Hello all
I have a number of older Accurail ACF 3 bay hoppers and looking to get some more.
Do they still have;
I appreciate that the cars can be easily modified to screw on trucks and couplers, Kadee #5 and metal wheels but this then makes them more expensive than some other RTR cars that come with these as standard.
Bill
I’ve bought some recently. They have updated them so that you use screws to secure the trucks & couplers.
The wheels are still plastic & they still come with the Accumate couplers but in my opinion, they’re better than most RTR cars available.
Gordon
Are Accumate couplers the ones that are in two pieces? And is that the same as what Atlas use?
The coupler that came with my first Accurail covered hopper was a single piece non functioning coupler.
All the Accurail kits I’ve purchased in the past few years have had Accumates and screws for the trucks and coupelrs. Still have plastic wheels, but I swap them with P2K wheelsets. The plastic truck pins are still included (too expensive to modify the sprue tooling to leave them off) but you cna make roof ventilators and stuff out of them. I also have a bin full of Accumate couplers in my parts boxes, since those junkers get replaced with real Kadees. The #148 whisker couplers work great. Accumates are THREE pieces, the upper and lower half plus the air hose piece. Dummy couplers are also still included, since they were already on the parts sprue, but it’s been a really long time since I got an Accurail kit that only had the dummies. It’s one of the single sheath box cars I built like 20 years ago, still running with the trucks held on by the plastic pins - they aren’t THAT horrible.
–Randy
Bill,
Accurail changed over to screws for trucks & couplers years ago. The really old ones had plastic dummy couplers, but the current production has the split shank ‘Accumate’ coupler. Wheels are still plastic.
When I pick an older kit, it just drill out the truck/coupler mounts, tap for a 2-56 screw and go from there. For the price, I can do 10-15 minutes of work, I replace the couplers with Kadee, and the wheel sets with Intermountain(after reaming out the truck journals with my Micro-Mark ‘Tool’).
For the price, these are great cars to upgrade/detail…
Jim
I think the trick would be finding recent issue Accurail vs something that came out before the changes. I suppose you would have to specify to your vendor you wanted Accurail stuff produce dafter a certain date or else you might get “old shelf stock” with the pins instead of the scews to hold the trucks on.
Me, it’s not big deal. I file the bolsters down just like Athearn to keep the trucks from rocking. I think Atlas used to have pins once back in the 90’s IIRC.
I have built a lot of the Accurail kits and find them a real bargain. I replace the plastic wheels with Intermountain semi scale metal wheels, and add Kadee couplers. These are still quite a bit less expensive than the ready to run stuff that is of high quality. The draft gear and trucks are now secured with screws. On all of the other kits that have glue on coupler boxes or items secured with pins I drill them out and replace them with screws 2/56 of the appropriate length. A line makes a very nice tap and die and jig for drilling these out. It was reviewed on this site not very long ago and it works great.
I use the whisker couplers in the original size but if I had it to do over again I think I would use the reduced size version Kadee makes that is more accurate scale wise. Although I am not at present a member of a club I feel there is good reason so many of them have standards for rolling stock to be equipped with Kadees and metal wheel sets. Those semi scale wheels really do look good on the models as well.