Do any of you guys have any experience with Grandt Line Box Cabs or Switchers in HO scale? I am thinking about getting one of these, but would like a little info on them first. How is their electrical pickup? How many cars can they pull? I think they are in kit form, are they hard to build? Thanks,
Jim
No personal experience with the boxcabs but Malcolm Furlow used 2 of them in his book about building the San Juan Central. He permanently connected these 2 mainly because he installed a decoder into 1 of them. He says in the article “They are easy to assemble and they operate great”, you will need to add weight to them. I have assembled other Grandt Line kits and have found the instructions and the quality to be fine.
MHO
They run well. Electrical pickup is good. Plenty of room for a decoder. Add some weight and they can pull about 5 cars on level. The answer to how hard they are to build depends. It depends how good you are at building moderate level kits. This is definately not a “shake the box” type of kit. There are many parts and many small parts. The instructions are excellent but care must be taken in following the instructions. I built a On3 steam switcher from Grandt line. There were times I felt like taking the kit and either throwing it in the waste basket or against the wall. But I was patient and completed the kit and it was a gem.
Hope this helps,
Steve B.
I’m very interested in this little critter. But I resisted to buy this 25ton. I’ve heard from friends about it: Grandt Line has a nice kit of a GE 25 ton, both models, boxcab and small cabin. I’ve built the first one and have seen a model built of the other. Nice models, beit that the pulling isn’t just that impressive!
And another one wrote: They have one small problem - electrical contact. Having only 4 small wheels they tend to stall on the tiniest piece of dirt. A simple cure I found was to keep the track as clean as possible and to run them in pairs. To mount DCC in them the cab is empty - the motor actually fits in the hood. Just like the prototype!
So I decided to build my own, from brass. I have only someone to make the driving unit. [:)]
Wolfgang
I built a boxcab a few years ago. Since then I converted to DCC & haven’t installed a decoder yet. IMHO there is no room inside for a decoder because you have to pack the entire cab full of lead to make it run well. Without weight added it is VERY light, The hardest part is bending the contacts correctly. With the lead packed cab, it runs fairly well, but will stall at insulated frogs. You could run 2 together as Malcom did to lenghten the electrical contact area & allow room for a decoder or permanetly attach a car with pickupe & room for a decoder. It is a basic model with a lot of potential. Jerry L
I purchased one for about 20 dollars retail some time ago. I opened the kit and had second thoughts. It is not your basic kit.
I resold it and will wait for a good boxcab to come down the pike.
It is a nice little kit.
I own the 25 tonner, it makes a nice kit if you have at least moderate kit-building skills, but probably not for a beginning modeler. It is very very very very light, and really needs lead packed into every excess nook and cranny. I suppose that by ripping out the cab detail you could cram in a decoder, but DCC would be one heck of a challenge.
Mine will pull 5-6 cars, but it’s so light that often it will just sit and spin its wheels. I’m considering making up a custom weight that can hang under the frame and add some weight. I literally chose a brass horn over a plastic one just to add a little bit of weight to the model! (Note: The photos below were taken before I added the horn.)
One problem with power pickup is that the axles are hard to keep true: normally only three wheels have good contact with the ground, the other is off a little bit, perhaps because the plastic frame is a little bit non-straight.
Here’s my model:
Here’s the prototype I’m modeling, an industrial loco at the Simsmetal yard in Sacramento, CA:
Dwarfed by a GE 70 tonner!
Not sure if this link will work, but here’s a low-res video of my 25 tonner in action:
Can anyone tell I’m kind of fond of these locos?
Me too !!
Those critters are great. I own a Keystone kit, 44-ton. It runs like a gem. You can see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Geob8ivh7U
I’ve started with the 25-ton:
Wolfgang