A quick dash across the Atlantic inspired by an upgraded Athearn hopper.
A NICE SURPRISE in Athearn’s recent round of product news was the announcement that the company was going to significantly upgrade its ex-MDC/Roundhouse FMC 4,700 cu. ft. 3-bay covered hopper. With this in mind, here are a few pictures!
New tank cars and 89ft 4in intermodal flats hit the roster.
IT HAS TAKEN a long time coming, but finally, after many years of producing freight cars of all shapes and sizes, US manufacturer Atlas has now released an intermodal vehicle in ‘HO’ scale! This is in the form of the ACF-built 89ft 4in all-purpose flat car, designed to carry both trailers and containers.
A little guilty pleasure that arrived the other day.
SO, YES, I went out on a limb and purchased both Athearn Genesis Penn Central ‘modernised’ F-unit A-B sets! Just a treat to myself for working so hard last year. I had hoped to build some of these up using the Highliners body, but Athearn has made things much easier and quicker with these new ‘out of the box’ models that it seemed crazy not to splash out.
Norfolk Southern colours finally come to Atlas’ small EMD.
One of the switcher sets at Norfolk Southern’s Norris Yard in Irondale, Alabama, on October 13th, 2005, included ex-Southern MP15DC No. SOU 2397. The large silencer on the top of the hood marks this unit out as one of the later build of MP15DCs (actually the third of five batches, built in November 1979).
IT HAS TAKEN four runs and over two and a half years, but Atlas has finally announced its useful little ‘HO’ scale MP15DC in the black and white of Norfolk Southern, one of the largest operators of these multi-purpose EMD switchers.
The all-new Genesis line MP15AC in pictures.
SO, AFTER MUCH delay, Athearn’s Genesis MP15AC is finally here, but, as the saying goes, it was worth the wait,. The Californian firm has really pushed the boat out with road specific detail, the only thing visually letting the model down being the floppy and warped delrin handrails. So far, I have purchased four of ‘em - CP ‘Beaver’, Milwaukee Road, Soo Line and UP (ex M-K-T) - although I could have easily taken more. The CP and UP versions are illustrated here.