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Post by Rob Albritton on Oct 22, 2023 12:05:54 GMT -5
Hi Rob, How soon will these be available? I will be interested in trying both styles. Thanks, Mark Rob Kluz has them now.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Oct 22, 2023 11:12:33 GMT -5
That’s no coincidence! We designed our coupler pocket to be easily adaptable to MTL couplers. 😁
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Post by Rob Albritton on Oct 10, 2023 9:01:52 GMT -5
And as I always.. I will be accepting bribes... That’s fine so long as the “house” gets it usual cut.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Oct 8, 2023 21:17:23 GMT -5
Question for Hans and Rob(s), Will AZL eventually make 1960 - 70's 40' piggyback trailers and 85' flat cars? There's a ton on content and possibilities out there. Thank You It's a project that I would really like to do, but right now, it depends on sales of the existing piggyback products (spine cars.) I have no doubt that you and some others here on the forum are interested - and that's great! - but we need some more time to see if the market will support another trailer product.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Oct 2, 2023 20:43:03 GMT -5
Maybe AZL could/shold do some type of pre-order so they can gauge interest and produce enough to fill demand. Just venting!! If the demand is there, then we will make more.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 30, 2023 9:32:37 GMT -5
Yes! We're seeing what is possible at this phase of production.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 24, 2023 6:12:18 GMT -5
Scott Better yet If someone at AZL would just maybe find out if they could produce some new shells . Like different road names ex “B&O shell with C&O engine combo .”. They could dump a lot of there GP 7’s and GP 9’s that probably has an inch of dust on them and put money back into kitty for future loco’s as long as it’s not another passenger train set . 🙄😵😆 The C&O engines I have are great little loco’s. I’d pay $30 to $40 for shell added to new GP 7 or 9. Bob That’s no longer possible as we believe that the GP7/9 tooling was trashed by a factory that we no longer use.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 20, 2023 17:39:26 GMT -5
These Frisco E8's are totally eye catching. Now if we only had some matching passenger cars for them to pull (hint, hint). Meteor or Texas Special anyone? Maybe a special limited edition like with the Pere Marquette you released earlier? I looked at it, but unfortunately the Frisco and MKT all used partially fluted sides on their cars - most of ours are smooth sided.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 19, 2023 14:59:50 GMT -5
I guess this question is for anyone that has an opinion: Why does AZL make products with such great attention to detail, but include Rokuhan track in their starter sets? No offense to Rokuhan, but their track does not even look remotely close to American prototype. I would go a step further and say that the majority of Rokuhan's products are "toy like," and not "model like." Having completely unrealistic track seems like a major compromise for people (AZL, and their customers) that are obsessed with "correct" road numbers that you need a magnifying glass to even see? So this is about who does what. Hans and I are the partners behind AZL (and it is a great partnership!) Rob Kluz owns the Ztrack empire. We (AZL) contract with ZTrack distribution to distribute our products. ZTrack also distributes Rokuhan products in the USA. The starter sets are a bundle from ZTrack Does that make sense? 😀
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 16, 2023 8:16:07 GMT -5
Hi Guys Maybe a dumb question.. will the existing Drop in decoder boards from Digitrax als be compatible with the upcoming SD40 generation? BR Boris That is NOT a dumb question. The answer is NO. We are transitioning to decoders that can be installed with 4 screws - one at each corner. We hope to have two common designs (hood width, and full width) but there are challenges due to various locations of LEDs for lights. The older drop-in design will stay for locomotives that already use that design. One key reason for the early common design was to make it easier for DCC producers to support Z scale. A single design allowed DCC to reach our entire product line. Z scale is growing. It is now easier for producers to make more bespoke products. We can increase the reliability of the decoder and performance of the lights with more individual designs. The market is large enough to support this now.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 15, 2023 15:29:37 GMT -5
Have you tested the long coupler with a load? If it holds, looks like an easy fix. I’d try it. Thanks for the update. Yes! It is the same design and material as our solid coupler from AZL Labs, but with a longer arm and a loop for the PA replacement coupler box.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 12, 2023 19:21:27 GMT -5
As promised, it is September and I've had a chance to work on the front coupler issue. Two labs projects are almost done: 1) A replacement fixed coupler that goes into the existing front pilot/plow. This one is different in that it has two locking prongs that keep the "dummy" coupler from coming out of the pilot/plow. It is ready now. 2) A long arm swinging fixed (non-AutoLatch) coupler that can go into the PA truck coupler box. This will let you double-head your PA locomotives, but you will need to remove the pilot/plow, install a replacement truck that has a coupler box in it, and then replace the AutoLatch coupler with the new long-arm fixed coupler. This one is being finalized, and I would appreciate your feedback to see if this solution will do. If it works, the final material will be black in color. Anything else involves the factory and many months of work. Check out the attached pictures. Cheers! Attachments:
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 11, 2023 19:07:21 GMT -5
super helpful guys - thanks!
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 8, 2023 8:02:21 GMT -5
A quick reminder: we design down to 195mm radius reliable operation for AZL. We do have some products that handle much tighter radius curves. The aforementioned RDC is a good example.
Now, I "torture test" our products on much tighter turns just to see what they will do, but I have to assume worst-case scenario for track work and conditions. I'll intentionally misalign test track at connections and put kinks into the track (both horizontal and vertical) create triple "S" curves and things like that. If it runs well on "bad" track, then it's ready for the real world.
Marklin designs their products to function down to to 145mm radius - with some exceptions like the ICE3.
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Post by Rob Albritton on Sept 1, 2023 18:19:46 GMT -5
Rob(s)/Hans: Just curious... What is the "Real Story" with these Reefer releases and quick sellouts? Is this related to unscrupulous buyers that resell on E Bay? Or some type of Z Fanatic Cult, in which members only buy this particular model, while living in Mommy's basement? 😊 It's a Z Fanatic Cult. That's only logical conclusion. That being said, the Cult has a Crystal Ball - and it sees another run of R70 in the future.
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