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Post by ztrack on Jun 14, 2020 21:11:21 GMT -5
AMERICAN Z LINE June 2020 New Releases Part 2 ALCO RS3 - NEW BODY STYLE!  AZL is excited to announce ALCO RS3 locomotives! These popular locomotives feature a 7.5mm coreless motor, dual flywheels, traction tires, built in pilot, directional controller LEDs, body mount couplers. The coupler box is screwed in placed. The first release is Northern Pacific. The NP’s prototype details include: Phase III Body, Corner stacked Number boards, ALCO AAR Trucks, Nose mounted Bell, 3 Chime Airhorn mounted Cab Roof, Crosswise Smokestack and 1400 Gallon Fuel Tank. Three road numbers are being offered. 63301-1 Northern Pacific RS3 859 63301-2 Northern Pacific RS3 861 63301-3 Northern Pacific RS3 862 Gunderson MAXI-I Sets – K-Line Bridge (RBCX)! The June release is for the K-Line Bridge! Four sets are being offered. As a bonus, set 906505-1 and 906505-2 comes with 5x AZL K-Line 40’ containers! These containers are not being sold separately.  906506-1 K-Line Rail Bridge RBCX MAXI-I Set with 5x K-Line containers 1005 Blue 906506-2 K-Line Rail Bridge RBCX MAXI-I Set with 5x K-Line containers 1012 Blue  906506-2B K-Line Rail Bridge RBCX MAXI-I Set 1012 Blue (no containers) 906506-3 K-Line Rail Bridge RBCX MAXI-I Set 1014 Blue 906506-4 K-Line Rail Bridge RBCX MAXI-I Set 1019 Blue The cars feature metal chassis with etched metal details and add-on parts. The cars also feature AZL’s Auto-Latch couplers and roller bearing trucks. Containers are sold separately. The packaging includes slots for ten 40’ containers. VACATION NOTICE The Ztrack Distribution offices will be closed June 20th through 28th. The last day to place orders is June 18th. Orders placed after the 18th will not ship until after the 28th. Note we will limited email availability during this time. See the American Z Line site for more information on these and other AZL products. www.azldirect.comRob Kluz Ztrack Distribution |
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Post by cwrr on Jun 14, 2020 21:13:55 GMT -5
 Oh, wow!! Those are so awesome!!! Thank you AZL and all involved for these! 
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Post by zdave on Jun 14, 2020 21:30:05 GMT -5
Wow! A beautiful RS3. It'll be a delight watching all the roadnames roll-out. |
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Post by modelwarships on Jun 14, 2020 22:01:01 GMT -5
I love it and definitely don't have enough NP. Is it possible to see the inner chassis so we can get an idea of the hurdles we will have to endure for DCC.
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Post by bloodynose on Jun 14, 2020 22:31:44 GMT -5
The new ALCO locomotives are awesome and refreshing to get something that isn't EMD! Thank you for not releasing one of my railroads first for once and also thanks for offering 2 sets of the MAXI-Is with containers! Getting them with containers is a nice deal and I'd rather not have to buy duplicates just to get more containers...
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Post by ciccino on Jun 15, 2020 4:35:57 GMT -5
I am not particularly interested in switchers, but as a long time AZL fan I can testify that they are cherished by most forum members. RS always pop up at the top of any locomotive wishlist. The joy I am now seeing in so many fellow Z lovers is something that warms the heart  Well done AZL! |
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Post by zman on Jun 15, 2020 5:48:44 GMT -5
Looking forward to the PRR RS3!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 6:15:52 GMT -5
And awaiting the NH RS3 ! |
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Post by ProgressRail on Jun 15, 2020 7:13:06 GMT -5
Can we expect built in pilots and body mount couplers|coupler box design w/ screw moving forward with future releases...say, like in sd40-2's and sw1500's?
...doesn't look like a whole lot of room for DCC at all; I'm sure people are wondering if the chassis&board were sent to TCS or Digitrax...highly doubt they deal with ESU. It is nice though that John Cubbin clearly points out, as always...every unit is test_run before it leaves the z-track distribution office.
