New Atlas O Maxi IV Articulated Well Car

For the two-rail sets, do you think the middles will have 125-ton trucks with 38" wheels?

Nice cars!! Great addition to O scale!! While not an expert on these cars,just from the drawing I see 1 item missing which I'll show a photo of. A working lower shelf coupler.

 

I would like to see this color/lettering scheme added to the O Master Series 5161 grain hoppers,as shown in the 2nd picture. They run mostly in unit trains of 65-105 car trains.

Anyone else want any of these items?

How about additional numbers to renumber cars as only so many are run at a time,so we can make larger trains with all cars having different car numbers such as in grain trains,as no decal companies offer O decals?

 

A GP 40 would be nice too.

Not trying to be sarcastic or snotty here,just making my & other's wishes known to Atlas & hoped you could pass the word on.

 

Thank you & again thank you for the great product,us modern era modelers DO APPRECIATE Atlas' offerings.

 

Al Hummel

The model was designed to have 38" wheels on the middle trucks.

Rob, as you obviously keep a watch on the forum I would ask for later model 40' containers with the roof panels / bars and 3 recessed panels on the doors, opening doors are not necessary, at least for me and all the usual liveries.  I am grateful to Atlas for this step forward................. now about those NSC centrebeams and a PS5344 boxcar.

Wow, these are cool. 53' also. Good thing they are not 48's! Not many left out there. 

Either the 48's are getting cut down to 40'ers or 53'ers. What a project in O-Scale! HA.

 

Great Job! Looking forward to any other new O-Scale items announced at York!

 

Thanks for Posting Sir.

 

Dan

Does anyone know the timeline that these 53' Maxi IV cars were produced?  e.g. prior or post BNSF formation, e.g September 1995.

 

Thanks.

Scott K.

Austin, TX

Rob, I'm a steam transition era guy, but I have to say that announcements like this are fantastic!  This is very appealing.  Nice work Atlas!

There is no were, they are now.

 

One of the neat parts of the NMRA convention this August is the tour of the Gunderson plant where these are made.

Rob, Fantastic news for O Scale modelers!  Also, look forward to the newly tooled containers!

       
       


No kidding !

I'm not a modern guy at all. But I'm happy for those fellas that will be in bliss!

 

Great news for my railroad, bad news for my wallet! Do you have an MSRP yet?

 

I want 2 sets of each. Any word on 53' containers to go with them?

 

Talked to the Atlas Rep today and she said they're shooting for first quarter 2016. They haven't figured the pricing yet, but they're looking at die cast frames and 53-foot cans. They didn't have prototypes yet or a brochure, but I left the booth with a positive feeling.

 

I'm buying some to go with my modern diesels.

Pricing will, of course, be confirmed when the official announcement is made.  We don't typically set the final price until we have a physical sample and are confident of all costs associated with a given project. 

 

We'll post photos of the samples when they're available.  Hopefully in a few weeks if all goes well!

Do you think samples will be at the NTS in August?

Ok this peaked my interest by why die-cast?  Multiple sets will really be too heavy.  I have the a few 5 car gundersons sets, couple that with 25 lionel husky stacks and its simply heavy as heck, couplers would snap.

 

Wow its been 2 years since the OMI SD70ACe came in.  Each is 7 lbs of awesome diesel.

 

Some old videos to help me get back into it.  This train was too heavy too add anymore, couplers would pop, couldn't even add a sealand gundersond set. Wow and this is from 2010 when the first ES44DC first started shipping from MTH...

Pitigo,

 

In my opinion I believe die cast for these cars might be best to prevent warping of the well sidewalls.

If they were made out of plastic, the cross sections of the sidewalls might have to be made too thick to make sure they wouldn't warp due to the length of the wells, probably take away from the scale appearance of the car a bit. Just guessing.

 

The only benefit to die cast is for running these cars empty (which is a boring train).

I'm not aware of MTH having any issues with their Husky stacks sagging.

Pitogo! Good to see you back!

I could actually see a benefit. When you get long spans of plastic, you'll get sagging under weight unless it's thicker and braced. Maybe Atlas is going for maintaining scale proportions and figured die cast will provide better structural support.

Trains should be heavy and hard to move.  Just like the real ones.

