Would you spend a little more money on new rolling stock that had body mounted couplers and low profile metal wheelsets?
Hey, NO. I like the ttruck mounted couplers. If you derail on a curve(I 've got alot of curves),you can rehook them easy.
I'd like to spend a little more money for those. unfortunately I think it could cost more than what the parts cost me as well as require a re-design of tankers and covered hoppers, for example. For trains of moderate length, a lot of folks recommend sticking to one style or the other. So the result won't please those that are in the process of upgrading to MT truck-mounted couplers. I'd also prefer to have prices kept down.
I would be happy to pay a little more for any style mt or accumates on rollingstock rather than Rapido couplers. As for low profile wheels it doesnt really bother me either way
I would happily pay extra for metal wheels but am quite happy with the truck mounted couplers. Regards, Dave
Partially tongue in cheek. As a spinoff from the acronym over there for ebay as TASWDMH=That Auction Site We Dont Mention Here. I had a thought.... TFWDMH = That Forum We Don't Mention Here for forum.atlasrr.com It was hoped to be funny in case any of the defenders of Talgo were ready to pounce on me.
While I'm still in the aquisition and contruction stage, I just received my MTL ATSF Autoracks. I have a piece of Atlas Code 55 Flextrack. I changed out the wheels to low profile, then coupled them up and went to see how they look compared to my Con-Cor Autorack. (the MTLs are really nice). I noticed that the MTLs have 1035 trucks and 1019 couplers mounted. What I noticed was that backing the two racks up with my hand, the couplers really "kinked". I can see how body mounting these couplers would be an improvement. What I also noticed was that there was a place on the underbody where you supposedly could body mount the 1019s. I did a little further research on upgrading the Con Cors and found that I would be using the exact same trucks and couplers along with an Alan Curtis underframe. (By the time you add up all the upgrade costs, the Con-Cors need to cost about $10 to be price competitive to the new MTLs, OC Engineer JD was right!). So, it looks like I could take apart the truck/coupler on the new MTLs and body mount the couplers.
I knew it had to be something such as you describe. Although we do see both mentioned here. But it was Monday. So my mind was still on weekend status. Boxcab E50
Personally, I think it really depends on the car. I run on an NTrack club layout, but even so, the longer modern stuff seems to do better with truck mounted (plus, we don't do much of anything in the way of switching). For shorter cars, yes I would pay extra. In fact, I already do for the TrainWorx hoppers (although I find it interesting that their assembled models come truck mounted). The option they provide, to build the kit either way, seems like probably the best way to go. The car frames (sills?) come with holes predrilled where the coupler box will be screwed on. Sort of like Alan's kits, where the instructions explain how to do either method.
