The kit is mostly snap together and the end product is very good looking.
Only the brake detail on the B end is glued in place. The assembly design is clever.
Intermountain metal wheels and Kadee #148 whisker couplers are the only improvements I made. The Accurail trucks are quite good.
Given how little work is required to assemble the car it compares very favourably to ready to run product in price, about half what a fully assembled model goes for.
Yes, Accurail rolling stock is a good choice and is always on my “watch for” list. The body paint (flat) and lettering (sharp) has always been nice. The “cast” lettering on the trucks/side frames was always a nice addition. These are just one piece of rolling stock you need not worry when the “air crane” needs to rerail it or change out the rolling stock on the layout. The 40’ Single Sheath outside braced boxcars have wonderful ‘‘wood’’ detail.
I used to seek out the large Accurail vendor when we used to have train shows. I always brought a spreadsheet of all my rolling stock, because Accurail usually had a couple of my road’s boxcars in numbers I didn’t have, so there was very little work needed. Yes, the cars always got Intermountain wheelsets and Kadee couplers.
I have a Bowser covered hopper that I enjoyed putting together. I got it undecorated, and made my own decals for the Saltzburg Salt company, as a raw material I needed for my tannery.
Yeah, you can count me in, too, as a big fan of Accurail’s rolling stock, as they offer lots for my layout’s late '30s operations…
I bought a bunch of their undecorated Fowler boxcars, too, and modified them with a “steel” roof over the original board-by-board version, then changed some of the wooden doors for various steel ones…
While I have lots of covered hoppers, they weren’t very common in the ‘30s. However, covered hoppers (the earlier ones) are among my favourites. Those from Accurail are too modern for my layout’s timeframe. I do have some of Accurail’s 40’ steel boxcars, too, and a bunch of 34’ open hoppers and 40’ gondolas.
While some of these cars are factory-painted and lettered, the majority of mine were bought undecorated.
Wayne
Currently Accurail makes up over 46% of my rolling stock. It’s a good quality kit and their releases in the past several years have improved on that quality - particularly the stirrup re-design on the 36’ Fowler and double-sheath metal & wood boxcars.
I was so excited when they released their 41’ AAR steel gondolas years ago, as there was a dearth of that size for several years before they came out. And the 6- & 8-panel boxcars are my favorites. I really enjoy looking at the “grain of the wood” texture that has been embedded into the exterior plastic shell.
The only Accurail model that was a bit of a disappointment for me was the recent MILW ribbed-side boxcars. Generally there is very little-to-no flash on Accruail kit parts. I had to do some cleanup to the underside of the MILW ribbed-side boxcars shells to get the underframe to fit properly, as well as clean up the roof walks.
I would love to see Accurail come out with a tank car kit. I already have more than enough tank cars from Proto 2000, Intermountain, and Tangent. None of the aforementioned currently produces a pre-painted tank car kit. I’d like to see how Accruail would go about it with the current improvements that they have made to their dies.
Tom
I like Accurail, and I like covered hoppers. I dont have any of accurails though. Do they make any appropriate for the mid to late 60s? Dan
Southgate,
If you go to the Accurail website and click on the Series 2000 & 2200 covered hoppers, the BLT dates for the prototype are generally listed to the right of the link to the photo of the model. If it isn’t the BLT can be found on the model graphics.
Tom
Thanks, Tom. Everything is sold out there, but it’s a great reference source of what to look for at other places. Since they’re pretty much all the same car, dating to the mid 60s, a little fiddling with the blt date would fit them right in Dan
You’re welcome, Dan. I always check the BLT & NEW dates when looking at new Accruail offerings on their website, or when a photo posted on eBay for an Accurail kit isn’t as “legible” as I would like it. Yea, it’s a handy reference. I also appreciate that Accurail posts photos or images of what they model looks like or will look like.
Tom
It looks like my Accurail trucks have added LL P2K wheelsets, 33" flat back. The LLP2K metal wheels do have cast letters on the wheel faces[tup]. May have to try some InterMountain’s.
I had always been very happy with the smoothness of the Proto 2000 33" wheelsets in my rolling stock trucks but had to look elsewhere when Walthers decided to drop the ribbed-back 12-pks. [:(] Since I mainly model the 40s, my only other choice was the Kadee 523s. They have worked fine for me but I still like the unblackened appearance of the Protos. My hope is that Tangent will eventually release that type to accompany their smooth-back wheelsets that they offer.
Tom
If I’m not mistaken, Accurail bought the moulds from RIB SIDE CARS, but I’m not sure if they’ve been used as-is, or perhaps somewhat modified.
I bought one of the RIB SIDE kits, as the BLT. date of those cars fit well into my layout’s late '30s era…
I did modify the brake gear with a few more details, plus some free-standing grabirons on the sides and ends, and on the runningboard laterals, too.
Wayne
Beware the built dates listed on Accurail’s site. The date often applies to a prototype car for which their model is not approriate. For example, the Pullman Standard 4750 hopper they make first appeared in 1972, but Accurail lists paint schemes for it dating to the mid-1960s, including roads that were already merged out of existence before the 4750 was available from PS. The same is true of their ACF 4600. Whether you’re OK with the anachronisms is of course up to you.
My understanding is that they’re just shooting the Rib Side Cars molds without any changes. As soon as I read the post about the flash I thought, “ah, because they’re not Accurail molds, so there’s some differences at work.”
I haven’t put together a lot of Accurail kits, but I’ve done a few. Mostly because they don’t have a lot that hits my era nice and square. Their covered hoppers are good fleet fillers, though, and their 2-bays they have just started to release are going to fill out a lot of frac sand trains. Yeah, they’re not as nice as the American Limited 2-bays, but let’s be realistic: I can get two Accurail cars for the price of a single American Limited car.
Accurail’s house cars do sometimes have tight fitting bodies. I’ve broken more than a few stirrups getting the body on. No big deal, though.
I picked up one of the blue MR&T 2-bays and put it together on Friday. Went together easily and cleanly.
I’ve only noticed the inward warping issue on much older kits. I’ve never broken a stirrup though pressing it into place.
What I do is pry the mid-section of the shell out far enough to slip one end of the base into the lip then slide that end to the far end of the shell at a low angle. That usually gets the base to press the warped mid-section out far enough that the other half of the base can be coaxed & snapped into the remaining lip of the shell. Round toothpicks can also be helpful aids as wedges in this latter step.
For really bad warping I have glued 8x8 or 10x10 dimensional styrene braces inside the shell between the long walls to press the mid-section outward. I cut two braces the exact width of the shell (use the ends as your guide) then place them at 1/3 intervals inside the shell about 1/2 way up the shell wall. This should still allow enough tension at the bottom of the shell so that the base snaps into the lip. I like to glue at least one end of a brace to a shell wall so that it cannot be inadvertently dislodged later and rattle around inside when the shell is on.
Tom
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… I really enjoy looking at the “grain of the wood” texture that has been embedded into the exterior plastic shell…
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Actually, that is where I beg to differ. In my opinion it is greatly exaggerated, to the point of being toy-like. Even derelict bodies after decades in a farmer’s field generally have flat faces to the individual boards. Any visible grain pattern where the paint has completely fallen off is similar to the grain you can see in a hardwood floor, with minimal actual relief. Where the paint still exists, the wood surface is usually flat between the milled grooves.
The same applies to wood buildings that are in dire need of repair. The planks may be beyond salvage, but there is very little in the way of actual grain grooves.
John