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The latest ACF hoppers from Atlas show little desire to improve standards.

WHATEVER THE DEBATE about the choice of yet another ACF Centerflow, the new ‘HO’ scale 5,701 cu ft plastic pellet hopper is now available from Atlas in a range of mainly as built colour schemes, with a couple of plain grey vehicles listed which are more suited to contemporary modellers.

First impressions when taking the models out of the box is slightly disappointing. There is no ‘wow factor’ with these releases; no wire grabs, no air pipes, no opening top hatches or whatever that set these models apart from vehicles that have come before in Atlas’ range. In fact, one might go so far as to say that the specification of the 5701 is identical to the half-a-decade old 4650 3-bay grain hopper.

While generally well received when released in 2002, it is difficult to argue that things have not moved on in the hobby since the 4650s were first produced, and that standing still is, in effect, going backwards when it comes to quality, especially as these new 5701 hoppers are 20% more expensive than their slightly shorter brethren.

The models are so similar, one wonders if there has been any lending of parts between the two models, or if, as is more likely, Atlas has simply redrawn its CAD files for the 4650 to take into account the subtle changes in the body and the obvious length alterations. Whatever, when you compare this model with recent hoppers, like the 2983 and 2970 vehicles from Athearn, one can’t help but feel short changed.

I would go so far as to say that these have an almost ‘Trainman’ quality to them, or at least what Atlas’ Trainman range should be if it had a non-kiddie specification. Just look at those crude end cages, or the chunky plastic grabs, end platforms and stirrups. Then add the poor fit of parts overall. Not good enough!

However, what really concerns me about this model is the bloody awful moulded walkway supports. There is simply no excuse for these on a $30 product and Atlas should be ashamed at trying to get away with this.

The etched walkway isn’t a lot better. I think I can see what Atlas was trying to achieve with it, but it fails miserably, at least compared to the walkways I’ve observed on the real thing. I know that etching can be done better than this because examples of Athearn’s Maxi-I arrived in the same parcel.

The painting and lettering is more than good enough, certainly a lot better than I could be bothered to achieve if I’d started with an undecorated model, and that’s even assuming that you can get decals that cover this sort of thing.

One aberration is that both the ELTX (blt. 12/78) and FPCX (blt. 10/79) grey cars are lettered with a capacity of 5,700 cu ft. I don’t know why this is, as the build dates put these firmly in the 5,701 cu ft camp, and as these are both wearing their delivery paint job it seems unlikely that they would have been mispainted, although what’s 1 cu ft between friends!

One final gripe, there is no recognition of the rectangular design hatches which seem to now be fitted to a lot of these cars, although I admit that this is a bit like asking for different style trough hatches on grain hopper models, and not every hopper has been so modified (e.g. see the FPCX vehicle above). Still, the rectangular hatches seem to be very common, so it would have been nice to have been given the option. These are the kinds of things that make modellers happy, give ‘wow factor’ and cost fractions of cents to do per model.

It seems to have taken Atlas ages to get any brand new product out this year aimed at the post 1970s modeller, so it’s great to finally see a potentially useful hopper type released, even if it does kind of duplicate (in that it is very similar) to three previously existing plastics carrying vehicles, two of them even being ACF designs. The real worry, however, is that Atlas appears to be stuck in five years ago and is being rapidly left behind by its competitors, especially Athearn, while firms that have traditionally been of lesser quality have now almost caught up, such as Walthers.

Ultimately, it appears that Atlas wants its cake and to eat it too - It wants to charge a premium price for models that nowadays seem just average. Modellers should vote with their wallets. I’ll certainly be buying less of the forthcoming 5701/5748 grain and 5800 plastics hoppers than I originally planned, and that is real shame.

Let’s hope for better things from the Thrall 2743 gondola which is also out now (and currently winging its way to me across the Atlantic).