New N Scale GATC 2600 Airslide Hopper

Athearn has just announced production of the GATC 2600 Airslide Hopper in N scale for delivery in February 2012. According to a CMS article that I have the 3 road number are part of an order of 8 cars they placed on January 1, 1961 and has the unique triangular Airside General logo.This car is a relatively new model for them and is in their regular line. It has many separately applied parts and therefore making it a beautiful model. Their will be 3 road numbers and below are the specifics:

23074 - SLSF-Frisco #42253
23075 - SLSF-Frisco #42249
23076 - SLSF-Frisco #42245

The MSRP is $25.98 but we must take into consideration the number of separately applied parts that are on this car. The below referenced link lists them at the bottom.

PDF Format (more detailed)

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/082311/11_N_GATC_airslide_082311.pdf

JPEG Format (less detailed)

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/082311/11_N_GATC_airslide_082311.jpg

When this car was originally announced over a year ago I immediately asked my contact at Athearn to produce it for us and he promised he would. Well, we got into one of the first runs. I firmly believe that it is due primarily to all of you stepping up to the plate and buying their products. Several of the know several the HO modelers bought GP15-1's even though they didn't fit their era.

 

Important note: They are producing these in both HO and N scales for the Frisco.

Ethan

 

I should have mentioned in my initial post that the pre-order deadline for dealers is 09/16/11. I have already received a couple of emails from ones that I deal with announcing the cars and their corresponding pre-order discount level. Unlike others, I have never known Athearn to pull the plug on an offering but I assume that they will base their production levels on the number of pre-orders that they receive.

 

I checked the 1976 ORER for the GACX cars and found that the number series was still active. It gave no clue whether these were still being leased to the Frisco or not but my guess is "not" since the Frisco had their own cars. It would be great to know when these cars were returned to General American. Hope this car fits the SLSF protoypes built in the early 1960s and Athearn produces that version.

 

Adding to this discussion, Wholesale Trains has probably the lowest price out there and they are good to deal with. Having said that, several of us have been buying freight cars lately from Spring Creek Model Trains located in the tiny town of Deshler, NB. They are a full service hobby shop but make the majority of their sales at train shows and by word of mouth. They are always at the Oklahoma City Train Show and Turkey Creek for example. I suggest you check their website to see if their coming to a show near you.

Their normal walk-up discount is 20% but they do offer a bigger one of up to 30% for pre-orders placed before the manufacturer cut-off date and they don't require a deposit or charge a cancellation fee. They can't set the exact discount until the product is shipped because the amount they receive from the manufacturers varies.

The cut-off date for the Athearn Bay Window Caboose and Airslide Hopper is next Friday 09/16/11 but thy have informed me they will probably place the order a day or two earlier. I plan to place my order on Monday.

The owners are David and Debby Zucker. They do have a website http://www.springcreekmodeltrains.com/ but if you want to place an order you will need to either call (preferred method) or send them an email. Here are the specifics:

Contact Information
You can contact us via:
Snail Mail: Spring Creek Model Trains, P.O. Box 304, Deshler, NE 68340
Telephone: 402-365-7628.
E-Mail: customerservice@springcreekmodeltrains.com

In conclusion please understand that I am only posting this information because others have asked in the past as to where some of us buy from.