Opinions/observations on HO rolling stock

[pgandw]

DocWayne, I'm assuming these are fairly recent acquisitions?

The price was right, and with a little TLC, they are very attractive models.

I have the same philosophy, I'm just not going to pay the high RTR prices for rollingstock - and not just becasue I am cheap - because it is fun to do these rebuilds and detailing.

Lucky for me, none of the new RTR rolling stock is made for 19th Century prototypes. Wood and resin kits still rule, and scratchbuilding wood cars is not supposed to be that difficult. Or bash and backdate Roundhouse Old Timers. I've picked up IHC MOW series kits. I've also bought some Bachmann and Tyco cars for $1 - $3 each from broken up Old West train sets. All of these need improving to fit in with my concept of detailing, but as has been said that's a good part of the fun. Admittedly, by the time trucks and couplers and new queen posts and other details are added, I'm up to $12+ per car. But my small layout can only use about 30 cars anyway.

Even in HOn3, all the Blackstone cars are models of 20th Century post-rebuild cars - with the flat car being the exception I have seen so far. So I have four Blackstone and Micro-Trains cars (2 of which later to be sold) to get me started while I build up the roster from kits and scratch.

If you model a non-favored era or scale, you don't have to worry much about the price of RTR. If you prefer the more common eras and prototypes in HO or N, you can choose.

The price of plastic locomotives and cars from China is only going to go up - and faster than our local inflation. But looking at things through inflation: in the early '70s an Athearn Blue Box generic kit cost $2.98. Add Kadee couplers and decent trucks and you were up to $6 or $7. And you had no choice because the included couplers were horn hooks, and the included trucks were pretty junky. With inflation, that $7 is now over $28. The high end current car comes already assembled - without a bent weight to throw you off - with usable knuckle couplers (normally not as good as Kadees, but usable) and decent trucks. And it's an accurate model of its prototype with a far greater chance of having an accurate paint scheme. And there's enough selection that you don't see the exact same car with the exact same number on everybody's layout. But back then, you could make a car card that could be easily used on multiple layouts.

So quality, variety, and price have all gone up. That leaves us with choices.

my thoughts, your choices

[doctorwayne]

DocWayne, I'm assuming these are fairly recent acquisitions?

The milk cars have been laying about for a while, but all five cars were part of my 49 car rebuilding programme to take care of a backlog of unbuilt or un-rebuilt cars. There's one more to go in that original batch, a Tichy wheel car. I used the wheels to make gondola loads, with a few left over for scenic items.






The car itself is getting low, removeable sides, and will be lettered as MoW equipment - might use it as an idler flat for switching the GERN silos, where low clearance prohibits direct loco access.

I still have eight Athearn 40' boxcars left to build, and, when I get around to it, may do them as a step-by-step. My plan is to removed the roof and top horizontal rivet strip, then remove about a foot or so from the car's height. The roof and rivet strip will then be re-installed and the roof only will be removed. I'll replace that with a Viking roof from Des Plaines Hobbies, then change the ends for modified ones from Tichy. I'm going to use Central Valley floors and underframes, although they'll need to be chopped-up and re-assembled to get the correct spacing for the truck centres. New doors and details will be added and I will (hopefully) end up with a bunch of 1932 ARA boxcars, or at least my road's version of a similar car. The cost will probably end up in the $15.00 - $20.00 per car range, but with lots of modelling enjoyment built in, not a bad price overall.

After that, I'm hoping that nobody releases any more cars that interest me. I'd still like to add one of the carbon black cars from Rail Shop Inc. and a SOO Line "sawtooth" boxcar from Speedwitch Media, and I'm also planning on scratchbuilding/kitbashing some MoW equipment and a few more headend cars for my passenger trains, and maybe a vinegar car.

Wayne

[Gary S]

I still have eight Athearn 40' boxcars left to build, and, when I get around to it, may do them as a step-by-step.

I'm voting for a photo-tutorial step by step! As usual, your rollingstock is superb, and makes a great example of the quality that can be obtained with a little skill and effort.

[doctorwayne]

Thanks, Gary, but I doubt there are many others who are crazy enough to spend that much effort on old Athearn boxcars - crazy enough for other projects, perhaps, though.

