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Post by scanrail on Jul 1, 2019 14:49:01 GMT -5
It may not be related directly to the topic, but following cwrr's question, I would be happy to hear from AZL: when will the Electric Era finally come to Z scale? I don't even want to name specific models, please can anybody tell - when will we see at least anything electric here? Despite I'm Z scale fan since 2006, I assume that I may not understand priorities of US model railroaders too deeply (just because I'm from Europe), but the fact still surprises me: during last 10 years AZL produced a countless number of different locomotives and cars (importance of which beyond any doubts), but there is still no place among them all for any electric rolling stock unit! Alex  |
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Post by ztrack on Jul 1, 2019 17:03:31 GMT -5
Meanwhile, it's July 1st! How about this month's releases?! We're all anxious to know!!  They are coming... just a couple days late. We are recovering from our travels and catching up on the new items. I plan to have more information by the end of the week.  Rob |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2019 18:00:08 GMT -5
To Scanrail : electric locos need a catenary ... and I am afraid that very few people wanna use non-prototypical accessories ! I live in France and see the differences between French, German and Swiss systems ; and I think that the US system is another one (or, worse, do several sytems co-exist, initially built by the various companies ? ). Or do You wanna go back to the days when toy trains ran electric locos without any catenary ? This remembers to me a "bug" in a movie, while we were talking about trains used for them : in "Cassandra Crossing" (1976), with Burt Lancaster (among others), rather at the beginning (as far as I remember, the scene with the helicopter), You can see a Swiss express train with a RE-series electric loco and no catenary ... Everyone who took more than a glance to this scene noticed it and it looked ridiculous !  |
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Post by cwrr on Jul 1, 2019 23:17:30 GMT -5
Meanwhile, it's July 1st! How about this month's releases?! We're all anxious to know!! They are coming... just a couple days late. We are recovering from our travels and catching up on the new items. I plan to have more information by the end of the week. Rob That's right, ya'll were on vacation! Hope you had a good one!  |
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Post by herbmopac on Jul 4, 2019 8:59:12 GMT -5
Some concerns about the MISSOURI PACIFIC passenger cars released this month....of course it was well known in advance that the cars were smoothside and not BUDD corrugated as the dome cars should be .... but one can live with that....however, the coach has no road number....might there be a decal sheet with possible numbers....to have no number would be totally absurd...possible numbers could be 722, 723, 733, 734, 830, 831, 832 ..... and there is no diner car: Cheyenne Mountain or San Isabel, or just a number, possibly 742, or 743.....the COLORADO EAGLE was a class train until the early 1960's when the railroad systematically eliminated the diner, then the dome, and eventually the train died. I have four MP E-8 locomotives and not much consist to deal with....I realize that you are trying to satisfy several situations.... TP railroaders should be pleased but not COLORADO EAGLE people.....hope you understand and hope to get a diner and a solution to road numbers for coaches......thanks and I appreciate your efforts!
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jul 4, 2019 9:31:42 GMT -5
Some concerns about the MISSOURI PACIFIC passenger cars released this month.... the coach has no road number.... This is a VERY short run of cars. We have minimum production numbers for each product. There would have been only one number possible. Many of our customers like to have more than one coach. So, the logical decision was to produce the coach without a road number. Enthusiasts can find decals if they really want the numbers AND we are also looking at an alternative solution for future production that will allow us to offer products with a much smaller minimum production number (that would fix the future - the present is already done - these cars were 2 years in the making, so what you see is what you get. That being said, we do appreciate feedback for future products, and we do take your comments seriously) ..... and there is no diner car: Cheyenne Mountain or San Isabel, or just a number, possibly 742, or 743........thanks and I appreciate your efforts! Appreciate the thanks! As for the diner, I could not find a MoPac diner that matched our tooling very well. MoPac did not have windows in the kitchen (our tooling does) and they had round "porthole" style windows down the passageway next to the kitchen. Those round windows are very uncommon, and would have been a bad match for our tooling. If anyone does a ShapeWays MoPac diner, or wants to re-paint another diner, I'm happy to share our paint codes so you can make a model to match. Again, we are looking at alternative manufacturing techniques that will allow us smaller production runs in the future, but please do not wait for us if you can build what you want today! Enjoy, -Rob(A)   |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jul 4, 2019 9:37:14 GMT -5
I sure hope our next release flies off the shelf! Hooray!!! cjhayes2424 got it!!!! My guess is that the Mo Pac "Colorado EAGLE or The EAGLE" will "fly off the shelf" - perhaps? -R |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jul 4, 2019 10:02:53 GMT -5
