01-15-2013, 12:58 PM
You mention the Walthers Evans X72 boxcars -- everyone has his or her own standards, but even given trucks with metal wheels that screw in and metal couplers on these cars, there are basic things that still need to be done from my point of view. These are personal preferences, though some come from 50+ years experience trying to get HO trains to work right!
I'm out of Details West cushion underframes and so is my LHS, so for starters, I would normally have replaced the whole Walthers underframe with a Details West, since the detail is a little better and it includes the cushion, which the prototype had. But simply as a stopgap, I don't run any cars with clip-on Athearn coupler pockets. I drilled out the nub or whatever it is that the coupler swivels on in these pockets, tapped 2-56, and inserted a screw to keep the clip-on coupler pocket cover in place.
Second, I simply can't stand bare metal wheels or unpainted couplers, and I can't stand shiny plastic truck sideframes, so I had to fix those.
Third, if the car represents the period 1968-1978, I add the ACI label to the paint. Even RTR with good paint is inconsistent over doing this.
Fourth, the car is about an ounce short of NMRA weight, and this matters on larger layouts with longer trains.
This view stresses how really bad the stock stirrup steps are, and I need to schedule all my Walthers X72s through the shop for this. I'm steadily working througn the same issue with my Athearn and Accurail cars.
RTR in recent years has definitely improved paint, like these Walthers cars. On the whole, RTR cars that are upgraded old tooling, like ex-bluebox Athearn RTR or Walthers like these, and cost in maybe the $20-25 range, are a good deal because they include metal wheels and couplers and much improved paint. If like much recent Walthers Mainline RTR, they also have screw-in coupler pockets, so much the better. However I still say ready-to-run they ain't!
I'm out of Details West cushion underframes and so is my LHS, so for starters, I would normally have replaced the whole Walthers underframe with a Details West, since the detail is a little better and it includes the cushion, which the prototype had. But simply as a stopgap, I don't run any cars with clip-on Athearn coupler pockets. I drilled out the nub or whatever it is that the coupler swivels on in these pockets, tapped 2-56, and inserted a screw to keep the clip-on coupler pocket cover in place.
Second, I simply can't stand bare metal wheels or unpainted couplers, and I can't stand shiny plastic truck sideframes, so I had to fix those.
Third, if the car represents the period 1968-1978, I add the ACI label to the paint. Even RTR with good paint is inconsistent over doing this.
Fourth, the car is about an ounce short of NMRA weight, and this matters on larger layouts with longer trains.
This view stresses how really bad the stock stirrup steps are, and I need to schedule all my Walthers X72s through the shop for this. I'm steadily working througn the same issue with my Athearn and Accurail cars.
RTR in recent years has definitely improved paint, like these Walthers cars. On the whole, RTR cars that are upgraded old tooling, like ex-bluebox Athearn RTR or Walthers like these, and cost in maybe the $20-25 range, are a good deal because they include metal wheels and couplers and much improved paint. If like much recent Walthers Mainline RTR, they also have screw-in coupler pockets, so much the better. However I still say ready-to-run they ain't!