Hello all. Has anyone out there ever assembled any N scale Inter-Mountain box car or reefer car kits, and if so, were you pleased with them when you were finished ?. The reason I ask is because one of my favorite train shops has several that they’re willing to let me have a deal on if I buy all that they have (about ten or twelve kits), and though I’ve built a lot of models in my time, I’m not familiar with these and don’t want to waste the time or money on them if they’re not worth it.
I’ve built a few of the reefers. They’re straightforward enough to build, and are a good weight. Take car when cutting off all the teeny grabs, and use as little glue as possible when applying them. I don’t like the IM trucks and replaced them with Micro-Trains 003 02 026 trucks.
The grabs and piping are a little oversized, but look good. Overall, these cars are great, and take less than 1/2 hour to build. Most N scalers are afraid to build kits, so these cars can be found with steep discounts regularly.
Thanks orsonroy. It’s also good to know about the discount. I’ve seen these kits a lot at various train shops, but never paid them much attention until now.
I have built several. They are good kits. The only problems I had was with the grabs…so small that once glue is applied they will almost melt or bend easily with little pressure as you try to put them in place. I tried tweezers of various types to keep this from occuring. Finally, on my second or third model, it dawned on me that what I needed to do was apply the glue to the holes in the car itself. I found a Testors glue container that had a tiny wire to clear the applicator after use. It was the perfect size to fit into the hole in the car sides. So, by dipping this little wire into some glue and carefully inserting it into the hole on the car I was able to then tweeze or hemostat the grab bars in without bending them… Also you have to take care when removing parts from the sprue as they tend to break rather easily…but it is possible with some patience and a little practice to accomplish this… But don’t be surprised if your first car is a little rough as you learn the delicate techniques required to do this…cause it’s not like assembling a typical plastic model kit…of which I have done hundreds…
Also, as someone else said…I changed out the supplied trucks with 1001 MT trucks (003 02 020) and also put on MT 1025 body mount couplers (001 02 011)… These numbers coincide with a 1937 40ft AAR boxcar…
I did have to add some weight to get it up to spec though…