I would be happy to hear from AZL: when will the Electric Era finally come to Z scale? I don't even want to name specific models, please can anybody tell - when will we see at least anything electric here? Despite I'm Z scale fan since 2006, I assume that I may not understand priorities of US model railroaders too deeply (just because I'm from Europe), but the fact still surprises me: during last 10 years AZL produced a countless number of different locomotives and cars (importance of which beyond any doubts), but there is still no place among them all for any electric rolling stock unit! Hi Alex, I live along the NEC (North East Corridor) and use it all the time. I would really like to do some electrics, and I hope we do in the future, but in the meantime here is why we have not done them - yet: Money and Math. Tooling for a locomotive is expensive. Typically over $100,000. That's a fixed cost before we sell a single unit. Virtually *ALL* electric locomotives in America worked for only ONE railroad. Typically Amtrak, but also Pennsylvania (GG1 and others), Milwaukee Road (Little Joe), New Haven (Various - including several that used third rail electric instead of overhead catenary), and a few others. With Amtrak, electric locomotives ran from Washington to New Haven (and more recently to Boston) on one line. So each of those locomotive projects could only be produced for ONE railroad, and then they would only run on ONE line. Sales of a single product would have to be in the thousands for us to simply break even, and that is hard to do in Z scale. Compare that to Europe, where the Vecton, Traxx, Tarus, and other electric locomotive families run with many different paint schemes, on multiple railroads. Pay $100,000 tooling for the Tarus and I can make it with HuPac, CargoServ, OBB, DB, or any ES 64 operator. The paint is easy to change. Pay $100,000 for the AEM-7, and I have Amtrak, and nothing else. The tooling is very expensive. But in the Americas (USA, Canada, Mexico) we have diesels such as the F units, E units, SD units, ALCO, and GE families that ran practically identical locomotives with wildly different paint jobs. We have sold thousands of SD70s. I don't think we could do the same for an AEM-7, ACS64, or Acela. Even though I love the look of them! When we did our Amtrak Superliner project, we went with them because the Superliners and the P42 diesels ran all over the USA, and Canada with VIA. If you model the north, south, east or west, chances are good Amtrak runs a P42 and Superliners through your model railroad. To make the line complete, we also made the Viewliner sleeper, and the LONG DISTANCE AmFleet cars (they have doors and vestibule at only one end) I did ask Harlad about making the AEM-7 since he already had the X995, but he was not interested due to sales concerns. If he could not make it work, I'm not sure how we could with a larger manufacturing system that needs larger quantities. Again, I hope in the future some of these fixed cost will come down and allow us to make shorter run products, but for now I do not think it is possible. I hope that explanation makes sense. -Rob(A) |
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Post by scanrail on Jul 5, 2019 17:40:53 GMT -5
Hi Rob, Thank you for detailed info and explanation! I'm aware about extreme costs of the each new tooling. Rough calculations show that to justify the production of each new model you should sell it not less than 1000 times (and more is better). As for me, I'm not focused only on the models I'm familiar with (or which I just seen or used them). Basically I collect everything that is interesting for me in this or that aspect. That's, by the way, why I'm here I'm from Europe, but I like US railroad fleet very much due to its diversity and totally different design (in comparison with European models). Why am I telling about this - just because I hope that there are railroad hobbyists in the US who don't concentrate on the domestic railroads too, but collect something different as well. I often envy what a huge assortment all other scales have! Even N-scalers have everything that can be ever desired. This includes US electrics too. Just remember N scale ACS-64 by Kato and their beautiful Maersk sets. Another reason is that almost every track is electrified in Europe, and anything non-electric look a bit unusual for the everyman from Europe I know Harald Freudenreich, he makes very good and detailed models. I also own X995, but in native Swedish livery. The only problem is that he sells everything for the price that is noticeably higher than an average level affordable for most buyers. While $150-200 per loco is mostly Okay for everyone, $500 locos will be too pricey ones. In the end, all that remains to be done is to cherish a hope that one day the dream come true and we will see anything from this in Z scale:     Regards, Alex |
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Post by herbmopac on Jul 8, 2019 16:56:20 GMT -5
the dome cars for THE EAGLE are numbered 893 for MP and 200 for TP.....I would like to create two more dome cars with numbers 890 and 891.....I have ordered dome 893 and am considering ordering two more and change them from 893 to 890 and 891 for MP and the COLORADO EAGLE....I have silver decals in different size lettering for numerals .... I am wondering about how to remove the numeral 3 in the number 893 so as to change to either 890 or 891......any ideas? .... I have done much work with decals and airbrushing ..... my decals are from RAIL GRAPHICS in Elgin, IL ..... they may no longer be in business .....any ideas?
