Atlas O PS-1's

Yeah, the improper-truck issue is pretty much unforgivable on an expensive car. A real

sore thumb.

I do have some Atlas Master Series cars, but they are far too delicate and have been for years, and they tend to be last on my to-buy list. I gladly will sacrifice some smaller details

for usable robustness. MTH seemed to strike the right balance between sturdiness (metal

stirrups on high-end cars, for example) and finer detail. I think Lionel had many of the Atlas problems once, as they had the same builder (didn't they?) for some time.

I don't buy much any more, so MTH may have gone over to the Delicate Flower philosophy,

too.

I still find Atlas plastic stirrups at trackside (the pulpwood cars were the worst); I no longer bother to fix them - or buy them.

Can't beat the new MTH tooling PS-1's. They don't sell many because the 50 dollar price point for a box car in todays market is simply too high for the common guy.

Lionel "O" PS and X-31 series are the best in the market with non-breakable metal details.

I predict only one, maybe two marketers will be left standing in due time.

Most operators are not buying over priced OEM cars these days.

I believe the bulk of the market for Lionel and MTH is still collectors and with BTO [no inventory] for the premium lines products that get built are already presold. While I do not think Atlas produces products in numbers near the big 2 they have already cancelled a number of anouncements that did not get enough reservations,so they are being carefull with production also.JMO

Try Build To Order.

About the truck issue, they are shown with roller bearing trucks on the website.

http://www.atlaso.com/images/ops1/0514/3004509_TQ.jpg

The owner ought to send in the warranty card and call Atlas.  

I don't remember Atlas, nor  MTH, nor Lionel, nor Weaver ever having a "product recall". Even the issue with the "outside window blinds" on the early California Zephyr passenger cars, Atlas provided the replacement window strips for those customers that requested them, and if the customer preferred that Atlas do the replacement, there was a charge for that service.  

High prices is a fun killer, especially when on a fixed income.

BUT!!!!!  As much as I like all of the fine detailing on Atlas 'O' M.L.S. freight cars, the detail parts are delicate, especially on some of their products, I feel were made out of egg shells.

Atlas 'O's' Trainman Series are just as detailed, having the detailing molded on and are less in price compared to M.L.S. 

If, I see a car which peaks my interest and I can afford it, I'll try to get it, before it goes out of stock, regardless if M.L.S., or Trainman.

I feel, for the most part and with most of their rolling stock, Atlas makes as close to the prototype/real-deal car, as possible.

Ralph 

Going scale I bought my first Atlas high dollar box cars this week.

Less than 30 seconds in I broke the brake wheel off by just bumping it. I know it's my fault. But I do wish they could withstand gentle handling by an adult. Never had those metal brake wheels that are screwed into the body do that.....the Atlas cars are very nice LOOKING....but I see more breakage in normal use. (brake rigging etc)

Wrong trucks and unusable couplers is BAD.

Here is the issue Rolling Stock with SRP's from $49 to 89 are very expensive. The expectation is that what you see in a catalog should resemble what you receive. If you are unhappy then return it to the dealer. This looks like a defect. QA should have caught that but coming from manufacturing not every unit is inspected. Their are ratios and spot checks but inspecting each unit is not cost effective. Shame on them for not catching what appears to be a true assembly issue. If unhappy, call them and let them know.

Given the fact that you paid good money for it I would return the item to the dealer as defective and let them, the dealer work with the manufacturer. As a consumer why accept poor quality from anyone.

Send the message via your wallet. 

Glad I'm not the only one who has done it... I just purchased 8 55 ton hoppers from Atlas and had 2 brake wheels come off, and a few grab irons. I love the high detail of the cars, but they take EXTREMELY careful handling.

Those are not the trucks and couplers shown on the Atlas O website.

http://www.atlaso.com/opspd4.htm#.VQYdDO_wuUk

Andrew

Steve: 

My Southern cars came with the roller bearing trucks.

Neal 

Ask the Train Store owner to check each car before selling them.

Andrew

I fill sorry for you folks. This is not the way to do things. When things like this happen, I question if they even have someone inspecting the finish product. I wouldn't bet the ranch that they do. Sometimes these companies get in a hurry to get the product to the street and that's when mistakes are made.

I don't think that was ever true. And Lionel never really had this delicacy problem. I remember reading comments from then-president Richard Maddox that when Lionel moved production to the Far East and began building scale cars, one of the issues that they spent a lot of time and money on was figuring out how to make scale detail parts and attachments robust enough to withstand normal usage. Engineering this caused some initial delays in setting up production.

I've never a problem with the Lionel scale cars as far as part breakage. All the Lionel scale cars I own have detail parts that are quite resilient. My Atlas O Masterline cars, however, require a fair amount of care when using. No question that they're delicate. I've had to do a number of glue jobs with the detail parts on them. Still, I think they're fine for adult use operating on layouts, as long as the owner knows to be extra careful taking them out of and putting them into their boxes, and handling them on the layout. The appearance of the cars is first-rate and in many cases worth the care they take, even if it occasionally leads to frustrations. That said, it would be nice if Atlas could figure out a way to make their detail parts a bit more solid.

It's interesting to see this thread and complaints about the delicacy of Atlas O detail parts. Sometime back, probably several years ago now, I had mentioned the shortcomings with Atlas's detail parts and quite a number of posters beat up on me for criticizing it. You never know. 

The simple answer to that is the Atlas Trainman line, their PS4750 is a nice scalesized body with very robust ends ,ladder and stirups.Lionel quickly recognized that true scale sized details made the product too fragile for their market,it just became a matter of how much detail scale was compromised to meet the market. Its true the current Mline cars especially the new tank cars require careful handling,plastic will never replace brass as the best medium for building well detailed models unfortunately it is no longer a viable market product for most of us.

Maybe to some degree, but I'm comparing an Atlas O Master Line 50' boxcar and a Lionel PS-1 boxcar sitting here side-by-side, and the stirrups (for example) on the Lionel are as fine or finer than those on the Atlas, but they're significantly stronger and more solidly attached.

I think Maddox's engineering team did a pretty good job.