Kato's new MOL containers (the green ones with the big alligator logo) were so cool I couldn't help but ordering a pair... of course now they need a few companions and a well car to ride in. I presume the Kato stuff is generally excellent, and I'd imagine Deluxe's containers are good too, since that seems to be one of their niches. The LHS also has a decent stock of Con-cor (inexpensive) and Walthers (spendy); are the tolerances on those high enough to be compatible with the DI and Kato well cars? Various online retailers seem to have a few other brands, mostly Japanese, in "N" scale, although a few of them are 1:150 - any suggestions there? I see DI has a sticky bonding product to hold the containers together; is that worth getting, or are there other products that can accomplish that for less? Any other "gotchas" or tips? I'm all ears.
Yes, Kato and DI are definitely the top of the heap. Walthers aren't bad either. Con-Cor is just very old, very bad tooling. (read: poor detail and fidelity to the real thing) If they have a scheme you like then they'll do but generally...you get what you pay for. All of the aforementioned (Kato, DI, Walthers, Con-Cor) are generally compatible, but stay away from the 1:150 stuff for loads in well cars or stacking on top of others....they most likely won't fit into wells, and will look odd stacked. DI's sticky bonding stuff is good, or you can get similar stuff at office/art supply stores. Or a tiny dab of water soluble glue for a little more permanent solution that can still be undone. The biggest key in my mind is make sure any container that sits inside a well car has sufficient weight. AND, don't put ANY weight in the stacked top containers at all, else you'll have a big tumped-over mess of train cars.
Thanks Doug; you must be spot on as nobody has jumped in to argue Tracking down these containers online is a bit difficult, it seems - I really want a copy of Deluxe's Sealand container with the "Reefer Plus" penguins, but I can't find one anywhere.
I have a 5 car walthers BN well set I'm also looking for containers, I have a pair of DI BN ones that were for my roundhouse well car(which I plan to pick up more of).
The DI stuff is pesky on account of everything being sold in a two or five pack, at least when you're only looking for one... we need an exchange where we can list what we've got, what we want, and exchange containers without any money getting involved. That'd be easy, right?
they come in 5 packs, that'd make it easy for me to build up containers for when I switch back to the BN, my new Kato SD40-2's will need a container train to haul. as for exchanges, probably.
From my experience both Kato and DI's well cars are top notch out of the box. The Kato's are not as detailed as the DI cars, but they do come with containers. Both run great when I have pulled them on the N-trak modules, I have run them for entire days with no issues.
Good idea Ottergoose. I've been wanting to swap my 10 Kato APL containers for something else. Since TrainBoard has the Swap Meet, how about we use it? I just posted my 10 APLs and what I'd like to swap for them. Please take a look and hopefully we can all get what we'd like! http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...vailable-10-APL-(blue)-40&p=927577#post927577
If you have tunnels or bridges, be very careful Con-Cor containers. I found this out the hard way running on an N Trak layout with a bridge. It wasn't pretty. I retired all my Con-Cor containers as a result. They are higher than DI or Walthers.
A couple notes: Con-Cor 40' containers are too wide to fit in any of the manufactured 40' wells. Some runs of the Walthers are also a little long to fit in the Interrail or Deluxe Thrall Lopac. Also you may be interested in this old thread on how I keep my containers together with magnets. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...le-stacking-your-containers-the-magnet-method Umm, that really, really isn't true. Con-Cor's 48' and 53' containers are actually a little short with respect to Walthers, DI, and the prototype. Keep in mind there are two prototype heights of containers: 8' and 9'-6". Only 40' and 20' containers come in the 8' height, and only DI and Kato have made models of those. If you mostly have DI 40' containers, then two of those, or one DI and a Walthers, will be shorter than two Concor 48s. But any other stacked containers will be a smidge taller than the Con-Cor.
I've been satisfied for the most part with Kato and DI cars and containers out of the box. They usually need little tweaking. I don't have any Con-cor cars or containers. Previous poor experiences keeps me away from them. Our club has a traveling layout and a few of us have experienced derailment issues when Kato locos (both AC4400's and SD90MAC's) are pulling Kato stack cars. Installing longer M-T couplers fixes the problem. Using Walther's well cars between the Kato locos and stack cars also works without coupler mods. The Walther's cars are a little heavier than the Kato cars which does the trick. As an aside, I've seen photos previously on "the Board" of Yanke containers. Anyone know who made them or perhaps the decals? Thx.
Check out the video's here about DigCom containers. You purchase the files, and then print them at home. They look very good from video ! Also do inserts for enclosed autoracks. http://www.youtube.com/user/banjol4595/videos
I'm currently doing a run of 40' containers to help folks who buy my container ships fill out the decks and transfer yards. Even a small 375' feeder ship will have up to 250 containers above deck, and buying them even 5 at a time quickly becomes expensive. These are pretty crude resin-cast items, unpainted and undecaled, meant only as background items. While my website now says $2.25 apiece, that's not realistic, and they will probably go for $1.25 each. I'm suggesting they are useful for filling in the "inside" of container stacks, with better-detailed commercial products on the outside. All I can say about them now is that they are the correct size, and have some blemishes. I'll be working to get them up on the website this week, along with some pictures. I've got only a 100 so far, so I need to see how long the molds last, and if I can improve the finish. For some reason, the Z scale containers came out fabulously, and I have 100s on hand without blemishes. While they take only 40% of the material, I can't figure out why they turned out so well, compared to the N scale ones. I'll try to have everything up by next week, including a shopping cart.