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Post by pcbpoppy on Jun 15, 2020 7:13:31 GMT -5
And awaiting the Southern!
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Post by zdave on Jun 15, 2020 7:44:00 GMT -5
Can we expect built in pilots and body mount couplers|coupler box design w/ screw moving forward with future releases...say, like in sd40-2's and sw1500's?
...doesn't look like a whole lot of room for DCC at all; I'm sure people are wondering if the chassis&board were sent to TCS or Digitrax...highly doubt they deal with ESU. It is nice though that John Cubbin clearly points out, as always...every unit is test_run before it leaves the z-track distribution office. Looks very nice in the video. Glad to see the new chassis design and the screws for locking down the board. I'll be interested to see if someone more skilled than I am digitizes it, without too much magic required. My small layout is very operationally oriented, with a rail yard. It would be nice to be able to run a number of these in the yard. Anyhow, it's just wonderful to see an ALCO switcher! |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jun 15, 2020 7:58:58 GMT -5
Good Morning folks! Following last night's surprise ALCO RS release announcement - or at least it was a bit of a surprise to me - maybe you feel a little like a kid on Christmas. If that's the case, then Rob Kluz looks a lot like Santa, and I feel a little like the happy parent watching on, knowing exactly who it was that put the present under the tree! In other words, on behalf on Hans and myself, thanks for the kind compliments. This was a fun project to bring to life. John Cubbin (The voice of AZL videos) stole the show. One other things I really wanted to bring to the RS switchers was the ability to directly swap out our coupler for MTL's units. They have the patent on their design, and have declined to OEM them to us in the past, but I knew folks would want to use their switchers for, well.... switching! So I wanted to make the conversion as easy as possible. Now a bit of BAD news: the SW1500 is just too small to accommodate the MTL coupler box. I tried really hard, but could not do it on a mass manufactured scale. It will have body mounted couplers, but you will have to do modifications on your own. Something that John did NOT note in the video: this RS mount coupler uses yet ANOTHER design. I trimmed one plastic spring off opposite sides of the upper and lower components, so the coupler rotates easier in the box but still holds closed tightly. We will do the same on the SW1500. Another "feature" that John gave away in the video is the the PCB. This switcher design was just too small to accommodate our standard PCB, so there is not currently a drop in DCC decoder. In fact, there is not much room inside at all. I wanted to try to sneak a decoder in there before release, but ran out of time, so the challenge is now up to you guys to figure it out. Where there is a will, there is a way! To help, I will share my power of X-Ray vision. Take a look. I think your best bet is to put it in the nose. These little locomotives really run well, and were publicly torture tested. Last November, I ran one at a local train show for about 14 hours total with no problems at all. So let that be a lesson: go to your local show and look for Z scale. You may find some unreleased or unnanounced AZL products running around - hiding in plain sight. I had a funny conversation when I was testing the Maxi-I at a show. A very nice gentleman came up and said "Tell me about those articulated well cars. I've never seen them before! Did you make them yourself?" I paused, thought abut his exact words, and replied honestly, "Yes, I designed them and then had them made." he said "Wow - that must have been expensive" to which I replied "you have no idea" then he said "you should sell them, I think a lot of people would like them" and I told him that was an "interesting idea - I'll keep it in mind!" Enjoy the RS units!   |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Jun 15, 2020 7:59:22 GMT -5
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Post by modelwarships on Jun 15, 2020 10:25:13 GMT -5
Thank you for the pics. The answer to DCC may be to dummy one truck and stuff it in. But lets hope Digitrax and TCS have a better solution. Will the SW1500 share that board?
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Post by zdave on Jun 15, 2020 11:56:31 GMT -5
Thank you for the pics. The answer to DCC may be to dummy one truck and stuff it in. But lets hope Digitrax and TCS have a better solution. Will the SW1500 share that board? Would love to see a Digitrax and/or TCS solution. |
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