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Post by ztrack on Sept 3, 2012 10:23:37 GMT -5
This is the month for SP and intermodal fans!  The first SP release is 60’ beer cars. A runner pack and a single have been released. The runner pack is item 90260-1. The road numbers are: 691657, 691659, 691649, 691664. The MSRP is $120.00. The single car is item 91260-1. The road number is 691690. The MSRP is $34.00.  The second SP release is waffle side gondolas. These cars appear with a placard for SP on the sides. A runner pack and a single are available. The runner pack is item 90240-1. The road numbers are: 333529, 333530, 333566, 333573. The MSRP is $117.00. The single car is item 91240-1. The road number is 33574. The MSRP is $32.00.  A new set of CP NSC 53’ well cars have been released. The runner pack is item #90602-5. The set comes with six 40’ containers lettered for Mitsui, Capital, TMM, CAST, Florens and K Line. The road numbers on the cars are: 523137A-523137B-523137C. The MSRP is: $133.00. * Note this set is in limited supply and is sold out at the manufacturer. NEW BODY STYLE! AZL is excited to announce the immediate availability of 89’ RTTX flat cars. These cars feature a die-cast metal chassis, AZL roller bearing truck with AutoLatch coupler and pin holes to accommodate containers of various sizes.   Each car also comes with trailer hitches. These can be installed in the raised or lower position. These parts are under the insert in the packaging.  A runner pack and single is available. The runner pack is item 90151-2. The set comes with four cars with road numbers: 991777, 992680, 980757, 981737. Seven containers come with the set. Six 40’ containers are included. They are lettered for Hyundai, P&O, Maersk, Yank Ming, Hapag-Lloyd and Cosco. A single 53’ container for JB Hunt is included. The MSRP is $169.00.  The single car is item 91101-4. It is road number 991972. Two 40’ containers are included. They are lettered for Mediterranean Shipping and ZIM. The MSRP is $49.00. See www.americanzline.com/ for more information on these and the full line of AZL products. Rob Kluz |
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Post by skibbe on Sept 5, 2012 7:37:25 GMT -5
Couple notes about these cars... hopefully they can be incorporated into future runs:
1) The TTX logo should be white. Not yellow.
2) While RTTX cars have been photographed in container service, this is the exception, not the rule. TTCX or CTTX cars might be more appropriate. Or, even better, release the cars without loads. Almost all the container schemes shown should be on corrugated side containers anyway, so I have no use for the containers despite needing a couple cars.
3) The ride height and the lack of steps combine to make this car look out of place among other AZL products.
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Post by eagsc7 on Sept 5, 2012 21:55:58 GMT -5
I need a set of them WITHOUT the IM Containers as well. Please do a release where the cars are sold without the containers...
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Post by eagsc7 on Sept 5, 2012 22:04:40 GMT -5
Also, the CP NSC Well cars have WAY too MANY wheels to be considered a 3 set(i.e A/B/C...) This NEEDS to be corrected.
The A unit should have a total of 4 wheels on it, B 2 wheels with the coupler on the wheel end, and C having 2 wheels. As an example on how to do this properly would be to use the pin and cup method that is used in HO 3 and 5 pack trailer cars...
Thanks
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Post by catt on Sept 6, 2012 13:45:05 GMT -5
The lack of stirrups and the ride height will keep both these flats and the autoracks off my layout.I can see no logical reasoning behind this mistake.
Tight radius layouts are not an excuse.Z scalers with tight radius curves should not be trying to run cars this long.
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Post by catt on Sept 6, 2012 13:53:28 GMT -5
This is not a articulated set. To be concidered as a set these cars would be drawbar connected and these in the current year most likely would now be seperate cars each with their own set of couplers.
