Remember the survey we did a while back on locomotives? Well, I thought the same would be good for rolling stock. What are everybody's feelings on the different manufacturers of rolling stock? I have somewhat limited experience, but here's my $0.02 worth.... Athearn - Excellent value for the money. Good detail and operates well on the track. Concor - Limited experience, but not too impressed. Rate it below Athearn. Walthers - Only bought some ore cars. Had to re-work all the couplers to make them run, but looks good. IHC - Have some older cars. Great for little kids, but no thanks. Maybe the newer ones are better? Bachman - O.K., but I'll take an Athearn instead if I can. Maybe their Silver Series are a lot better? Anyone else have an opinion? I know the experience varies all over the spectrum depending on the type of cars and their vintage. Mark
Just a few quick observations and opinions: Athearn - regular line is a great value. They look and run great, and are easy to upgrade. Their newer releases, like the 53' Jindo and J.B. Hunt containers, and the upcoming Genesis 60' boxcars, are also excellent. Atlas - Another great product...I've got their different tank cars (33k, 23.5k, and 16.5k gal) and I'm happy with the level of painting and detail on all of them. Their 60' ACF boxcar is nice, as is the 53' Evans box. The ACF 4650 Center Flow hopper is excellent too; I like the fact they give you different hatch/outlet/roofwalk support configurations to better match different prototypes. MDC/Roundhouse - Pretty much the same category as Athearn, IMHO. Walthers - Overall pretty good, but sometimes hit-and-miss; for example, I think their 89' Thrall/W&K tri-level rack is an excellent car, but the NSC Pellet hopper they released recently has problems (waaay too light, coupler boxes too small to easily accept Kadee #5's or 58's). It's a nice car, but I wish it had been engineered a bit better. Life-Like P2k - Excellent cars; their PS-2CD 4427 hopper is a gorgeous model, IMHO. Hi-Tech Details - Their only release so far, of a P-S 40' "Baby Hy-Cube", builds into a nice car...I can't wait to see what they decide to release next. Overall, I'd probably rate Atlas and P2k at the top, although with all the new stuff coming out form the various makers, that might change.
My favorites are Red Caboose, Bowser, and Atlas. I plan on giving Intermountain, Branchline, and Accurail a try as well. I like kits, but if I can find some nice RTR then I'll buy. The Atlas tank cars are beautiful and so are the Kadee boxcars (but I couldn't afford a train full of them! ) I guess any freight car can be improved with a little detail work and some weathering!! Plus, models are looking better and better each year. Makes it tough keeping the bank account balanced "Look Ahead, Look South"
I guess the best IMO would be anything made by P2K, Intermountain, and Red Caboose. All are well detialed and run great. Besides I like building these kits, No shake the box here . Kadees are also great, but a little expensive. Atlas cars are pretty good, as are the P1Ks. Athern, Bowser, and Roundhouse make great entry leval cars, just add detials, and new grabs. Laserkit makes some well thought out caboose kits, try one of these for a change of pace....Mike
My experience is limited in that I'm still building my stock and fininshing the layout. I've put together about 3 dozen freight cars of verious manufactures and find most of them are decent in their instuctions and parts except they all provide plastic wheels and usually plastic couplers. It's also annoying when the screw heads have slot heads instead of phillips head (if you are over 60 yrs old you will know how much easier it is to thread with phillips head screws. On the "baad" list are Model Power & Tyco plus any car with the coupler mounted to the truck. The best bang for the buck are IHC freight cars when they are on sale. Take care, Jim
Here's my two cents' worth: Non-Proto LifeLess, all Tyco, non-Spectrum Bachmann: not even worthy of a model scrapyard Mantua: fair to middling AHM: with modification, may work. Athearn: great entry-level cars. I still have a lot of them on the layout. The newer boxcars are a step up for this company. Model Die Casting: ranked with Athearn: modern cars are slighly better. P1K and P2K: sweeeeet. Like the covered hopers and mill gons. Walthers: great tank cars, fair boxcars. Atlas: run-'em-out-of-the-box freight cars with great details. Ditch the plastic couplers & get some Kadees (that's a debate for another post ) Intermountain: awesome detail (better be for the price) I've also bought EC Car Shops, McKean, Con-Cor, and Cannonball Car Shops. I like 'em all. I've missed some cars, to be sure, but that's only because I've never bought their products, so I can't say anything about 'em. [ 14 July 2001: Message edited by: friscobob ]</p>
I've always liked Athearn-can still remember the boxes from when i was 11 years old [54 now]. I really like the IHC cars out now- got over a hundred. Yes, they have the horror of truck mounted couplers, but they roll well, i have real wide curves on my layout and they can easily be converted to quality trucks and body mounted couplers when i can afford that. After 43 years of model RRing i have still not reached the sophistication level of wanting highly detailed rolling stock- i love seeing a LOT of freight cars in yards and on sidings, and IHC cars are painted well and look great to me-especially at $2 to $3 dollars each. Curt
I've only been at this for a few months and only have experience with Athearn, MDC Roundhouse and IHC. I'm happy with the detail on all of them, although maybe that's because I haven't tried the high-end products. Some of the Roundhouse cars are a little rough in the fit-and-finish department, but that can be taken care of with a little filing. None of them come with couplers that work worth a shake, so I'm gradually replacing all with Kadees. Many of the Athearns come with coupler housings that snap on, and the snaps don't hold well so a lasting coupler retrofit requires drilling and/or removing plastic and glueing on a new Kadee housing. Athearn couplers are often also at the wrong height - either high or low, and have to be adjusted by raising or lowering the trucks, building up the coupler housing, or using a Kadee with an offset shank. The IHC and Roundhouse couplers tend to be at the right height and are easily replaced - just pop in a Kadee #5 spring and coupler and screw down the lid. I also have a Walthers "Trainline" log car that has been a royal pain. The screws that secure the couplers are so high that the trucks don't clear them on tight turns, and it derails. I replaced them with flat-head screws and it's better, but still squirly.
