled and arguably improved upon with new ranges like Trucolor and K4 decals. Old ranges coming back and adding new under new owners like Jay and Right-o-way. Its pretty encouraging for the craftsman.

[E7]

I've been going back through my set of "Mainline" magazines, a year at a time staged on the cistern of the bog for my morning reading pleasure. What a great time that was, when the mainstream scales suddenly were almost inundated with bodies, cabs, castings, all to improve the breed by ones own hand. That exercise is what puts me in mind of how much could be done today with 3d printing of, say, RS-1 cabs that slip on the Atlas body which is otherwise gorgeous, or a range of good drives that snap into the better carbodies out there that were done.

All is not gloom and doom by any means!

The really GOOD news is that TONS of stuff have been done in the past, and if you're lucky/persistent you can find what you want, and half the fun is the pursuit/search.

[Chris Webster]

I for one am very glad to see new building supplies backfilling the losses we suffered during the China RTR bubble.

One aspect of O scale that I really like is how the commercial models you start with do not end up getting obsoleted/superceded every few years like they do in the smaller scales. You take a 30 year-old OMI O-scale locomotive from 1991, add P:48 wheelsets (if you're into that), install DCC or deadrail in it, then cover it with modern paint and K4 decals and you end up with a pretty close to the state-of-the art model.

That doesn't work in the smaller scales -- the 30-year HO locomotive has been obsoleted 3 or 4 times by more modern models of the same prototype. The plastic Athearn or Brass SD40-2 that was state-of-the-art in 1991 has been obsoleted over the years by better plastic models from Kato, Bachmann, Intermountain, Scaletrains, and Athearn. If you're an HO modeler, you end up asking yourself why bother investing the time into modeling projects if the manufacturers are just going to release a better model right when you finish your project?

The really GOOD news is that TONS of stuff have been done in the past, and if you're lucky/persistent you can find what you want, and half the fun is the pursuit/search.

This year I've been able to purchase a bunch of models that I did not expect to ever find and I did not even have to travel to a meet. Buford, Ocala and the other estate liquidators have all been really busy this year, sadly. I just wish I'd been able to meet the modelers who owned the stuff before me (because it's always nice to meet other modelers who share the same interests.)

[ScaleCraft]

Other than the nmra sticking their nose in and changing coupler height and point backspacing (among whatever else they did) my 80-year old stuff runs just fine.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[De Bruin]

..........I've had to skip over many items as reality intrudes on the measure of time available vs. projects in the various queues.

Yes, translate this into Latin and I'm putting it on the very long ribbon at the bottom of my personal family crest.....
Happy New Year to all you folks!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[sarge]

That'd use up an entire spool of ribbon! Grin!

Now my Latin is pretty suspect anymore, but how about distilling it down to a snappy "si tempus, succedere".

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[E7]

Consumer review is not pointless. Regulation is necessary. This thread is doing none of that. Consumer review is pointing out that the headlight slant is incorrect.

I think we, or at least some of us are "consumers", so this thread IS pointing out SOME things are incorrect. What we have established (I think) is that the sheet metal/bondo of the F units through F7 (wha hoppen to my F8?) and the E7-8 likewise, is slanted. The F9 and the E9 had vertically oriented sheet metal, around a newer larger headlight. I am guessing that ALL the lighting was aimed level with the rails. (I expect Sarge could enlighten us here as he had actual experience.)

That is not what we are doing here. We are trying to say that Atlas has a duty to correct it. They do not. They do not even have a duty to read this stuff.

I can't speak for anyone else, but, I don't think Atlas has any duty to be compatible with other manufacturer's products. The merits of that are up for debate. As for reading this "stuff", we, or at least some of us are consumers, so it might be wise on their (Atlas) part to at least observe.

I have done plenty of consumer reviews. I have railed against U shaped boilers and boot-shaped Alco noses, not to mention the lack of taper on the Sunset SP boilers. I never once said the importer or manufacturer owed us a duty to get it right.

Agreed! The burden there is on the consumer to know if it is correct/satisfying or not. That said, I think they who get things correct would have the better sales.