Aristo 2 bay covered hopper

(remember: links to sub-pages at the bottom of this page)

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See also: Ted Doskaris' vignette on this car:  Click Here

First made in 1995 I believe, they have been released several times. I had considered having a unit train of these.

The first release of Santa fe ones look like the picture below, and are newer than my era. Also, the big metal rod on top in black is something I have never seen and it detracts from the model in my opinion.

Recently, Ted Doskaris brought to my attention that the newer run of cars had the older logo, and the color is right, and Aristo even painted the obnoxious black metal bits, see photo below:

The car sure looks better, and appropriate for my era, but now I had a problem with body mounting couplers. You can of course, use Kadee 789 couplers on the truck mount "tang", but I think truck mount couplers look toylike, especially on a car like this where there is no "downward overhang" to hide the fact the coupler is not attached to the body.

The area for attaching body mount couplers is a problem, there is no flat place, and that end of the chassis is completely unsupported.

What a mess. But, Ted to the rescue again! He has come up with a way to lower the cars, which puts the coupler mounting area in a much more reasonable location, and then how to affix the end of the chassis flat and secure. Use the link at the top of the page for Ted's vignette on these cars. He u

So, some day I might reconsider and buy a number of these. When I do, I'll add to this page.