Opinions/observations on HO rolling stock

[Russ Bellinis]

Here's the RibSide Cars version of the Milwaukee Road's unique boxcars:





I removed the cast-on grabs and replaced them with bracketed grabs from Details West. I also replaced the cast sill steps with modified ones from A-Line and added roofwalk corner grabs, and upgraded the brake detail on the underbody.

Here are a couple of other recently-finished cars.

This is an Intermountain kit that I picked up for $9.00. This kit had sat on the shelf for several years with a $30.00 price sticker on it (fairly cheap in these parts for an Intermountain kit), mainly due to the fact that 1.) It was a kit and 2.) it was factory-lettered for a California winery. Not a big seller in the Niagara Peninsula area, part of Ontario's wine industry region. I was lucky to be in the store the day the price finally came down. I already had the decals on hand, and, after stripping and re-painting the shell and replacing some of the kit's details with metal parts, ended-up with this:


I got a couple of these Athearn/MDC milk cars at a reasonable $12.00 each, mainly due to the fact that they were gaudily-lettered for American dairies - regular price was $29.95. These were ready to run cars, so I had to disassemble them to strip the lettering. By the time it had been removed, most of the paint was gone, too. I removed some cast-on piping from the "B" ends of the cars, then re-painted them with CNR Green from Accupaint. Lettering is dry transfers from C-D-S. While the cars were originally meant to represent ones with interior tanks for bulk shipments of milk, mine are simply insulated (but non-refrigerated) express cars:


This is another "bargain" car at $4.00 for a new-in-the-box kit, although not such an impressive saving, as it's only an Athearn Blue Box car. However, after seeing Kevin's (nachoman) car from the Spring Kitbash Challenge, I couldn't resist.
I added metal steps and grabirons, upgraded the brake gear, and added a safety railing around the domes. Lettering is data and alphabets from Champ, with "GERN" cut from a Walthers Great NorthERN boxcar set:




Without the price cuts, it's unlikely any of these cars would have been added to the roster.

Wayne

Dr Wayne, I have been busy for the past few weeks and just managed to catch upon this thread today. I was wondering about the bracket grabs from Details West. Are they plastic or brass castings. I would love to find some brass bracket grabs to use on all of my P2k 50 foot
autobox cars as well as other models requiring bracket grabs.