Hi! Received a number of Life-Like and Bachmann HO cars. All in decent condition and all with the older H/H couplers. None of the road names are rare. Based on your experience, if you had to choose, would you keep the Life-Like or the Bachmann?
As always, many thanks.
I’d keep the Bachmann cars.
Do any of them have metal wheels? Are any of the couplers body-mounted and easily replaced? If not, I wouldn’t keep any of them.
If you don’t need them now I would wrap them up and put them away. At some point in the future you may want some of them.
I’ve found the quality of both to be about equal in one way or another, so which ones to keep comes down to which ones you like best. And if you want them to work as well as higher quality cars, you can replace the trucks with Athearn, Kadee, or whatever your favorite brand is, and body mount some Kadee couplers.
I have both brands of cars. Some look like toys, and others look as good as Athearn BB kits. I improve the better ones with good trucks and couplers, and keep the others pretty much as-is to go with any other cheap stuff I have.
Most run many brands together. Pick out the ones you like & run those.
Jeffrey-Wimberly; Cacole; Curt Webb; Darth Santa Fe: Thanks for your replies.
If they (more than likely will) have plastic axle’s replaces them with metal. Plastic axle’s will wrap and cause all sorts of derailing problems. All most drove me out of the hobby before I figured out what the problem was.
I replaced mine with Walters axle’s with plastic wheels that was given to me by my LHS. Later up grade most of them with PK wheel set’s. It does take some work with a truck reamer to get them free wheeling, but it can be done.
Later I cut the mounting tabs for the Horn Hook couplers off the trucks and body mounted Kadee Couplers. On the LL cars, I had to file away some of there end’s so the Kadee would clear and swing freely.
To get the couplers to the proper height, you will need some shims under the coupler pocket and center, raised and drop shank couplers. That is the hardest part.
All so don’t for get to add weight’s to the cars.
I learned a lot from my cheap starter cars. Of the Cheap 3 Life Like, Bachmann and Tyco, I prefer Tyco. You can use Kadee washers to adjust coupler height.
Cuda Ken
Cuda Ken: Thanks for the advice.
Gidday, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”. Keep them, if only for kitbashing projects at a later date. Also good to practice weathering techniques on, plus with “Kadees” and /or better trucks I do run them in my consists.
Cheers, the Bear.
I agree with the above statement. At one time i bought a bunch of LL cars for $2 a piece direct form LL. They are great to learn weathering techniques on and cheap. They may even look pretty good when you get done.
RMax
I have lots of older rolling stock I use. Bachmann, Life-Like, Tyco, AHM, IHC, Roco, Atlas, Stewart and some others I can’t remember right now. All of them have been upgraded with body mounted Kadee couplers and some even have metal wheels. I picked them up here and there ranging from free to $3 each depending on their condition.
Depends. