Ok I know they have been gone a long time now. I hear a lot of people complaining and wanting them back and including me for some of them. Well I just put together my first Accurail box car. No worries now the Accurail is excellent. I assembled a 5000 series box car and right on the instructions it states made in the U.S.A.! It has it’s little quirks but so do the Athearns. The fake couplers are not real bad until I can replace them and the screw in coupler boxes are nice. (Ran out of Kadee’s) The doors left a little bit of wanting.
My Blue Box issues seem to be solved! Accurail has a new customer.
Yes they are nice, maybe a few pieces a little flimsy for me. It would be nice if some of the thinner pieces were molded in a tougher plastic. But that doesn’t glue well, so you need precision holes for assembly.
Agree on missing the BlueBox kits and miss the Walthers kits big time.
I don’t mind the Accurail kits too much. I just got finished with a covered hopper kit. The flimsy coupler cover pins didn’t sit well with me so I cut the coupler pockets off and mounted Kadee coupler boxes with Kadee shelf couplers. I also tossed out the plastic pins used for mounting the trucks and used brass screws instead. Other than that, no problems.
I bought 2 Proto 2000 covered hopper kits and they are next in line. I found a place that had them for under $10 and the owner told me people weren’t buying them because they were a little more difficult to build. I’m going to find out! As long as the construction is good they should be no problem and Proto 2000 everything else I have bought all were first rate. I have a Branchline kit and one other to do also.
IIRC, all of the current Accurail kit production has real metal truck/coupler screws - A big improvement! I still pick up a lot of the older kits - nothing drilling/tapping for a 2-56 screw will not fix. One of the nice things about Accurail/5th Ave kits are that the paint is matched to Badger Modelflex paint colors. I remove the cast on grabs and use my BLMA ‘jig’ to drill for the new wire grabs. A little paint and everything matches. I usually add Kadee roof walks and complete the underbody ‘plumbing’ as well. Metal wheel sets/Real Kadee couplers and a little weathering make this Accurail kits real show stoppers. If you like to model transition era, these are the cars to build a fleet out of.
I just talked to Atlas a couple weeks ago and at this time they plan to keep producing Branchline’s cars in kit form. In fact an ad was running at one of the forums I frequent announcing this fact!
As far as Athearn is concerned, I think you need to kiss the Blue Box good bye! Horizon Hobbies is all about supplying products that are pre-built to the large percentage of people in this and other hobbies that want them exactly that way!
I have built 3 Accurail cars and to be honest don’t remember much about building. Now that may sound stupid, but it is not. If they where a pain in the caboose I would have remember building!
I still miss Blue Box rolling stock, if it was not for them I would not have nearly as many cars as I do. But, I do remember what a pain they could be to build. On the 50 foot box cars you had to cut of some of the floor to get the shell on and get the doors to slide. Then there terrible coupler height problem? One end would have to have a straight shank coupler, other end maybe a raised coupler? Never really knew till you where done.
Once you got the hang of them, they where not hard.
When I hit K-10 Model Train again, I will check out what they have in the way of Accurail cars. Like I need any more cars anyway. [:-^]
I liked the BB kits but never the coupler box cover. I preferred the screw in cover design that was common with the MDC Roundhouse kits.
I have built the Accurail 47 foot hopper and love them. The plastic pins are ok but the boxes can be secured by screws also. The newer versions have screw-held boxes, which others have mentioned.
The problem with Accurail is that they do not offer many modern cars. I would buy more if they did.
I have tried to assemble Walthers and Proto kits and did not like them. Granted, they were tank car kits and, like any tank car kit, I could never align the pieces without the seam showing.
If I ever need another box car I will try one of their kits. Maybe hoppers too. I’ll leave the tank cars to Chinese hands.
I just read about one of Athearn’s Chinese suppliers going bankrupt??? Can’t say I am heart broken. How does a communist country’s industry business’s go bankrupt? All the new releases that will not be delivered maybe a shame but support Accurail. American made! Good quality and affordable. So you might pay a little more for a product but the jobs are here at home. There is still a market for kits and if Athearn will not do it support those that do. American made all the better.
Right on RMax1! Support the kit manufactuirers and if their US manufacturers, support them even more!
These are the new Model Railroaders here! I find it “frightening” that many have only “built” a couple of car kits! Thankful they’ve built a couple; but, scary they’ve only built a few! I don’t understand the attraction of RTR, they’re too expensive and no better than a Branchline or Proto 2000 car. Just don’t get why someone would pay so much money to not have the fun of building!
I miss the blue box kits. However I have built several Accurail and Branchline kits and find them excellent. I really like the high level of detail of the blueprint series, they are not shake the box kits but are I think as good as a lot of the higher priced ready to run and superior to many. Accurail seem to be not much more expensive than the old blue box kits but also of higher quality and they offer the option of custom orders with road-names or free lanced road names I believe in lots of 48. Just the thing for the free-lancer that wants a set of home road hoppers or some other frequently used car.
I hope these folks stay in business till I am long gone as they make nice stuff and I plan on continuing to purchase their products as long as I am around. I did have a set of doors missing in one of the Branchline kits and after a phone call a replacement set was sent to me very promptly. I have several Atlas locomotives which I am very pleased with and believe they will continue the good work since purchasing Branchline.
Don’t forget about Tichy kits…they are also made in the USA. I’ve built 6 or 7 different ones and they are great kits. They are a bit more involved than an Accurail or BB kit though…
This is a Tichy tank car that I finished a few weeks ago. The decals finally came in, so it will make it’s way to the paint shop soon!