Wayne

[scubadude]

Being N scale myself, I'm certainly not qualified to comment on any of these or any other HO cars. Seems like everyone is partial to one or two of the same manufacturers for various reasons......Athearn, Accurail, Atlas, etc. However, I haven't seen anyone comment on Bowser kits. Only reason I ask is because my friend Allan G. has given me several Bowser kits to assemble for his HO layout. So far all are coal hoppers. This is the first time I have ever assembled a car. What are your opinions of Bowser??? Here's a pic of the one car I did straight out of the box except adding Kadee couplers and metal wheels....

edit - He paid $10 per kit at the LHS

[Gary S]

Richard, I've never done any Bowser kits. I'm definitely an Accurail - Athearn Blue Box - Roundhouse kind of guy! But the hopper you built looks good. Are those sprung trucks? and did they come with the kit?

[doctorwayne]

That Bowser hopper is the old Stewart fish-belly hopper:


They also offer the former Stewart U-channel hopper:


...and several Pennsy-specific hoppers, including the GLa:


...the H-21a


...H-22 coke car, with clamshell doors:


and the H-22a, with regular hoppers and rebuilt side sheets:


...along with this Pennsy X-31A (and several other versions of the Pennsy wagon-top cars):


and this regular-roofed version of the Pennsy 40' doubledoor car:


I like the Bowser cars: nicely detailed at a reasonable price.

Wayne

[scubadude]

Being a rather dull lightbulb, I'm not sure what you mean by "sprung trucks". The trucks are just one-piece molded plastic and I just replaced the plastic wheel sets with metal ones. This pic shows another unassembled kit that might answer your question..

[scubadude]

Doc, I think we're posting at the same time! All the boxes for these Bowser kits do say Stewart Hobbies on them as well. Wow, I was feeling pretty good about my first effort on building/weathering a car until I saw yours...... ....I should have known better

[Gary S]

By "sprung trucks," I'm talking about trucks with actual little springs like Kadee's. You obviously did a good job weathering the trucks if you fooled me into thinking they were multi-piece trucks with seperate springs!

[rrinker]

By "sprung trucks," I'm talking about trucks with actual little springs like Kadee's. You obviously did a good job weathering the trucks if you fooled me into thinking they were multi-piece trucks with seperate springs!

Indeed. But that Grand Valley hopper - those MUST be actual sprung trucks. Just the right touch with the rust on the others, they really do look like sprung trucks.

--Randy

[Gary S]

Lucky for me, none of the new RTR rolling stock is made for 19th Century prototypes. Wood and resin kits still rule, and scratchbuilding wood cars is not supposed to be that difficult. Or bash and backdate Roundhouse Old Timers. I've picked up IHC MOW series kits. I've also bought some Bachmann and Tyco cars for $1 - $3 each from broken up Old West train sets. All of these need improving to fit in with my concept of detailing, but as has been said that's a good part of the fun. Admittedly, by the time trucks and couplers and new queen posts and other details are added, I'm up to $12+ per car. But my small layout can only use about 30 cars anyway.

$12 isn't bad at all, especially when you think about the quality hobby time you got out of each car. Great stuff!

[Gary S]

Indeed. But that Grand Valley hopper - those MUST be actual sprung trucks. Just the right touch with the rust on the others, they really do look like sprung trucks.

Yeah, on the Grand Valley car, the way you can see through the trucks, gotta be sprung. I mean, DocWayne is good, but not THAT good!

[nachoman]

Wow, I haven't checked this thread in awhile - some very inspiring work here. I've got a few old trainset bachmann/tyco/ahm cars to upgrade. Some of them don't fit with my era, but they are still fun to work on. You can build a decent fleet from these train set cast-offs by simply adding wire grabs, new stirrups, body mount couplers, new trucks, and some paint and weathering.

[doctorwayne]

Doc, I think we're posting at the same time! All the boxes for these Bowser kits do say Stewart Hobbies on them as well. Wow, I was feeling pretty good about my first effort on building/weathering a car until I saw yours...... ....I should have known better

Thanks, but I think that yours turned out really well, and the painted springs are very convincing.

... that Grand Valley hopper - those MUST be actual sprung trucks. Just the right touch with the rust on the others, they really do look like sprung trucks.

You're right, Randy, they're Kadee Andrews trucks. I'm not sure why they were used on that particular car, but a quick check showed a sister Stewart car with the same trucks, and a pair of Varney open hoppers also with Andrews trucks from Train Miniature. Andrews trucks are my favourite style for freight cars, and Kadees were my favourite version of them until Accurail released their one-piece version with excellent detail:


Wayne