This past weekend the WGH show tour came to the Puyallup, WA fair grounds. The more than 24,000 people passing the gates made it the year’s best-attended train show in the Seattle area by a wide margin. Most of the major manufacturers were in attendance. Athearn and MTH both had pre-production samples of upcoming products. Lighting in the hall was not very photography friendly, so I apologize for the poor quality of many of the shots. Enjoy…
Athearn SD70ACe – Three shell variations were on display along with a cab interior. Many of the detail parts were missing from these samples, but the holes give you an idea of where the grab iron, sunshades, rear view mirrors, etc., will be placed. One detail I particularly like is the traction motor blower visible through the rear grills.
I think Athearn’s beaten MTH with the Veranda and SD70ACe. I see Athearn’s including full (and probably optional) sanding lines on the SD70, which is something I’ve never seen in plastic EMD diesels before! And did anyone else notice that the Athearn Veranda has fine wire handrails and full length ladders? MTH should’ve updated Lionel’s Turbine tooling at least a little. The MTH Little Joe and passenger cars look pretty nice.
The four assembled cars on display were in a simple flat red primer. They did have two car shells with sample decoration. I had meant to include that photo in my first post but forgot to include it. So, here you go…
The four assembled cars were the observation, a chair car, and an articulated chair/chair set with antenna. The articulated cars were also lacking the full diaphragms and some detail parts but the car tooling was equally good as the chair and observation cars.
The first three tankcars are pressure tankcars that most commonly carry LPG or ammonia. I have also seen them carrying butadiene, gasoline, and liquid hydrocarbon not otherwise specified. The first design, with the possible exception of the saddles, definitely goes back to the 1980s (and before). The second one I am not sure. The third is a design I saw for the first time in 1999. The fourth tankcar is a general service design that goes back to the 1980s.
Now if someone would only make a model of a Trinity built LPG tankcar. I guess I will have to kitbash an Intermountain corn syrup tankcar.
I can’t give any production dates on when the pictured tankers came out, I’m not knowledgeable like that, so thanks for teaching me something new. Here is a prototype photo illustrating an example for the third product sample tank car: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1325176.
I’ve already seen the fourth tanker (the general service tank) on ebay and elsewhere. Hopefully Athearn will release the other tank cars soon. I’m also looking forward for the release of Athearn’s SD70ACE.
