I am not at liberty to visit a LHS to compare these two lines. Can anyone comment on the differences, particularly with regards to covered hoppers (of the various available types), if that is possible.
Thanks-
Mike
Molded vs. wire grabs?
MS
The typical Trainman car will have few, if any, separately applied grabs. The PS-2 2003 hopper is essentially the same prototype as cars offerred by Athearn (old tooling with fairly heavy detail except for the etched running board on newer versions) and Kadee (lots of fine detail and separate grabs).
The Atlas Thrall 4750 is the only model available for this car that I'm aware of. It's relatively nice for having a one-piece body with integral end cages, although the running board is pretty thick. Plano offers an etched running board to upgrade it.
Rob Spangler
some of the trainman cars use re-worked, cleaned up tooling from older atlas car models. kinda like classic coke.