Join the discussion on the following article:
Accurail HO mill gondola
Looks great Could use several on my layout. Will check out my dealer
I only have two standard questions about EVERY new product review: 1) Is it within my era (this one obviously is) 2) Does it have molded-on grab irons that must be scraped off? All other things to me are less relevant, as ‘fine lettering’ is usually destroyed in the process as the car is repainted. I can only hope that one day Accurail will get the idea that the niceness of molded on details (the ones that SHOULD be there, rivets, plates, etc) are nullified by molded on details that should NOT be there (especially grab irons) I would love to buy several of these cars, but I get tired of paying the money to immediately destroy the nice paint and lettering finish by scraping grab irons, repainting and re-lettering.
I’ve purchased the RTR ATSF version and was impressed by the excelent lettering even the builders name was clear. Only fault was the position of the break pivots with seam to foul the drop bottom doors.
Ditto Gerald from NJ. Good wheel sets and couplers are critical to reliable and long lasting operations. To me, far more important than .02" lettering that needs to be observed with a magnifying glass. I, too, always factor in the cost of trucks and couplers to my total model cost, where needed.
It seems it’s time that mfg. of higher end kits should include metal wheels & KD couplers. I always add the price of these to any model I buy. I realize that they want to keep the price low, but most purchasers of these kits will upgrade & what do we do with the plastic wheels & couplers ? Only my opinion.
If you strive for accuracy, be careful of roadname selection as many are bogus or “standins”. This is not a criticism of the excellent kit itself which is good for CNW, GMO, and DRGW (that I am aware) and possibly others. I believe the DRGW ones were gone quickly after WWII.
I need more Gons on my 1959 era Intermountain Pacific RR. These look like great models and yes all my equipment gets metal wheels and Kadee couplers. The others are subpar. Plastic wheels gather crud too easily . Think that I could use a half dozen of these. Wish they came with N.P. lettering as my road interchanges with that line, and CB&Q. I can adjust for the short weight with loads.
I also would prefer ACCURAIL offer metal wheels and Kadee couplers. I trash the “Accumate” jobs and substitute Kadees. I don’t mind the cast on detail as at my age, with my eyesight and unsteady hand, having to install grab irons is a chore.
i also wish that they would also have metal trucks but I swithced mine out so over all its awesome
Very nice looking, but I’m disappointed to still see cast-on grab irons.
I didn’t realize this car had been on the market so long until I came here to offer some tips. Oh well. As it’s still being sold, maybe my experiences with assembling 17 of them (so far) for a friend will help someone anyway.
This is a very nice kit that, with only a little patience, makes up as a really nice car . The worst thing about it is the instructions, mostly their sequence. My advice is:
- Discard the plastic wheels and wannabe couplers; replace with metal wheels and real Kadees.
- Use slow setting CA everyplace except the stirrup steps. This means waiting for the CA to set at various points but it’s worth it.
- Delay installation of the weight until the very last thing you do (before weathering, of course). The reason is that most of the items added to the basic shell can be glued from inside the car for a much neater job. Installation of the floor hides those glue points. This also allows you to keep the car inverted until it’s ready to rest on its trucks while the CA holding the weight sets up.
- Personal preference: The car is a little light (3.25 oz) by NMRA standards (4 oz) even with the weight provided and metal wheels. We even prefer cars a little heavier than the NMRA so I added a sheet of 3/32" lead between the provided weight and the plastic sub-floor. Makes the floor thicker than it should be but nobody is likely to notice.
- Install the brake platform before the handbrake rod (and chain) and use the hole in the platform to help align the handbrake rod. Install these before the brake equipment on the underside of the car to avoid breaking the delicate brake rods on the underside.
Jerry Glow mentioned the Rio Grande’s cars were gone quickly after the war. That’s true, as they were tied to getting wartime production out of the Geneva Steel complex in Utah. Since the government owned them, they ended up on the Alaska RR. If you dig around for ARR rolling stock pictures on the web, you can find images of them in service up there. IIRC they were in Rio Grande paint for as much as a decade after they arrived. I have no idea if any made it back to the Lower 48 via ferry in their original paint, but that’s a possibility.