Opinions/observations on HO rolling stock

[rrinker]

I love those Accurail single-sheathed cars. Even though the sides are all one piece, they really do look like wood, even before you start applying weathering designed to make it 'pop'. I can't justify running too many of them though, a little old. But I have a few sprinkled in here and there, just for a different look. Nothing quite so interesting as a train ox boxcars of all mixes types, the differences in width ad roof height and length makes for an interesting train as it rolls by.

--Randy

[AF350]

Wow ,

Hi all, sorry for not checking back sooner. As fate would have it I am getting back into HO by way of helping start up a club at the local community center

I recently recived 6 HO kits 2 walthers, 2 Atheran, 1 round house and 1 accurail kit mostly undecorated kits that westerndepot had marked down. This is a very long lived thread---If I do by chance get an exactrail or Tanget scale rolling stock will post a review/pic.


thanks to all for the insight and experience with the accurail kits.

[doctorwayne]

After that, I'm hoping that nobody releases any more cars that interest me. I'd still like to add one of the carbon black cars from Rail Shop Inc. and a SOO Line "sawtooth" boxcar from Speedwitch Media....[/url].

Wayne

Just an update note. I've ordered both the carbon black hopper and the "sawtooth" boxcar, and will post photos (and perhaps construction photos) when I get them. Both are supposedly "craftsman-type" kits, the boxcar in urethane and the covered hopper in styrene.
Here's a shot of one of several Soo Line "sawtooth" boxcars at the Illinois Railway Museum:


Wayne

[Londoner]

I say Accurail are the best especially their wood boxcars. Also am impressed with Bowser short covered hoppers. Wide range of roads and the roofwalks are see-thru yet plastic. Have to be seen.

Main issue here in UK is supply.

Ken

[P5se Camelback]

From time to time I have read and re-read this thread ... there was something missing ...

So I write now to comment ...

There are several well-known and a couple of (to me) not-so-well-known kit manufacturers mentioned. And although I don't have first hand knowledge with all of the purveyors discussed, I find it interesting that to date, no one has mentioned Westerfield as a manufacturer of high quality, highly detailed models of steam era rolling stock. In fact, Westerfield offers examples not available from any one else.

My back-stock of "To Be Built" kits includes quite a number of Mr. Westerfields offerings. They build up into very nice pieces of rolling stock.

One of the pioneers of the cast urethane craftsman kits, a considerable amount of care must nbe exercised when assembling your first kit, but once you master the unique assembly steps of this type of kit, they become enjpoyable builds and the finished product is worthy of pride.

They are not inexpensive, but when you consider the fact that they are a craftsman kit, that it will take more than a couple of evenings of careful model building to realize the completed model, the end product justifies the fun-for-the-dollar quotient that I assign when rating a model to determine if it will be a purchase or not.

My own first Westerfield kit, built back in 1989 when I was confined to laying on the sofa with ice bags strapped to my post-arthroscopic-surgery swollen knee, had some tricky steps (assembling the roof and getting the pitch correct is one step that had me very concerned - those early flat cast urethane parts were quite brittle until part of an assembly) that one doesn't normally have to deal with in your average plastic kit, but after the first time, it goes pretty smoothly.

The results are pretty decent ...



Note: Most LS&W MoW equipment rolls on Fox Pressed Steel trucks ... being from upstate Pennsylvania, we are from frugal stock.

Of course, after having been here at Big Blue for a while and seeing many of doctorwayne's box cars, I realize I have some detail to add ... like roof walk end supports, for starters!

[doctorwayne]

BiL, the Westerfield kits do make into some nice cars which are otherwise unavailable, but for me, the main reason for avoiding them was the price.
Here's my only Westerfield car, picked up out of an estate lot at the LHS. It came without instructions but was an easy build:


Another purveyor of craftsman-type resin kits is Funaro & Camerlengo, who offer this B&O wagontop boxcar:


Sylvan made some nice craftsman kits of Canadian prototypes, like this caboose...


...but most folks nowadays opt for the nicely-done r-t-r versions from Trueline Trains:


Another maker of craftsman-type resin kits is Sunshine Models, but they're next to impossible to find around here, and most runs are sold out quickly.

