Model Railroading > A first look at ST's BSC F68AH in HO scale

Received my box o' goodies from ST yesterday via UPS. I ordered a few of their new BSC F68AH bulkheads with the intent of loading them with steel plates and steel H and W sections. Had a slow morning here at the office, so I dug through the AISC section specs to compare them to Evergreens offering to figure load configurations.

I decided to pull out one of the cars I ordered to take a gander. Attached are the first three images out of the box. Wood deck is separate and to be applied by the modeler.

Model is really nice and extremely well detailed, as it is from their Rivet counter line. Printing is clean, clear and opaque. The only thing I will change is the couplers, which will get swapped out to Kadee #156 couplers. Something about th ST coupler head doesn't look right to me, even though it is a metal coupler and is a semi-scale head design.

Instruction sheet does discuss installation of the laser cut decking. More on that in the follow-up section.

Sorry the images may not be the greatest, as they are taken on my pseudo-smart phone.

Russ



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/19 16:02 by NSTopHat.

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Images of the instruction sheet for those interested, including all of the various component configurations that are or will be available.

That's it for now.

Russ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/19 16:02 by NSTopHat.

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Nice looking cars, pretty happy with mine.  I wish they did the ends as a laser cut piece as well, like Wheels of Time did.  

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> Nice looking cars, pretty happy with mine.  I
> wish they did the ends as a laser cut piece as
> well, like Wheels of Time did.  

True, but a little weathering of the ends and they can be made to look pretty convincing.

Wait...I have to model? 

I'm looking forward to my cars arriving this week. Always nice to get new stuff. 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

So the ends are not real wood? Is there wood detail inside the bulkhead?

Andy
 

wheel_slip Wrote:
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> So the ends are not real wood? Is there wood
> detail inside the bulkhead?
>
> Andy
>  
Andy,

The ends are injection molded plastic, and the face inside of the bulkhead is detailed. See attached.

Russ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/19 15:58 by NSTopHat.

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I almost bought one to showcase a shifted pipe load. I do like how the end-platform's front is rolled down. That's a good start to higher proto-detail.

After looking at mine, and comparring to some others,  Is the yellow supposed to be so bright/florescent?   Cant say I have ever seen Grey ACI tags before either.   Great looking cars other then that.   Looking forward to the extension-less yellows.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/19 20:09 by sixaxlecentury.

Sure looks good, got the email that mine is enroute, this is my first ScaleTrains car (or engine for that matter) so I'm excited to see it.  Was impressed with their display at the National Train show, ended up ordering a few more items that I now need to budget for!

Nathan

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> After looking at mine, and comparring to some
> others,  Is the yellow supposed to be so
> bright/florescent?   

Old Pre-80s TT Yellow was of a brighter yellow.  

Cheers,
Harry

tracktime Wrote:
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> sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > After looking at mine, and comparring to some
> > others,  Is the yellow supposed to be so
> > bright/florescent?   
>
> Old Pre-80s TT Yellow was of a brighter yellow.
>  
>
> Cheers,
> Harry

I did not know that until now....but...these extension cars are post 1990s...

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> I did not know that until now....but...these
> extension cars are post 1990s...

Maybe not.  Here is a photo which turned up recently with a road number matching one of ScaleTrains TT decorated bulkheads dated 1979

http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=ttpx81127&o=ttx&fbclid=IwAR3TaRgQI9LisQYaB_MPMrvv96-h-tIAl3cMgmi7_Z1zRoWsEIH-wU5HzI4

Cheers, Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/19 10:52 by SPDRGWfan.

Good find on that high bulkhead from '79. ST does homework.

Repeat of my post from earlier thread... (edited for clarification)

Interesting that Trailer Train (then TTX) didn't denote the inside loading distance differently on the cars until after 1994...   The 62' cars were and are the predominant cars.  But those photos of 81127 show that the converted cars did exist in the 1970s, and from the looks of that car, and the data on it, might have been that way from when built (Dec 1973).

The July 1997 ORER lists 160 cars with 60'6" and ~867 with 62' inside distance.  Almost all with the 60'6" distance in the 80742-80839 and 81079-81177 car series.
As of the Oct 2001 ORER the number of cars listed with 60'6" was down to 144...   So it doesn't appear that more cars were being done in the 1990s, just that the cars were not listed separately in the ORERs until the 1990s.

Also noted in photos is that some small batches of both have had TTJX marks instead of TTPX along the way.

By the way, I can confirm that all of the car numbers ScaleTrains has done with the bulkhead additions are in fact within the car numbers listed as having the shorter 60'6" inside distance in the July 1997 ORER.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/19 06:12 by CSX602.

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> Nice looking cars, pretty happy with mine.  I
> wish they did the ends as a laser cut piece as
> well, like Wheels of Time did.  

Minor point, but the WoT bulkhead lumber pieces are injection-molded.

SP_8299 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice looking cars, pretty happy with mine.  I
> > wish they did the ends as a laser cut piece as
> > well, like Wheels of Time did.  
>
> Minor point, but the WoT bulkhead lumber pieces
> are injection-molded.

Might be thinking of ExactRail bulkheads?

Posted from Android

SP_8299 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice looking cars, pretty happy with mine.  I
> > wish they did the ends as a laser cut piece as
> > well, like Wheels of Time did.  
>
> Minor point, but the WoT bulkhead lumber pieces
> are injection-molded.

Yes - I worded it wrong.  I meant that they were not glued on from the factory.  They left them off specifically so you could add wooden ones/missing ones, etc.   Seems like these will pop off with little work.