Hello all... Just received my new 2-8-0 and I love it, I'm new to Model Railroading so I was suprised at the quality of this 59 dollar steam loco, can you guys suggest any low priced passenger cars that have the same couplers? Thank in advance...
You do not state if you want heavyweight or lightweight. You do not state if it has Rapido or knuckle couplers. The first issues of these came with Rapidos. Later issues had various knuckle couplers. Making changes is not hard. One question that I would ask you is what is the radius of your curves? If they are anything less than fourteen inches, I would suggest using Bachmann's shorty Standard passenger cars. The drawbacks of these are: 1. They have been out of production for some time. You can find them at shows, on various auction sites or in other places in cyberland. 2. They come with Rapido couplers. Changing the couplers to knuckle is not hard. You can even swap out the B-mann trucks for Micro-Trains trucks that have couplers that you can mount to them. 3. They come in only three configurations: Baggage/passenger, coach and 'observation'. The open deck observation is really a coach with one end chopped off. There are also Micro-Trains heavyweight cars. These are full length cars with body mount knuckle couplers. They work and look best on curves of fifteen inch radius or better, but you might get away with thirteen inch curves. Cars that have appeared so far are sleeper, coach, open deck observation and full RPO. There are plans to issue diners and baggage cars. Con-Cor sells Rivarossi HWs. These are old patterns. They come in baggage, baggage/mail, coach, sleeper, diner and open deck observation. Older versions will have Rapido couplers; newer, various knuckle couplers. They look and work best on curves of fifteen inches, or better. If you must go the wood route, Athearn sells and MDC sold fifty foot wood cars. They come in baggage/mail, coach, sleeper and business configurations. Athearn sells and MDC also sold thirty four foot wood cars. They come in baggage, baggage/mail, coach and parlour car configurations. I would suspect that the last might look a bit silly behind the B-mann SPECTRUM 2-8-0. They look great behind any nineteenth century locomotive. The Athearns are copies of the old MDC. The Athearn/MDCs will run on nine and three quarter curves. Still, I have not had good luck with the Bachpersonn SPECTRUM 2-8-0 on curves so sharp. Mine tend to climb those curves and derail. If you want Lightweights, corrugateds or smoothsides, there are many manufacturers and choices.
I owe one of the 2-8-0s with DCC and really enjoy running a variety of types of trains. Perhaps one option for a holiday train would be the open cars that Bachmann offers. I have seen them at hobby shows. Holiday train may have another meaning for you; i.e. extra service train that ran because of the increased in passenger traffic at the holiday season. If you are modeling the steam era; the MTL heavy weights would be nice choice as well.
