AZL ACF 3-Bays Now Shipping!

American Z Line has released ACF 3-Bay covered hoppers! This is the third freight car from AZL. The cars feature:

Plastic injected body
Metal Wheels
AutoLatch Couplers
Etched Metal Roof Walkway
Separately applied brake wheel, air reservoir and roof ladders
Extensive micro-printing and decoration

The 3-bays are available in runner packs of four cars. Each car comes with a different road number. Individual cars are planned, but are not available at this time. The first sets released are:



90301-1 Union Pacific 'Shield'. Road numbers: 14031, 14019, 14020, 14046
90301-2 Union Pacific 'Shield'. Road numbers: 14068, 14079, 14085, 14120



90302-1 Burlington Northern "green livery". Road numbers: 481628, 481641, 481649, 481689
90302-2 Burlington Northern "green livery". Road numbers: 458397, 458429, 481691, 481700

These exciting new cars are available immediately. Contact your authorized AZL dealer to order or purchase direct at:

www.ztrackcenter.com/

In other news, AZL has released a third set of TTX high-cube box cars. The set is item 90401-3 and features all new road numbers of these very popular cars. Contact your authorized AZL dealer for pricing and availability.

Rob Kluz

Hi Rob,
The BN 3 bay hoppers is great news. They will look great behind my BN SD40-2s!

John

I finally had an opportunity to test run the ACF 3-Bays yesterday. I spent the afternoon with Jim Thomas at our train club. For 2 1/2 hours, I ran a mixed freight of ACF 3-Bay hoppers and 60' high-cube box cars pulled by a pair of UP SD70Ms. First, what an extreme train. I was running just under 30 cars, but it was impressive in height and look! The ACFs ran exceptionally well. In all that time, we only had one derail, and the was a high-cube on a turnout. The complete train track very well had had a wonderful sound as all of those metal wheels worked the rail. Operators, you are going to love these cars!

Rob

I just got done stripping the lettering off two of the AZL BN hoppers. I used Polly S Easy-Lift-Off, a Q-tip, and quite a bit of elbow grease. The lettering is pretty thick, but it came off without damaging the underlying green paint. After I finished I rinsed them with soap and warm water. I plan to reletter them with the large BN logo lettering.

They run really well - I like how freely the wheels turn and the sound as they go over rail joints.

John

Hey Rob,
Any chance AZL may do these hoppers in the Washington State Grain Train scheme?

John

jlundy46 wrote:

Hey Rob,
Any chance AZL may do these hoppers in the Washington State Grain Train scheme?

John

If they don't, you can always contact Gerd as he has painted one of his FR PS2 3 bay hoppers and decaled it in the same Washington Grain Train scheme.

If he has, then he has!!! (what you need to do the job)

Hobo Tim

Like this one?

jlundy46 wrote:

Hey Rob,
Any chance AZL may do these hoppers in the Washington State Grain Train scheme?

John

I am not sure. I know AZL will be releasing many versions of these cars in the years to come so it is not out of the question. I have seen photos of an upcoming release, and it is going to be very nice!

AZL is always looking for prototype cars photos and ideas for future releases. If anyone has a favorite prototype that they would like to see, please send me the images. The key though is that AZL must have close-up photos of the small reporting marks and data on the cars, not just the large logos. Last year, I spent an hour in the tall weeds shooting close-up photos of the small reporting marks on auto-racks!

So who is up for some rail fanning???

Rob