Wayne

[Jon Grant 4472]

Going back to the original question, I only have experience of Exactrail and Accurail cars. For my layout which has under-track magnets, I have to remove wheels, truck screws and body weight, even if the model is RTR, otherwise I get that tell-tale wobble over the magnet. Only Kadee seem to have addressed this.

On the accurail SS boxcars, check which type of centrebeam was used. SS cars only rarely had the fishbelly centrebeam as provided in the kit, so you have to fabricate a flat centrebeam out of plasticard. adding the rest of the underframe detail also makes a difference for low-angled shots







Jon

[doctorwayne]

You're right about the underframes, Jon, but I left them as-is on most of mine, as I'm a big fan of fishbelly underframes.

Wayne

[mountaingoatgreg]

Just a side note

The first two cars that were produced by Tangent were made by the people who started Exactrail. If you look at the 4427 from Exactrail and the 4740 you will see the similarities.

The people that run/own Exactrail made models for Cannon, Tangent, Athearn, LBF, and others before heading out on their own.

Also most of the companies undecorated kits are a LOT less then the decorated models.

Another neat company for Modern equipment is BLMA http://www.blmamodels.com
Also for a real challange check out Rail Yard http://www.railyardmodels.com/

And don't forget Sunshine!!!

[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.

[doctorwayne]

Russ, unfortunately the Detail Associates (my mistake in my original post) bracketed grabs are Delrin castings. While they're nicely-done, it's difficult to remove any flash that may be present, and they're mounted to the car with pins on the top part of the brackets - the bottom of the bracket is meant to simply sit against the car's side (Delrin can be cemented, but only with expensive cyano-epoxy.) As you can see in the 3/4 view of the Milwaukee car, they don't always sit so well.

A quick search showed these from Kaslo Shops, which appear to be identical to the Detail Associates version.

I'm not aware of any brass versions, but it's possible to alter cast styrene bracketed grabs. First, using solvent-type cement for styrene, cement the plastic grabs in place. After the joint has completely hardened (at least 24 hours), use a sharp blade to cut-away the grab from between the brackets (which are usually solid stepped blocks representing open brackets). Next, trim away any remnants of the grabiron from the brackets' tops - a #17 chisel blade works well for this - then mark that area for drilling. I used a #79 bit (I break #80s merely by looking at them, but can get decent use from #79s ) to drill through each solid "bracket" and then on through the car's side. Install a straight wire grab iron into the holes, bending over the ends on the car's interior, then securing them with an application of ca, also from the interior of the car. While close inspection shows the solid brackets, they look presentable when on the layout:




Wayne

[Russ Bellinis]

Thanks Doc. I like the P2k 50 foot auto boxcars for my mid 1950's modeling in the modular club, but don't like the way the plastic details break off just by looking at them. I also don't like the plastic brake rigging, but plan to cut off the brake pipes and replace with brass wire. I'm going to try your method of modifying the grabs, and plan to use your method in another thread for making brass ladders to replace the plastic ones in the kits.

[Puddlejumper]

I have to agree, I like metal detail parts. I do not buy plastic, resin, or delrin detail parts for ANYTHING! The brass and other metals are just so much more durable.

[doctorwayne]

Here's another Sylvan craftsman-type resin kit:


They offered variations of this car for all of the roads that owned the real ones, including TH&B, CPR, CNR, and PGE/BCR.

Here's what the real ones looked like:


TrueLine Trains now offer the same cars, r-t-r, in plastic, and I suspect has captured most if not all of Sylvan's market. They are nicely done, but they've omitted the original CNR paint scheme. Even though they're too modern for my operating era, I would have bought an undecorated one, had such a car been offered.

Another car that I really like is the no-longer-available 50' single-sheathed doubledoor boxcar from Walthers. They came with separate ends, allowing the modeller to choose either a regular "A" end or one with end doors. I bought four of them when they were first released, including this Great Northern car:


and one lettered for the Milwaukee Road:


...and two which I re-lettered using C-D-S dry transfers:




I didn't see any others for quite some time, then nine undecorated kits showed up at the LHS - at $5.00 each, I grabbed them all, lettering them for my own EG&E. Here's an older shot of one of them which I built with operating doors. The black roof and ends were a recent modification to the original paint scheme when this photo was made and I've since added lines above and below the reporting marks:


Wayne