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Post by cjhayes2424 on Jul 8, 2019 20:41:51 GMT -5
the dome cars for THE EAGLE are numbered 893 for MP and 200 for TP.....I would like to create two more dome cars with numbers 890 and 891.....I have ordered dome 893 and am considering ordering two more and change them from 893 to 890 and 891 for MP and the COLORADO EAGLE....I have silver decals in different size lettering for numerals .... I am wondering about how to remove the numeral 3 in the number 893 so as to change to either 890 or 891......any ideas? .... I have done much work with decals and airbrushing ..... my decals are from RAIL GRAPHICS in Elgin, IL ..... they may no longer be in business .....any ideas? I just got done removing NS script off of some auto racks. The method I used was to take a "fine tipped" wooden toothpick(q-tips work too but might be too large for this area) and lightly rub the area/decal to be removed with 91% alcohol. Worked great, I just need to touch up with a clear semi-matte and apply new decals. I'm not sure if I recommend this procedure being you have Silver on Blue - you don't want to start removing the silver and take the blue up as well - so if you do try this work lightly. Something else you might consider is, if you have some MoPac blue decals, cut a small block just large enough to cover the "3" and then add your "0" or "1" over it. Just a couple suggestions w/o having to bust out the airbrush. |
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Post by herbmopac on Jul 18, 2019 8:59:35 GMT -5
Just a comment in regard to the Missouri Pacific production of the EAGLE....the absence of a diner car is difficult to understand...the same tooling that was used for the EMPIRE BUILDER diner cars could have been used in MP colors for the EAGLE...yes, it would have been incorrect but at least it would have looked good in the consist....for what it is worth, the dome cars were BUDD built (corrugated sides) and the AZL production is smooth sided....this is NOT a complaint, just a comment...anyone in z-scale must appreciate the efforts of AZL, I certainly do.....thanks and carry on!
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Post by texrail on Jul 18, 2019 10:24:30 GMT -5
Concerning the released domes, your info is not completely correct, as the T&P 200 dome was indeed a smooth side one. . Herb, do you think that it makes sence to covert the Marklin diner into a MoPac-Diner. I´ve seen a picture in "Trains" which shows a MP consist completely aot of corrugated side cars. I think it was a early Colorado Eagle. Best regards, Ingo |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jul 18, 2019 11:53:25 GMT -5
Just a comment in regard to the Missouri Pacific production of the EAGLE....the absence of a diner car...yes, it would have been incorrect Exactly. ....for what it is worth, the dome cars were BUDD built (corrugated sides) and the AZL production is smooth sided.... Nope. Sorry. Incorrect. MoPac did, in fact, have smooth side domes.   ....this is NOT a complaint, just a comment...anyone in z-scale must appreciate the efforts of AZL, I certainly do.....thanks and carry on! Noted and appreciated - many thanks! |
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Post by DAZed on Jul 18, 2019 13:26:57 GMT -5
Just a comment in regard to the Missouri Pacific production of the EAGLE....the absence of a diner car...yes, it would have been incorrect Exactly. You know, it isn't like you guys don't do incorrect schemes on cars, or conversely pick odd prototypes to represent more ubiquitous ones. (and for the record I have no problems with that...the market in Z pretty well mandates that practice at this point. And yes I put my money where my mouth is.) So yeah I get the business decision you made, which--in fairness--you explained a little more eloquently before. And your offer of providing the paint codes is awesome and I'm sure appreciated by the MoPac guys. But let's be honest here...you painting up a few of these diners in MoPac wouldn't have been outside the norm for AZL. Unless you are suggesting AZL has turned over a new leaf?  |
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