O scale modern-era modelers have some heavy metal coming at them in the form of Atlas O’s three-well Gunderson Maxi-IV articulated container cars. These big cars are designed to haul 53-foot containers. Atlas O is offering compatible containers separately.
The prototype. Gunderson developed the Twin-Stack container car in the 1980s. As container sizes grew, Gunderson developed the Maxi-Stack IV to carry what by the late-1990s was the industry-standard 53-foot container. These cars have three or five wells (railroads typically designate a three- or five-unit set as one car), which allow the containers to ride low between the trucks of the articulated car. This allows stacks of two containers to be carried in a lower profile, reducing routing problems due to tight clearances.
The Maxi-IV cars can carry containers from 20 feet to 53 feet long in the well, and from 40 feet up to 57 feet long in the top position. The articulated cars reduce damage due to less slack action. A train made up of articulated cars has fewer couplers to introduce slack.
The model. The body and frame of the Atlas O model is a metal casting. Detail parts of plastic and metal include plastic end sills on the end units, etched stainless steel walkway grates, die-cast metal trucks and couplers, and separately applied handrails and steps.
The TTX yellow paint is evenly applied, but the paint on the sides of some of the etched walkways is a slightly different shade. All of the lettering is opaque and sharp, with even the smallest stencils being readable. The markings I saw on the ends of the prototype cars in online photos are missing from the model.
The set is divided into three units, A, B, and C. The end units are A and B, with the brake wheel on the B end of the B unit. These are heavy cars. The B unit has two trucks and weighs just over 2 pounds, over the National Model Railroad Association Recommended Practice-20.1 of 1 pound, 7 ounces for an 18″-long car, or 72 scale feet. The A and C units have one truck each and weigh 1 pound, 13.8 ounces and 1 pound, 13.3 ounces respectively.
Free-rolling trucks with rotating bearing caps should help keep these cars moving. Like the prototype, the models have 33″ diameter wheels on the outboard trucks and 38″ diameter wheels on the intermediate trucks.
The models were within scale inches of prototype drawings on the Greenbrier website (www.gbrx.com). Atlas O recommends minimum 36″ radius curves, which would bring the wheelsets on the end trucks very close to any 53-foot containers in the bottom wells.
Managing editor Hal Miller, an O scale modeler, took these models home to test them on his layout. He said they will run on 36″ radius curves. However, check clearances of lineside details like whistle signs, signals, and pole lines before doing so, because the cars hang out noticeably in the inside of the curve.
Also, at three pounds per unit, period-appropriate, twin-motor locomotives will be needed to pull a reasonable-length train of these well cars. Interesting notes: a 10-car set (30 total units) of these and two locomotives would be almost a 50-foot-long train. The cars alone would weigh 57 pounds!
These are impressive models of a popular modern prototype. O scale modelers eager to add container traffic to their layouts can thank Atlas O for fulfilling their wishes.
Price: $299.95, 2-rail; $289.95, 3-rail
Manufacturer
Atlas O, LLC
378 Florence Avenue,
Hillside, NJ 07205
www.atlaso.com
Era: 1999 to present
Roadnames: TTX, BNSF Ry. (Circle-Cross logo), BRAN, Florida East Coast (two road numbers each)
Features
▪▪2-rail minimum 36″ radius
▪▪3-rail minimum O-54 diameter with supplied couplings (Recommended O-72)
▪▪Containers available separately
▪▪Die-cast metal couplers at correct height
▪▪Low-friction trucks with rotating bearing caps on insulated metal wheelsets, in gauge
▪▪Weight: 5 pounds, 11.2 ounces (3-unit car). 1 pound, 13.8 ounces (unit A); 2 pounds, .1 ounce (unit B); 1 pound, 13.3 ounces (unit C)
