I have no experience with industrail rail cars, but there are some good prices on them floating areound on ebay. How is the quality of these cars?
Perhaps if you could expand on your description - what do you mean by “industrial rail cars”? I assumed most freight cars can used by industries.
Bob Boudreau
Industrial Rail is a brand. They primarily make 3 rail O scale cars and trolleys at 1/55 scale. They are for use with O27 trains. They also made RTR HO and N cars. Here’s their web site http://www.industrialrail.com/ I don’t have any personal experience with them. They are pretty cheap, I’ve seen them for $3. I don’t know how well they operate, but they look like Tyco or LifeLike.
Enjoy
Paul
I believe Industrial Rail is Horizon Hobbies brand name for some hideously cheap rolling stock. If you want something that’s going to be usable, don’t get these. They usually have out-of-round wheels that cannot be replaced, and truck mounted horn-hook couplers that also cannot be replaced. Modifying one by changing the trucks to something that rolls and putting body-mounted couplers on could wind up costing more than purchasing a better brand from the get-go. I bought a couple of these before I knew better, and they are still in the box as unusable.
That’s the type of info that should have been in the question! Much easier to get proper answers if the questions are complete.
Bob Boudreau
I have some Industrial 027 rolling stock and I think its great.!!! I haven’t had any trouble with them, they seem to be well built and they are reasonably priced. I also plan to buy more.
The N scale stuff says “Life-Like” and “Made in China” on the bottom. For a retail price of $2.99 it’s okay by me. I can’t see well enough to appreciate the nuances that differentiate them from a $20 offering from Micro Trains.
HAHAHA, finally one of Bob’s sarcastic posts come back to bite him in the butt, HAHAHA. Even I knew Industrial Rail was a brand. I find them to be on the lower end of the quality scale.
I have one 40’ boxcar- it is rough around the edges, truck mounted horn-hook couplers, big “claws” on the doors. If I could find them in 50’ road names I needed I would buy a few more and replace the couplers. They are better than nothing. I would classify them as train set quality.
Thanks for the info, funny the ones i have seen at train shows, the boxes cover up the trucks and couplers[xx(] now i know why.
Their N scale is a limited range of good quality, for the 1970’s, models.
Well as an HO scale modeler I don’t pay very much attention to the toy train section of our hobby. I’ve never seen any locally and I don’t follow the toy train magazines.
Bob Boudreau
I think some if not all of those “Industrial Rail” cheapo HO freight cars are the old Varney dies from the 1950s. They have gone through several owners since, including Model Power if memory serves. At that price of course you can pretty much assume the trucks and couplers are junk, just as you could with the old “Crown” knockoffs of Athearn cars that used to sell for 99 cents in the 1960s. Ditto some of the AHM cars that were made to sell cheap, even cheaper than the AHM norm
But having said that, the old Varney 40’ gondola was a decent casting that is different enough from what else is available that it has had some popularity among kitbashers for several years, as has the old Tyco gon and the old Mantua gon (which curiously appear not to be the same casting even though Tyco came out of Mantua). These are kitbashers who are looking for just the right number of posts and panels etc
Also the Varney 36’ ice bunker reefer is an unusual car, no precise prototype again but used by kitbashers over the years. The tool and die work here is nearing 50 years old.
Dave Nelson
I bought 15 of these yesterday for 1.99 each. I also bought Kadee wheelsets and McHenry couplers. I’ll have to cut off the truck mounted horn hook coupler and glue a coupler box to the body. Hopefully I won’t have to replace the trucks as well. If I do, I will indeed have as much in the car as if I had bought a better quality (like Athearn blue box) to begin with.
Most of the “Industrial Rail” brand is repackaged Life-Like or Tyco low end rolling stock. Rather basic details molded on. Generic cars for numerous different roads. Colors and paint schemes are not always prototypical. They come with plastic wheels and talgo horn hook couplers from the factory.
HOWEVER, they are usually reasonably priced (I’ve bought them at hobby shops for $1.99 each) and when weathered can look pretty decent. I converted a few just to practice with Kadee Couplers after cutting off the talgos. They are also good for kitbashing or making “hobo” shacks or yard offices out of.
I still have about 10 left on my pike. Couple gondolas, some coal hoppers and a boxcar that doubles as a home-made track cleaning car. I also made one caboose into a yard master’s office and one reefer into a engine crew shack.
If I decide to model any “wreckage” these would be the cars used.
I have a couple on my roster. All of mine are simply repackaged Life- LIke cars. When I get done with college, they are inline for Walthers Barber S-2 trucks with friction Bearings, and Kadee #58s