You'd be amazed at what plastics can do but yes potentially it could be an issue, because these are long cars heavy is more of a concern than sag.  More than likely Atlas will make it diecast.  Brass would be ideal but too costly.  

 

Scroll through these model photos

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-m...ainers-3d-max/683583

Yes and try putting together one of prototype length.

I hope these cars come in sets of 3's with and without containers. If Atlas only releases containers by themselves then in sets of 3's too. I guess orders will not be taken until Atlas can offer a price for them and I hope that is soon if expecting del. 2016. 

Still waiting on the 8-40CWs

I would want this new model to be diecast. I am not part of a train club nor do I have a permanent layout. So I don’t run long trains on my temporary loop. I would rather have a few sets of expensive diecast Maxi-Stack cars than a lot of lighter plastic cars.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

It is not good news that Jerry Kimble from Atlas made no mention of the production and delivery of the GEs considering they are listed as 1st Q 2015 delivery I would have thought delivery soon would be a big news event at the Grandstand meeting[5+ years and waiting from first anouncement]JMO

Anyone attend the NTS in Portland this past weekend? Atlas looks like they have a sample of the well cars in the case?

Here's a link from a press release Atlas published for the NMRA show in Portland...

 

http://www.atlasrr.com/news/08...underson%20flyer.pdf

 

The Atlas-O webpage link at the top of the flyer is not yet active though.

 

David

O-72 min diameter in 3-rail.  36" min radius in 2-rail.  That's not surprising given how long these are. 

Man.  These are gonna be awesome!   Any pricing yet?

Don

Should be early Sept announcement from Atlas with pricing,as these will be diecast cars and the latest catalog shows reruns of the 89' TT cars at 119.95 2 rail [also diecast] I suspect these will carry a list price of over 250 but under 300 just my personal estimate add in 6 53' containers 35/40 list [est] street price 400+/- for full 3 car set and containers.JMO

Hibar, I'm not sure I understand you.  250+35x6 = $460 best case scenario, right?

I really hope Atlas can bring to containers out at 30 ea or less.  Just forego the opening doors and put in 3-per blister packs instead of dedicated cardboard boxes!

I think the $400 is the preorder price (ball park) vs retail price.  

Seems to be in the ball park.  Hopefully a little less.  We shall see soon!

Don

400+/- is discounted street price[best case scenario] containers are a high margin item so you can forget non operating doors and blister packs, last container run in 2012 actually was 2.00 less than previous run in 2010 still 27.95 newly tooled 53' containers assuming they offer both styles they have made in HO at least 15-20% more. Don't get me wrong like everybody else would love to see lowest possible prices but given the current level of detail in the Masterline Trinity cars I am not that optimistic for lower pricing.again JMO

I just pulled out my July-December paper catalog from Atlas O.  No picture of a well car. So was it in an earlier catalog or how do they plan to market these?

You haven't missed anything.  Atlas-O has yet to OFFICIALLY "announce" these cars.  They previewed them with a flyer at April 2015 York, and there's been buzz about the cars and new 53' containers ever since.  Big disappointment when the July-December all-scales catalog was just published... and no sign of the new Well cars.  Certainly not a good move on Atlas-O's part, and  I'm sure they took a lot of heat for that.  So now the latest word on the street is the official announcement for these cars and accompanying containers is "slated" for September.  Let's hope!!!

 

"Slated" is one of those legal wiggle words that corporate lawyers insist on in press releases -- in other words, "slated to be announced" rather than "will be announced".     Somebody posted a picture from the recent Portland NMRA event, and it would appear the Atlas-O booth may have had a set of these cars on display.  Hopefully somebody can confirm that.  If so, then a September announcement seems more likely now.

 

Until then, neither the cars nor their containers haven't been officially announced -- nor has there been official word on MSRP pricing.

 

David

That is indeed one huge understatement!!!    Even at price-points for the 40/45' containers, Atlas-O had to be raking in a TON of $$$$ on those chunks of plastic -- detailed door hardware or not.  Talk about filling up one's SUV with a bunch of these and not having much to show for the dollars spent!!!  You'd be crying all the way home, given the containers will likely be the worst price/performing item we've seen in quite some time.   

 

We can only imagine pricing for the new 53' containers will increase accordingly.    But perhaps Atlas-O will prove us all wrong.  (Although I wouldn't bet on it.)

 

David