Chris: Do you think it’s worthwhile to send Athearn an email about these issues?

Although it’s probably too late to get the ribs and brake wheel corrected, I would think they could swap in the correct trucks. I don’t really want to add $6 or $8 to the price of each car for replacement truck sets.

Rob: Thanks for the info on the Bee Line issue, I'll have to search for it at the next RCT&HS meet.

Mark... maybe an e-mail concerning the trucks might get the correct roller bearing trucks added.Concerning the other two observations...I don't think it will help.

A couple other picayunes would be the top hatch spacing. The Reading's were evenly spaced. On both the athearn and concor roofs, two of the hatch pairs are off.
And back to the ribs, the athearn drawings show a funky crimp at the top and bottom of them. Reading unit ribs went straight under the roof eve, with no bevel, and same at the bottom, cut off almost flush with the bottom of the side sheet.
I spent a good bit of time modifying a Roundhouse twin covered hopper into an LOg, mostly by reworking the ribs. But that was a $3.00 spare, not a $30 RTR. Oh, the humanity!

As noted they aren't perfect, but they were a fund raiser and in their day were pretty much the only thing out there, here is four out of five. (number five is still AWOL after digging through boxes for 2 1/2 hours)The last car in the series has the same poster as 78655, I believe)

Hello Group,

With the delivery date of Athearn’s new cars fast approaching, the gears in my head have been spinning about how to resolve the car’s “issues”. Mainly, I’ve been considering how a corrected roof, with the right hatch spacing, could be fabricated. Then I stumbled upon Yarmouth Model Works; a small company that offers resin kits and detail parts. They offer a mini kit to retrofit IMRC hopper kits with ACF style roofs.

So…I was thinking about reaching out to this company to see what it would take for them to offer a special run of correct roof components for the Athearn’s new car. But before I do that, I want to gage how many people would actually be interested in such a kit, and, more importantly, what would you be willing to pay for it! If the price is too high or there is not enough interest, I’ll just drop the idea all together.

Also, Yarmouth has a nice selection of brass stirrups and a few other detail parts, so it' worth a look at their site even if you're not interested in my idea.

Thanks, Mark

with these being R-T-R cars, would the roof come off easily without doing damage to the car sides.