02-13-2009, 12:02 PM
Miles, both the Accurail car and the Proto1000 gondola have good detail.
The Accurail car has full interior detail, with rivets on both the floor and the interior of the sides, and corrugations on the ends, too. The sill steps are separate castings, and are very fine. The underframe has representations of rivets, but the underfloor is plain, and all three major components of the brake gear, along with the associated rods, are represented. Both the trucks and the coupler covers are attached with screws. The brakewheel is a nicely-done separate casting. Car weight is 3oz.
The Proto1000 gondola comes r-t-r, and the interior is detailed only on the floor, which is very nicely done. Included is board detail, representations of the attachments to the underframe and bolsters, and details of the eight drop doors used on these cars. The corrugated ends are plain on the interior, as are the sides, although it was easy to scribe board detail into them with an X-Acto. The brake valve, cylinder and reservoir are included on the underside, although the modeller will have to supply the rods and levers if they want that detail. The underframe and underfloor are very well-detailed, with rivets, board detail, drop-door hardware and a representation of the door-closing mechanism all included. The handbrake is the Miner lever-activated type, and is cast-on. The trucks are attached with screws, while the coupler covers appear to somehow clip in place - magnetic-type knuckle couplers (with coil springs for the knuckles) are installed. Car weight is 4oz.
The Accurail cars are supposedly lettered for roads that actually owned them, with BLT. dates of 1941 or later (I changed mine to early-to-mid '30s, to keep them more in line with my chosen late-'30s era.)
, and are also available as painted cars lettered with only dimensional data. I passed on some roadnames that I would have liked to have had, as I knew the lettering schemes to be too modern. (That may also be the case for the ones which I did buy, but ignorance, in this case, is bliss) 
The Proto cars are representations of USRA-designed cars, with BLT dates mostly of 1919 - that, plus the price, convinced me that I "needed" these cars - the lettering schemes on the ones available at my LHS were all older-style, and very much in keeping with my era. (Possibly why the price was so good.) I believe that these cars may have also been done with more modern (still steam-era, though) lettering, too.
Wayne
The Accurail car has full interior detail, with rivets on both the floor and the interior of the sides, and corrugations on the ends, too. The sill steps are separate castings, and are very fine. The underframe has representations of rivets, but the underfloor is plain, and all three major components of the brake gear, along with the associated rods, are represented. Both the trucks and the coupler covers are attached with screws. The brakewheel is a nicely-done separate casting. Car weight is 3oz.
The Proto1000 gondola comes r-t-r, and the interior is detailed only on the floor, which is very nicely done. Included is board detail, representations of the attachments to the underframe and bolsters, and details of the eight drop doors used on these cars. The corrugated ends are plain on the interior, as are the sides, although it was easy to scribe board detail into them with an X-Acto. The brake valve, cylinder and reservoir are included on the underside, although the modeller will have to supply the rods and levers if they want that detail. The underframe and underfloor are very well-detailed, with rivets, board detail, drop-door hardware and a representation of the door-closing mechanism all included. The handbrake is the Miner lever-activated type, and is cast-on. The trucks are attached with screws, while the coupler covers appear to somehow clip in place - magnetic-type knuckle couplers (with coil springs for the knuckles) are installed. Car weight is 4oz.
The Accurail cars are supposedly lettered for roads that actually owned them, with BLT. dates of 1941 or later (I changed mine to early-to-mid '30s, to keep them more in line with my chosen late-'30s era.)
, and are also available as painted cars lettered with only dimensional data. I passed on some roadnames that I would have liked to have had, as I knew the lettering schemes to be too modern. (That may also be the case for the ones which I did buy, but ignorance, in this case, is bliss) The Proto cars are representations of USRA-designed cars, with BLT dates mostly of 1919 - that, plus the price, convinced me that I "needed" these cars - the lettering schemes on the ones available at my LHS were all older-style, and very much in keeping with my era. (Possibly why the price was so good.) I believe that these cars may have also been done with more modern (still steam-era, though) lettering, too.
Wayne