<font color="336633">Here is my thourghts on the cars I have. A-line - Thrall stack cars nice kits, lot of work in them, with detail kits avalible make good cars. Athearn - Good basic cars but need some work. Atlas - Very good, nice detail. Bachmann - hmmmmm word im looking for begins with C... Concor - Only have one of them and its a 47' PS 3 bay covered hopper, detail is thick and over scale. E&C - Paint is to thick and fuzzy. Front range - Good cars, but have flaws. Intermountian - Very good cars, not much to do to them. Lifelife - got some of the old thrall all door boxcars, these only cost me a few £ each so ok for the money, needed new trucks though. lifelife P2K - Fantastic cars. McKean - boxcars ok, centerbeam flat pain in the A... MDC - good basic cars again, better than athearn. Tyco - Hmmmmmmmm no comment! Walthers - Kits were good, ready to run are poor. All cars I have got needed new Wheels (apart from P2K), all needed Coupler cut bars, most needed new etched walkways, air hoses, couplers and cusion coupler pockets. I have not yet found a car that has not needed something to do to it, but my standards are high . </font>
IHC freight cars-I agree with Curt in that IHC has great detailed freight cars especially when picked up on sale. Intermountain wheels are the only axles that fit their trucks. Their hoppers are for show only mainly because the couplers are mounted to the trucks but their box cars have seperate coupler mounts. I'm still building stock & this topic is important; thanks for all your inputs. Jim
hmm,the best rolling stock, I will rank what I have ran. 1--Kadee, excellent details,rolls real good & couples real good. 2--Proto 2000--kits--lots of small details to apply to boxcars, great rollers & usually put in a Kadee coupler anyway. Proto 2000--RTR--have a caboose so far and it real good running and great detail. 3--Atlas--looks ok, runs okay, couples ok. 4--Kato is ok, good detail & metal wheels & knuckle couplers. 5 Athearn--good for starting out. usually have to trade up to mounting Kadee couplers & metal wheels. 6-Roundhouse--some filing work to do when assembling, but ok. 7--Bachmann SILVER SERIES--good stuff, metal wheels & knuckle couplers. 8--Walthers--RTR--ok.See Athearn 9--IHC--good for starting, plus at 4 bucks ea. good deal. 10--Mantua--see IHC, except more than 4 bucks.
Hears what I have expernce with Athearn- The all around bentchmark for cars. Not bad but not the best. priced so you can build a large fleet in time. Very easy to assemble.... most the time. MDC- same par as athearn. though some cars need some TLC when it comes to runing quality Atlas- AWSOME!!! though my 33K Gal tank needed some work. LL regular- Needs work to be anything usefull LL P2K- Very good, Very Complex to build. (but thats okay makes the hobby fun) Front Range- I love them little 2 bay ACFs. but they need some mods to get them to track right Walthers- as mentioned earlier by other people the kits were better than the premade stuff. but in general all there cars needwork Bachmann- improving but a long way from prefection Accurail- better than athearn, still need minor mods to get to run right. A-Line- kit to the basic power. there spines are very versital. That all what I have experence in
Anybody have any experience with Arizona Freightyard cars? I've been trying to find a good source of UP coal cars, and the pictures on their web-site look pretty good. 6 Bethgon coalporters for $50. Any comments? http://www.azfreightyard.com/ Mark
I forgot to mention McKean and Bowser- I've bought hoppers from both makers (Frisco, natch). While the McKeans ain't shabby, the Bowsers are better detail-wise. I have very few cars with metal wheels, but I recommend them down the road. Also, for couplers, nothing beats Kadees for strength, workmanship, and price.
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Mark_Athay: Anybody have any experience with Arizona Freightyard cars? I've been trying to find a good source of UP coal cars, and the pictures on their web-site look pretty good. 6 Bethgon coalporters for $50. Any comments? http://www.azfreightyard.com/ Mark<hr></blockquote> IIRC, they're the same cars made by LBF Company ( http://www.lbfcompany.com ). I'd guess Arizona Freightyard has some kind of marketing agreement with LBF.
