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Micro-Trains To Re-Release Its Very Unique Southern Pacific Impact Car In 2018

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Like the stock number 020 00 157 Union Pacific Impact Car that was announced in the February 2018 copy of The Micro-News, with the exception of the included interior load, the Micro-Trains® Line stock number 031 00 490 Southern Pacific Impact Car that was announced in the May 2018 copy of The Micro-News appears to be a re-run of a car that was originally released as part of the special run NSC 00-95 "Impact Cars" set that commissioned by the N Scale Collector in 2000.

Micro-Trains Line NSC 00-95 Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Impact Car Set

The first such models to incorporate clear bodies, at the time, an extremely difficult project to produce, production challanges limited the original run of cars to ninety sets.

Since 2000, Micro-Trains® has produced numerous special run, clear bodied cars for the N Scale Collector (e.g., the "Money Cars" and the Gold and Silver "Bullion Cars".

While casting the clear plastic body shells was probably not an issue, the intricate painting and pad printing was extremely challenging.

Very difficult to see in the photo, the clear side of each car has a very fine mesh like look, with additional data, logos, and reporting numbers pad printed over the simulated screening.

For the original run of cars, the factory rejection rate must have been quite high.

Micro-Trains® Line's current printing process has likely resolved some of the issues that were encountered during the production run of the earlier models.

Although there are probably a number of investor/collectors who are not happy campers right now, factoring in the included car loads and increased labor and production costs that have accrued since 2000 (i.e., when the $95.00 N Scale Collector Impact Cars Sets were first released), along with there no longer being a two model purchase requirement (which might be cost prohibitive for some buyers), Micro-Trains® Line's $109.95 MSRP (i.e., $49.95 for the stock number 020 00 157 UP model and $59.95 for the stock number 031 00 490 SP model, which equals a ±15% increase in MSRP) for the pair of re-released models appears to be a genuine bargain.

Looking forward to comparing the latest runs of these very unique pieces of rolling-stock to the cars that were packaged in the original special run release.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.


 
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