Model Railroading > New HO BLMA Trinity 5660 PD Covered Hoppers

I received in the mail the new HO BLMA(now Atlas)  Trinity 5660 PD Covered Hoppers. These cars are very common on the CSX Philly sub today and one online customer gets them daily in the North Dakota scheme so I was quite excited to  get some of these cars. Sometimes you have to use other cars to fill the role so now I can use the real deal. These cars are very nicely detailed and the paint and lettering is very nice. All 4 of my cars had damage. Broken airhoses and other parts that needed to be reglued. It took me 2 hours to get all these cars in order. One detail I did notice that appears to be a design flaw is the end walkways at the very end of each car. The metal grating sits well above the supports. You can not push these down and glue them. They will need to fix this flaw in future runs.

Other then that and the slight damage, these are nice cars and they roll very nicely. I have just weathered the wheelsets so far but will dullcote these and apply light weathering as the real cars are not too dirty.

Bruce 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/16 05:48 by brfriedm.

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3 more shots

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3 more

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nice

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Last shot showing other end. Have a safe and enjoyable 4th. Bruce

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Waiting for mine.  Thanks for the "heads up" for the minor flaw.  I'll look for it.  

For the amount of money that you paid for these cars, you should have sent them back.

BLMA cars are a "delicate design", and I suppose that Atlas will not change much in that regard. Looking at your photos of  the gap between the end walkway and supports, It looks like a design flaw. Most likely Atlas/BLMA used an OEM sub-contract part from another car design.  There are previous model hopper car designs that needed the "step up & over" style crosswalk to clear the upper bulge of the hopper body; but not this car. Methinks Atlas/BLMA simply grabbed a ready made part and quickly added it to the car for a quick fix for Introduction with the plan to change it later (if enough model purchasers noticed and brought it to attention).

BLMA's test shots and models are on line.  Those models have flat walks.  This is an Atlas issue.  The prototype supports are much less noticeable than those bulky plastic supports.  I'd clip off those supports.  Then run the cars until the Plano walkways arrive.  0.020" x 0.020" styrene looks to have the bulk of the prototype roofwalk supports and can simply be glued to the Plano walkway extensions.

It will be hard to see in this shot but the end walkways come straight out from the body and there are brackets which are hard to see in this picture that meet the extended walkway from below for obvious support. It would not be hard to fix this. They could also just release a new part that u could glue on underneath and just cut away the old part. Or roll your own with styrene.

Bruce

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I zoomed in on that area and u can see it better now.

Bruce

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Bruce,

Thanks for the support of the products.

It appears the entire walkway has 'lifted' at the ends.  Furthermore, the stamped, elevated section on the walkway end seems to exasute the mis-alignment.  This can be addressed on future runs, and will be, I'm sure.

For now, the simple fix is to dab the plastic supports (undernearth the walkway) with glue, press the walkway down, hit it with kicker and voila - solved.  (Again, this will definitely be noted on future runs.)

Craig

Hello Craig,

I thought you were in the south of France enjoying that buyout money from Atlas LOL.

Anyways, the glue fix u propose will not hold up in my opinion. I just went and checked this out and you can push the walkway down but it requires allot of force. (and yes u can push the supports upward but they will break) The legs holding the walkway in place are in all the way so you are just pushing those down. You may pull off a glue job, but it will not hold up long in my opinion as I am sure over a short time, it will just pop apart and you also risk trashing that beautiful tread with CA. I think the best solution is to extend the supports to meet the tread. Anyways, nice cars and I am not going to worry too much.

I hope all is well and Happy 4th.  Bruce 

CraigM111 Wrote:
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> Bruce,
>
> Thanks for the support of the products.
>
> It appears the entire walkway has 'lifted' at the
> ends.  Furthermore, the stamped, elevated section
> on the walkway end seems to exasute the
> mis-alignment.  This can be addressed on future
> runs, and will be, I'm sure.
>
> For now, the simple fix is to dab the plastic
> supports (undernearth the walkway) with glue,
> press the walkway down, hit it with kicker and
> voila - solved.  (Again, this will definitely be
> noted on future runs.)
>
> Craig

The prototypes do have a slight hump across the walkway ends, they just appear to be a little less defined than what the HO models are arriving with. Somehow flatening out the raised portion of the roofwalk could eliminate some of the gap issues. Other than that, the three BLMA PD hopper models I now have on my desk (arrived late Friday afternoon) look absolutely stunning! Just gotta change out the Kadee #158s for #119s with the upper shelfs trimmed off.

Mr. MRL


A few prototype pics, and possible future paint scheme options? (wink, wink...)
1. GACX 8787 - Bozeman Pass, MT (1/15/11)
2. ADMX 56029 - Cajon Junction, CA (4/14/12)
3. TCMX 450293 (patch) - Hill 58.2, CA (2/27/12)

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I bought two today at the hobby shop. I didn't note any damage and I'll agree---they're very nice models!!!