We’re excited to announce we’ve acquired ExactRail. As you know, ExactRail is a top manufacturer of HO and N Scale freight cars and bridges. This addition nearly doubles our freight car offerings. For all of the details, visit our website at https://www.scaletrains.com/exactrail-acquisition. Shane Wilson President ScaleTrains.com, Inc.
Question - When ScaleTrains formally releases/re-releases ExactRail rolling stock, which metal wheelsets will they use - ExactRail, FVM or your own?
"When ScaleTrains formally releases/re-releases ExactRail rolling stock, which metal wheelsets will they use..." More importantly, will they replace the good couplers now used on Exactrail cars with the oversized Scale Trains boxing glove couplers?
Wonder if ScaleTrains will continue the production of the ExactRail N-Scale wheel-set bulk packs and whether or not the N-Scale ACF Vert-A-Pac cars will be rerun in Missouri Pacific Lines, which was not produced in either N or HO, and the Baltimore & Ohio, Frisco, Merchants Despatch (NYC/MDT), and Southern Pacific liveries which were only released in HO-Scale.
I'll have to go dig out one of my old ExactRail cars and check out the couplers, didn't really remember them being different. Also, I thought the Scale Trains couplers were about the same size as M/T's? Maybe they will re run the older ExactRail auto carriers. Can't remember the name off hand, VertaPac maybe?
So this explains why ExactRail shut down TrainLife. I'm glad to see ExactRail has found a new home with Scale Trains and I look forward to seeing Scale Trains continue to offer the many excellent N scale rolling stock from Exact Rail.
Bring on the N scale products. I need more SP roman lettered diesels with the modern drives and tech.
Exactrail I think used MTL at the beginning, but switched to MTL knock-offs, which always worked well. On the carbon black hoppers (Scale Trains first release), you basically had to slam the cars together to get them to coupler. It was mentioned and shown in several review videos which can still be found on YouTube. As for size, they're close, but are bigger. They are closer to size as that of McHenry's. Somewhere I snapped a pic of the couplers in place and i swear they were almost as long as the diameter of a wheel. Way bigger than it needs to be. Easy fix, but should haven't to do that with the quality of these cars imho, replace the couplers with MTL 1015/1016's For as much research as they say they did on these cars and the cost of these cars, why not just use MTL (or MTL knock-off couplers) in the first place?????
ACF Vert-A-Pac The ExactRail ACF Vert-A-Pac cars were never released in Missouri Pacific or Rock Island livery in either N or HO Scale. The Baltimore & Ohio, Frisco, Merchants Despatch (NYC/MDT), and Southern Pacific paint schemes were only released in HO-Scale. Burlington Northern Florida East Coast, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, Rio Grande, and Seaboard Coast Line were released in both N and HO Scale.
Here is a photo of HO and N Scale ExactRail Florida East Coast Vert-A-Pac cars from my blog article Necessity Breeds Innovation: The Vert-A-Pac Railroad Auto Carrier.
One thing that I really liked about ExactRail was their willingness to do obscure roads like the Evans 5277 boxcar in road names like Ferdinand R.R., a little shortline in southwestern Indiana that was only 6.5 miles long and connected some local furniture makers with the Southern/Norfolk Southern. Evans also used them for car leasing storage. Their motive power was a lone GE45 tonner, but in it's early days it used a modern American 4-4-0. I was so thrilled when the offered the Ferdinand cars that I just had to add them as a shortline on my layout but using a Bachmann GE 44 tonner as a stand in. Ralph
Another one bites the dust, and another one bites the dust....... Will be interesting to see what happens next. I have a lot of the Exact Rail cars and have liked them very much. So I wonder who the next take-over will be......... perhaps I wonder if it will be Bluford Shops? Been a great deal of consolidations going on, will it all end up in something like the big three like Ford, GM and Dodge?
Heck, I'd like it if manufacturers would simply re-release new runs of previously produced rolling stock and locomotives too. I've never understood the reluctance to do this. All of the expensive pre-work has been paid for. Re-releases seem like an easy way to profit.
The age old contest between collectors and runners. Collectors favor limited production; runners favor plentiful production. Guess who's winning...
Hmmm, probably true Andy. If they'd issue them with new road numbers, maybe that would quell collector upset.
But it would also make it easier for unscrupulous users to "forge" a road number that was in high demand.
