Post by Hans Riddervold (AZL) on Mar 22, 2024 14:29:20 GMT -5
AZL visits China
Great to be able to travel again and a factory visit has been long overdue. After a bumpy evening ride into Shenzhen, I was greeted by our friends from the factory.
Expectations were high that we got to see some of our Z products in production as we got to the factory early. It is funny how language really is not a barrier once you focus on trains and production processes.
First on the agenda, updates on all our submitted purchase orders. So here is a quick update:
1937 Modified AAR Box Car
First finished samples! They are amazing!
Very similar to our existing AAR car. The body is 6” higher and even in Z, that is noticeable.
The car has either Youngstown or Superior Doors and Metal or Wooden Running Boards.
The ends are 5-5 Dreadnaught. We are planning 15-16 roadnames and hopefully we can offer the 1937 Modified AAR Box Cars by end of Summer.
4180 Airslide Hopper
And yes, they are in production. BNSF and KATY cars were awaiting Pad Printing.
Think these will be really popular so AZL have a second run already in mind.
EMD SD50, SD60 and SD60M
Same here, they are being Painted and Pad Printed! All kinds of goodies here.
ALCO RS-3 and RSD-5 Rerun
Not in production yet, but we had 30 minutes of color coding. Always a hard process and luckily, we sorted out some potential errors.
Tractor Trailer (Trucks)
Thank you to the Forum for suggestions. We will use a different design for the hood truck and it will have the option of crew cab. So now we have 4 different models!
We will make these in tons of different colors and they will be sold in 2 and 4 packs.
They will also be available as unpainted and partially assembled kits.
We will update our readers on our other products in development as design and tooling progresses.
Future Products
What I can also share with you is that we submitted POs for yet two more new locomotives.
Long horizon here. Do not expect those before 2026. But we did discuss more reruns of existing locomotives; F-units, ES44ACs, SD70Aces and GP38-2s.
We should probably head to China more often, because it shortens developing time and is especially good for problem solving. This was a full day visit, but a week would not have hurt.
A quick note on brass. It may be coming back, but because of environmental issues, lost wax brass casting is not legal in the province the factory is located. We are sure that they will find a way.
Great to be able to travel again and a factory visit has been long overdue. After a bumpy evening ride into Shenzhen, I was greeted by our friends from the factory.
Expectations were high that we got to see some of our Z products in production as we got to the factory early. It is funny how language really is not a barrier once you focus on trains and production processes.
First on the agenda, updates on all our submitted purchase orders. So here is a quick update:
1937 Modified AAR Box Car
First finished samples! They are amazing!
Very similar to our existing AAR car. The body is 6” higher and even in Z, that is noticeable.
The car has either Youngstown or Superior Doors and Metal or Wooden Running Boards.
The ends are 5-5 Dreadnaught. We are planning 15-16 roadnames and hopefully we can offer the 1937 Modified AAR Box Cars by end of Summer.
4180 Airslide Hopper
And yes, they are in production. BNSF and KATY cars were awaiting Pad Printing.
Think these will be really popular so AZL have a second run already in mind.
EMD SD50, SD60 and SD60M
Same here, they are being Painted and Pad Printed! All kinds of goodies here.
ALCO RS-3 and RSD-5 Rerun
Not in production yet, but we had 30 minutes of color coding. Always a hard process and luckily, we sorted out some potential errors.
Tractor Trailer (Trucks)
Thank you to the Forum for suggestions. We will use a different design for the hood truck and it will have the option of crew cab. So now we have 4 different models!
We will make these in tons of different colors and they will be sold in 2 and 4 packs.
They will also be available as unpainted and partially assembled kits.
We will update our readers on our other products in development as design and tooling progresses.
Future Products
What I can also share with you is that we submitted POs for yet two more new locomotives.
Long horizon here. Do not expect those before 2026. But we did discuss more reruns of existing locomotives; F-units, ES44ACs, SD70Aces and GP38-2s.
We should probably head to China more often, because it shortens developing time and is especially good for problem solving. This was a full day visit, but a week would not have hurt.
A quick note on brass. It may be coming back, but because of environmental issues, lost wax brass casting is not legal in the province the factory is located. We are sure that they will find a way.
