I just pulled out some cars from storage to run on the layout. They were in their original packing, stored carefully, and always handled gently. They were some really nice cars that I use for display when I have guests over.
8/10 of these cars were irreperably damaged in some way. Their fine details had broken off, bent, or were only being held on loosely. I am sick of paying 30,40, and 50 dollars for these cars, and then being provided with the most minimal packaging protection in their boxes. Most of my fleet is Accurail, Atlas or Athearn RTR/Roundhouse. I don’t have to worry about those cars getting damaged. Chuck em in a shoe box and bounce them around. Not a scratch on them! But these Rapido boxcars? Destroyed after thinking about them twice. That nice Kadee hopper? Its in 16 pieces. Ooo, thats a nice looking $60 boxcar, it would be a shame if it… spontaniously dissasembled.
sigh Rant over. My anger is spent and my day is now ruined. So, what grinds your gears in the model RR world.
I share the same feelings about locomotives. I do not have any desire for an uber-detailed plastic model that is just going to break as it receives maintenance or repair.
Athearn, Stewart, and Kato make up my diesel fleet, and the steamers are old sturdy brass.
I build almost all my freight cars from kits, so I can choose to leave off fragile details or install tougher options like A-Line sill steps.
Not even trains, but a car of a different sort. My girlfriend has a mini-cooper. The battery died. She had to have the car towed from here in Delaware to Annapolis in Maryland, about two hours away, because no one in Delaware can change a mini-cooper battery. It has to be reprogrammed at the dealer to get the car to accept it.
It sounds like you have a storage issue. Since moving to the land of no basements 5 years ago, my model railroading is done at a club. I only have “expensive” cars, Rapido, Tangent, Exactrail and so on. The cars are transported back and forth between my house and the club. I have had very little issues with details being broken off, and the majority of the issues I would take the blame on.
I stand by my choice to get rid of the Accurail, blue box, and other crude models for something more detailed.
I’ve never known anyone that’s had cars falling apart like this short of a derailment that drops them on a concrete floor.
Bumping small details when handling is one thing, but unless you’re just being overly hyperbolic for effect, if you’re exploding a car into a dozen pieces I really have to wonder how rough you are on these things…?
I agree completely with the OP. On my previous layout, the bulk of my freight car fleet was Athearn BB. Accurail has now replaced Athearn for inexpensive, shake-the-box kits. I upgrade them with KD 148 couplers and metal wheels but I am perfectly fine with molded on details. They look just fine to me. I do have a small number of higher end freight cars with the fine detail that I bought at train shows at deeply discounted prices. That fine detail looks nice but is mostly unnoticed when in a long freight train. It does require extra careful handling or that fine detail is going to get broken off. What I find completely useless is fine detailing on the bottom of rolling stock. Why bother?
Now, please, don’t get me started on high end passenger cars.
The worst part about buying expensive cars is realizing that they often break easily. Having cars shatter is never fun. I knw that regardless of how I’m careful, I don’t take any cars for granted.
It seems many expensive cars have to satisfy the must-have itch.
I like high-end stuff. Being fragile is the price we pay for quality scale. My stuff rarely comes off the layout once put there so handling is not a concern. When it does come off it gets my full attention while I am handling it because it is so fragile. I know before I pick it up where the soft spots are.
If you can’t tell the difference between a high-end or low-end musical instrument, audio system, TV, car, or sports equipment then don’t spend the money, it’s the same with trains. I know someone that has the most complete workshop you could ever want and every tool is top-of-the-line expensive. I have never seen him build anything with it, the workshop is the hobby, not what he could do with it. I think I have used his tools more than he has.
Nothing grinds my gears in this hobby, anything that is not performing the way it should, be it bad track or a malfunctioning loco can be fixed. Getting mad, like worrying solves nothing and is a complete waste of time and energy that could be put toward the solution.
Expensive cars? Like Bentley or Rolls Royce? Maybe Lambo or Ferrari? Heck when people are paying more than $100,000 for a pickup then there are no expensive cars. Junk if you ask me.
Expensive rolling stock is also junk. Give me a robust kit like Bowser or Branchline any day.
So, you have a bunch of detailed cars that make it all the way from China undamaged in their “minimal packaging”, you take them out of their packaging to display, and put them back in their packages undamaged.
And the next time you take them out to look at them 8 out of 10 are “irrepairably damaged”.
I don’t quite understand how that happens, unless you have some of those Twilight Zone closet monsters.
Most of the time the only thing that falls off the highly detailed cars at my house are the air hoses, and manufacturers like Moloco are fixing that by using real rubber air hoses now, so they don’t fall off.
Many times the packaging is designed so that the car or locomotive only fits inside it one way, and if the item is forced into the plastic clamshells differently, well yes, stuff can break off. I’ve always been very careful with handling locos and rolling stock. When I’ve worked retail I always treated the model trains as if they were my own and have had very few issues ever.
I tend not to like covered hoppers because there can often be issues with the nice see through walkways bowing, coming loose, etc. However, on all the ScaleTrains covered hoppers I’ve had, that has never happened. The earlier ScaleTrains tank cars did have some durability issues, but the more recent ones are much better.
Intermountain autoracks are delicate and the end doors have to be handled with care to keep them in the tracks.
I tend to be careful with handling model trains and I never take them to clubs or even other people’s layouts anymore. Also learning how to make some minor repairs has been a long process and I’m much better at it than when I was younger. Some things I can fix so well that nobody will even know it was repaired.
I just noticed the OP included Kadee HO cars on his list of frustrations.
I’ll bet I have 40 of their PS-1 boxcars, 10 hopper cars, and 1 covered hopper. I have never had any detail break off of any of these. As full disclosure, I rebuilt the entire roof of the covered hopper car.
But… that Kadee tank car… I only have one of those, and there is NOWHERE you can touch it without breaking something off of it.
I agree, Chris. While some high-priced rolling stock might be somewhat fragile, it’s hard for me to imagine buyers of such equipment being klutzy nimrods with little to no respect for such equipment.
It’s not at all difficult or expensive to alter the boxes in which those items have been sold. I can’t afford to buy lots of high-end equipment, but I often alter cheaper equipment with better details, and in most cases, not much of it is all that fragile, but is just as detailed…perhaps that might be an alternative…although, on second thought, maybe it’s beyond their skills?
Here are a few examples of coddled rolling stock…
The kit is from Accurail, and I removed the cast-on grabirons and replaced them with metal ones from Tichy. The ice-bunker hatches, and platforms are from my stock of “train stuff”, while the corner grabirons on the platforms are scratchbuilt with wire, also from Tichy.
There’s either a Kleenex or paper towel in most of my rolling-stock boxes, and items like this with fragile hatches or staff-mounted brake wheels always have a piece of foam glued to the inside of the box, just big enough to keep the car from sliding around - once the box lid is added, it helps to compact the foam a little more, ensuring that the car doesn’t slide around inside the box.
These four are scratchbuilds, and all are equipped with wire grabirons, ladders, and walkway grabs, too, plus staff-mounted handbrake wheels…
Exactly. Go to the junk tables at a train show and you’ll see plenty of Athearn BB or Accurail type cars with smashed couplers, scratched paint, broken stirrups, and missing brakewheels. Anything that’s handled carelessly will break.
I haven’t had any issues with product arriving damaged, nor did I have any issues packing up my equipment and moving. Buy from reputable retailers, and use care when handling.