This may not be correct but it is what my UP and CSX engineer buddies tell me.So if I am wrong feel free to correct me. ;D
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Post by eagsc7 on Sept 6, 2012 22:41:21 GMT -5
The A unit should have a total of 4 wheels on it, B 2 wheels with the coupler on the wheel end, and C having 2 wheels. As an example on how to do this properly would be to use the pin and cup method that is used in HO 3 and 5 pack trailer cars. This is not a articulated set. To be concidered as a set these cars would be drawbar connected and these in the current year most likely would now be seperate cars each with their own set of couplers. This may not be correct but it is what my UP and CSX engineer buddies tell me.So if I am wrong feel free to correct me. ;D Exactly what I said... Working for UP allows me to look at detailed characteristics of cars and analyze this MAJOR overlooking |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 7, 2012 13:35:42 GMT -5
Couple notes about these cars... hopefully they can be incorporated into future runs: 1) The TTX logo should be white. Not yellow. 2) While RTTX cars have been photographed in container service, this is the exception, not the rule. TTCX or CTTX cars might be more appropriate. Or, even better, release the cars without loads. Almost all the container schemes shown should be on corrugated side containers anyway, so I have no use for the containers despite needing a couple cars. 3) The ride height and the lack of steps combine to make this car look out of place among other AZL products. Thanks for your comments. 1) You are correct, there is also a White TTX logo, but some of the cars had the logo with a yellow background. See attached photos. 2) RTTX has an interesting combination of both Trailers *and* containers. While we do not make trailers, we do include the hitches for the cars 3x in the up position and 3x in the down position for each car. 3) This is a factor of the trucks and the length of the car. We would have preferred to include stirrups, but in order to make these cars run well, we needed truck mounted couplers. The coupler arm would have hit the stirrup on anything less than 245mm radius curves, and that's just not commercially viable. This also resulted in a slightly higher ride because Z scale wheel flanges are VERY deep and out of scale (but again, needed for reliability) We do the best we can (that is practical) but decisions have to be made when you mass manufacture a product. Of course, we thoroughly encourage our customers to improve on our designs! Lowing the car a bit should be fairly easy, and if you have wide radius curves, it shouldn't be hard to add stirrups or even body mounted couplers. Best, -Rob Attachments:
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 7, 2012 13:46:15 GMT -5
Also, the CP NSC Well cars have WAY too MANY wheels to be considered a 3 set(i.e A/B/C...) This NEEDS to be corrected. The A unit should have a total of 4 wheels on it, B 2 wheels with the coupler on the wheel end, and C having 2 wheels. As an example on how to do this properly would be to use the pin and cup method that is used in HO 3 and 5 pack trailer cars... Thanks I do not believe there is a need for a correction. Perhaps you are thinking of the articulated cars? The A-B-C NSC Well car sets we produced are the three car draw bar units. This was done so our customers could also run them as single cars. See attached photo of the CP units we modeled. Best, -Rob Attachments:
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Post by skibbe on Sept 11, 2012 22:17:06 GMT -5
1) You are correct, there is also a White TTX logo, but some of the cars had the logo with a yellow background. See attached photos. 2) RTTX has an interesting combination of both Trailers *and* containers. While we do not make trailers, we do include the hitches for the cars 3x in the up position and 3x in the down position for each car. 3) This is a factor of the trucks and the length of the car. We would have preferred to include stirrups, but in order to make these cars run well, we needed truck mounted couplers. The coupler arm would have hit the stirrup on anything less than 245mm radius curves, and that's just not commercially viable. This also resulted in a slightly higher ride because Z scale wheel flanges are VERY deep and out of scale (but again, needed for reliability) We do the best we can (that is practical) but decisions have to be made when you mass manufacture a product. Of course, we thoroughly encourage our customers to improve on our designs! Lowing the car a bit should be fairly easy, and if you have wide radius curves, it shouldn't be hard to add stirrups or even body mounted couplers. Best, -Rob 1) The TTX logos in "yellow" that you are showing are simply dirty white logos. The TTX logo is a white and black sticker applied to the car sides. The sticker collects grime and turns brown. But the logos were never yellow as delivered. Now, you'll ask "Well why don't the white reporting marks turn yellow also on the same cars?" The reporting marks and car number are white paint on a black background. It's the nature of paint to "chalk" as it ages and self-clean as the paint wears. So the car numbers don't turn brown like the stickered logos. This has been confirmed by many. You can clean the stickers and in all cases white logos are hiding under the grime. 2) I'll look forward to the cars being released without loads since I don't want to pay for fake container schemes. 3) The bottom of the flat should be clearanced for the swing of the wheel flanges. This would be very easy to do at the tooling stage and allow the flats to hug the trucks better. As far as the stirrups, if I put an autorack (I don't have a flatcar to confirm) on a section of 190mm Radius track from MTL, the couplers don't swing enough to interfere with stirrups. What radius is AZL using as a design guide? |
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Post by eagsc7 on Sept 18, 2012 18:32:40 GMT -5
Also, the CP NSC Well cars have WAY too MANY wheels to be considered a 3 set(i.e A/B/C...) This NEEDS to be corrected. The A unit should have a total of 4 wheels on it, B 2 wheels with the coupler on the wheel end, and C having 2 wheels. As an example on how to do this properly would be to use the pin and cup method that is used in HO 3 and 5 pack trailer cars... Thanks I do not believe there is a need for a correction. Perhaps you are thinking of the articulated cars? The A-B-C NSC Well car sets we produced are the three car draw bar units. This was done so our customers could also run them as single cars. See attached photo of the CP units we modeled. Best, -Rob I will have to get some real world pictures to show you the difference between the A-B-C setup or 3 individual cars. Do you guys include the Drawbars to replace the unneeded extra couplers? I have attached the difference in the different TYPES of Well or Spine Cars. Attachments:
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