Scaletrains announced a new model today, and they have included the Frisco in the initial offering. For the HO Scale Rivet Counter line up, they have added the Thrall 86' Box Car. There will be 6 total road numbers available. The good news for us is this is a slightly different prototype than what Tangent just produced, so there's no duplicate numbers to worry about. Price is $55.99 per car, pre orders due by 7/31 https://www.scaletrains.com/rivet-c...cube-double-plug-door-boxcar-frisco-slsf.html
Scaletrains is also offering an "Operator" version of this car that's less detailed and cheaper in price. The MSRP is $37.99. https://www.scaletrains.com/operato...cube-double-plug-door-boxcar-frisco-slsf.html Rich
I completely missed that last night. Thanks for pointing that out. Additionally, the Rivet Counter and Operator versions are offered in different numbers, so there are a total of 12 numbers coming from Scaletrains. One more note, the "our price" listed on their website is the going rate whether you buy it from their site, or at your local hobby shop. That's how I understand their pricing structure.
These cars are finally in stock at Scaletrains this week. If you pre-ordered through the Scaletrains website, your order is already in a queue to be shipped out.
Those are such impressive cars to behold in the real world. As a lad in KC in the mid 1960s, I remember seeing my first such car. The one I saw was a huge brand new Jade Green NYC car. Next time I visited Spotlight Model RR on Troost Avenue, I picked up a Quality Craft kit. (Was it Santa Fe? Did I end up with a couple or so? Can't recall.) Anyway, I had to improvise in order to fabricate a "talgo" swing style coupler system using tin from a tin can and epoxy to glue the coupler box on the end! I got those things to bend around my Atlas 18" radius curves and Atlas Snap Track #4 switches! (I also used the same tin can strap and epoxy to get my Quality Craft tri-level auto racks to negotiate 18" radius and #4 Snap Track switches!) Of course, such long cars looked ridiculous going around such curves and through such switches... but I was young and full of enthusiasm! Those were much simpler times for me where imagination made up for the lack of realism and fun was the name of the game.
And now for a mere $35.00 you can save the hassle (Actually, that's a LOT less than I thought it would be). GS
Speaking strictly for myself... I think there are very, very few HO layouts that can accommodate such long and huge cars. Typically, such cars point out the size compression of almost everything else on the layout. (Structures, switches, pass track lengths, train lengths, etc, etc.) Plus, few layouts have curves large enough for those cars to look nice aesthetically in the curves. My years of attempting to model 86' cars are DECADES behind me. On my current KC&G Ozark Sub layout, my smallest mainline curves are 22" radius. Because of that, the largest freight cars you will see on my layout will be in the 50'-55' range. I also only run shorter 4-axle power. (There will be a leased SP Baldwin AS-616 in use once I get it back from Keith and get it weathered, but it's short for a 6-axle locomotive.) I also use foreshortened (72'?) Athearn heavyweights for my passenger cars to reduce the "jointed" look on the 24" curves that are viewed from the outside of the curve. So, I avoid extra long cars. They just don't blend well with my layout constraints.
On our club layout (link to the site and scroll down to the "cab ride" video) we run those long cars, although they are primarily trailer flats, and they are all carefully weighted. We have fairly broad radii, but they're still occasionally a problem. On my home layout, I have about 100 85' passenger cars, which run with no problem. My minimum radius is 33". GS https://mosoutheastmodelrrclub.square.site/
@gstout Yes, it takes lots of real estate and generous curves to aesthetically pull off 86' cars. I'm glad I'm not a died in the wool passenger train fan! LOL! (I'm fine with my 72' Athearn heavyweights!) @dwoomer The chaps at Spotlight were so helpful to this youngster. Though I had a fantastic dad that was very supportive of my interests, he was absolutely, positively, NOT a "crafts/hobby" type person. (He did like to fish, though, so I got to do that with him as a "father n' son" thing.) That he supported my interests (and not summarily dismissed them on account of his lack of interest in same) is quite a testament to what a great dad he was. (That is, taking his son to do things that he had zero interest in.) Anyway, when dad drove me over to Spotlight Model RR for my first visit, I first marched into Spotlight Model RR not having a clue about painting equipment, how to apply decals correctly, etc. As a lad, I expected everything to come in a box that was easy to assemble (i.e. "Shake the box"), or was already assembled. I "think" my first instance of beginning to make the journey into becoming a genuine model railroader was after that entire Saturday afternoon I had the privilege to spend at Missouri Pacific's Neff Yard in KC courtesy of a night shift guy ("Bill Stephens") that worked at my dad's supermarket. (Bill worked at the Mop's Car Dept by day.) After being around all those Mop engines and riding that 1st gen EMD switch engine for quite a while that afternoon, I was all excited to replace my Athearn and Tyco red box Santa Fe engines with Mop Jenks Blue engines. Alas, I was to learn that NONE of the model mfg'ers offered Jenks Blue Mop diesels. Seeing my dejection, they told me I could paint and decal my own. With that, they proceeded to fetch and instruct me on what brushes to use (it was years before I obtained an airbrush), informed me of Floquil's "RR Colors" as they set a bottle of Floquil Light Blue on the glass top counter, made sure I understood to apply the supplied Floquil Barrier to the bare plastic before applying the Floquil Light Blue, then took the time instruct me how to cut out, soak, and apply the decals (likely a Champ Mop set), along with fixing me up with some decal setting solution (pretty sure it was Solvaset). With that, I purchased an undecorated Athearn GP7/9, and home I went! Soon thereafter, I had an acceptable looking (to my youthful eyes) Mop Jenks Blue Geep! Also, soon after finishing my first "custom paint and decal" engine, my ATSF stuff disappeared under Floquil Light Blue to become Mop engines, too. I was a Missouri Pacific enthusiast and on my way to being hooked on this hobby for the rest of my life! I owe a huge thanks to those guys at Spotlight Model RR.
My cars arrived in the back of Santa's big brown sleigh today. I opted for the Rivet Counter version instead of the Operator version for what that's worth. I think they turned out nice, very comparable to the similar Tangent cars. In this picture, the Tangent car is on the left and the Scaletrains car is on the right. While they haven't offered Frisco cars yet, Class One Model Works has their own version of the 86' Box Car, and Walthers retooled their old version to compete with the new offerings and released a set of cars in their Proto line here recently as well. I have cars from all 4 companies now, I may go through and do a comparison post at some point. I'd be more inclined to do that if one of those two announced a Frisco model.
