Athearn has announced new Pullman Standard (PS) 60' exterior post, double plug door box car models including Frisco numbers SLSF 9005, 9013 and 9013. $51.98 List. Due November 2021. Please see this link to the PDF file associated with this announcement. http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/103020/03_GEN_60'_PS_Auto_Box_103020.pdf A prior run of these cars announced in May 2005 included Frisco road numbers SLSF 9004, 9012 and 9021 and in August 2009 included SLSF 9008, 9010 and 9016. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Great looking cars/models of same. Caveat: Unless the draftgear/drawbar pivots, you'd better have some really generous curve radii to handle them. Long draftgear/drawbars coupled with extreme deep inset truck bowls are the bane of model railroading. Andre
I am confident the designers had harmonic rock and other issues in mind. Can you imagine what kind of special pain this would be to make a joint (coupling) on a curve, between this and a more common pulling face and bolster combo. IMHO these models are bit light, and the distance between the pulling face and bolster seem to make these a bit more likely for "string-line issues", so much so that on a long train "60-70 cars in my case", we try not to have these cars in the head 15 or so cars.
I had the pleasure of switching a string of these HIGH END cars from a different manufacturer on a friend's layout here. These cars are just immaculate in detail and what you would expect from a $50 car. Tom you are correct as coupling on a curve was a pain as well as uncoupling. I had the shakes as to not try and do any damage to the coupler bars and brake line hose . The other operators where ribbing on how long I was taking to switch those cars at the industry. I made a chuckling comment that "Hey, you won't have any detail parts laying around when I'm done."
