LBF freight cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

i just wanted to get y’alls opinions on LBF freight cars. i have purchased several of them and overall i am happy with them. they have good paint jobs and the extra details like the ladders and grab bars and other extra details make them really nice. for the price, you get a really nice, detailed freight car. the only problem i have with them is that there is usually an excessive ammount of flash on the trucks and coupler box parts, and that the weight is hard to place in the boxcars and get it to stay where you want it.

one tip for anyone thinking of building any of these cars is to drill the holes for the truck mounting screws and the underframe mounting holes completely through the body.

all i have built so far of theirs are the different boxcars and gondolas. i havent tried any of their coal hoppers yet

2

Alex,
it looks like you’re talking about HO Scale cars. I recently bought a few dozens of LBF’s coal car in N-Scale. They’re beautiful.
The problem of fixing weights in boxcars can be solved very easily. I usually take the same lead with sticky tape on the backside as is used to true the wheels of my car. Any tyre center should carry this kind of lead (used on Alu rims). Simply cut the desired weight and stick it in your boxcars. Wear gloves since lead is toxic.
Almost all of my 400+ cars I converted to Micro-Trains trucks. Now all cars are very free rolling and I don’t have to worry about proper coupler height. Also the quality and look of the trucks is superb.

greetings from Europe
Sandro