Opinions/observations on HO rolling stock

[AF350]

Anyone in HO have an opinion/observations of Exactrail, Auccurail and Tangant brands of rolling stock? They all look to me to be fairly nice in detail but do they perform well?

[doctorwayne]

I'm not qualified to comment on the first and last which you mention, but I have lots of Accurail cars and consider them to be good value for the money. Since I model the '30s, the cars in which I'm interested are mainly the wood-construction ones, along with the older style steel hoppers and gondolas.
I have seen comments that some modellers aren't too crazy about the one-piece plastic wheelsets, although I've had no problems with them. Most of the kits are what I would consider to be "shake-the-box" type, allowing the modeller to build them easily or add additional detail as they see fit. They also offer undecorated versions of their kits, a real boon to free-lancers.

Wayne

[AF350]

Thanks Dr Wayne.

I am not going back to HO but am curious about the newer"to me" companies as I am not in the loop on HO or N scale stuff but have seen these in ads in Model Railroader and thought wow these are far better then tyco, life like I remember as a young kid. Built my share of Roudhouse and Atheran kits wish there were affordable kits in O and S scale/gauge.

[Gary S]

I very much like the Accurail cars too. They are inexpensive yet prototypical, with the exception of molded on details for the most part. I have had good luck with them, but I do add kadee couplers and draft boxes and metal wheels.

The other two brands are fairly expensive, but have much more detail. I don't have any of them, but would equate them to Kadee rollingstock.

[Russ Bellinis]

Since Athearn and Roundhouse are the same company now and Horizon has announced the elimination of all kits, Accurail is the only "shake the box" type kit still available.

[MasonJar]

Russ: That sounds like bad news...!

But back to the question... I too have no direct experience with Exactrail or Tangant. However, the Accurail cars are extremely popular at the modular club. The cast on details are actually a bonus, since the cars receive a huge amount of handling and transportation or each set-up. They still look good, but are far more robust than cars with fine detail. The main upgrades made for running at the club are Kadee #5s and metal wheelsets.

Andrew

[Gary S]

Andrew, you make a great point. I very much like Accurail rollingstock for the reason you mention. With my operational plan, the cars will be going back and forth between storage drawers and the layout, meaning they will be handled between operating sessions. Not good for the itty-bitty fragile details. The molded on detail on the Accurail cars still looks good, and isn't going to break off... although the thin stirrups do get broken on occasion.

Comparing Accurail boxcars to Athearn blue box boxcars, the Accurail doors and door tracks are much more "built to scale." On my athearn cars, I have been cutting off the oversized door tracks and replacing them with thin plastic strip, and replacing the doors too.

[nachoman]

This thread demonstrates how out of the loop I am. Of the three companies you mentioned, Accurail is the only one I have heard of! I had to visit the websites of the other two (wow!). I used to think Accurail was top-notch detail next to Athearn Blue Box cars, but it looks like rolling stock has gotten considerably more detailed since then. I only have some short USRA hopper cars and some outside braced wood boxcars from accurail. I am happy with the amount of detail, but as I recall the hoppers did not run well until I modified them. The plastic wheelsets they came with were terrible, and the plastic pins they used to hold the trucks on kept coming loose. I don't know if they still use these plastic pins or plastic wheels, but if they do they are easily modified to accept screws and metal wheelsets.

[Gary S]

Kevin, I forgot about those plastic truck pins. I replace those with screws too.

[doctorwayne]

The newer Accurail kits now use screws for both the trucks and the coupler covers, but, as Kevin notes, the older cars are easy to upgrade.

Wayne

[Russ Bellinis]

The newer Accurail kits now use screws for both the trucks and the coupler covers, but, as Kevin notes, the older cars are easy to upgrade.

Wayne

If I remember correctly, when up grading older Accurail kits, you could fill the holes in the frame with plastic tubing and then mount the trucks with #2-56 screws, but I found that #6 screws were perfect to thread into the existing holes. I haven't built an accurail kit in a while so I may be remembering someone else's kits.

[AF350]

Wow, thanks everyone for sharing experiences and tips on these lines of ho trains. They all look nice and probably will gain followers in time. Like I posted before when I was a kid it was TYCO, Liflike, Bachmann, AHM, Model power, and Athearn and Roundhouse. Of all the HO stuff I had the hand me down AHM stuff was my favorite. Disliked TYCO specially their tank cars.

I wonder if the 3 lines(Accurail, Exactrail, and Tanget) would be a big hit at a well stocked local hobby shop? Of course they would have to compete and or compliment the Atlas, Athearn, Kato and other major players in the hobby. I know at least one of them was looking for dealers to increase their market exposure. :?: Any hobby shop owners out there?

[doctorwayne]

........I haven't built an accurail kit in a while so I may be remembering someone else's kits.

I think you're right, Russ. The Accurail kits' truck-mounting method could be modified simply by replacing the press-in pin with a 2-56 screw - no filling, drilling or tapping required.

The coupler box covers were a little more work, requiring the modeller to shave off the pin on the lid, then drill a suitable hole through its former centre-point. The mounting boss in the box, depending on the screw size selected, also needed to be drilled out and, if necessary, tapped. Again, depending on the particular screw chosen, it was sometimes advantageous to countersink the hole in the coverplate, too.

Wayne

[Empirebuilder]

I too had not heard of Exactrail cars until just today" found a review of their latest Milwaukee rib side car on the MR website and about swallowed my dentures when i noticed the suggested list price $35 Be a cold day in hell when i pay those prices for a single freight car .....and that with minimal detail added Iknow the times they are a changin' but this is just highway robbery.
But as the man sez you don't gotta buy'em....and I won't

[doctorwayne]

Yeah, even though the car is right for my late '30s era, it's a little too rich for my blood. Instead, I picked up Intermountain's slightly too-modern-for-my-layout version of the same car for about ten bucks. Normally, these are more expensive, too, but mine was a kit and and an undecorated one at that. My plan was to backdate it by extending the ribs right to the ends of the car, but I opted instead to just build it as-intended. It won't be the only car on my layout that's been time-shifted.

Wayne