With all the requests for models of locomotives and freight cars wanted by modelers.The manufacturers still don’t get it! Case in point is BLI’s F7.How many more do we need?AAR 40ft boxcars,composite hoppers and gondolas,53ft AAR flat cars,etc.No Thrall gondolas,No 50ft double plug door or combination plug/sliding door box cars(with the correct 14ft door opening,meaning an 8ft door and 6ft door),No 60ft insulated box with a 14ft door(Stockton Terminal & Eastern,Southern Pacific,and others),etc.Same old clones of the same old crap.[banghead][censored][tdn]
Bill
Iowa
Well that is nothing new. Back in the 50s and 60s you had F7s from Athearn, Revell, Penn Line, an F9 from Tyco that might as well have been an F7, and so on. Obviously Athearn ended up “winning” that battle.
But then there are the real nitpickers who claim they are still waiting for the FIRST F7 to actually get nose and roof contours correct. Some say the old Atlas FP is the only one so far. That is a matter of judgment.
Any time spent with a Car Builder’s Cyclopedia dated from 1970 to the present will certainly show that there are many many popular freight cars that have yet to be produced in any scale, brass plastic or craftsman. Just look at 89 ft flatcars. Many kinds have never been produced. We won’t even mention cabooses and passenger cars. The good news is: the manufacturers still have plenty of unexplored territory and we have choices. The bad news is when a manufacturer sinks good money into tooling that does not make them much in return. I suspect the MRC F unit is in that category, just by way of example
Dave Nelson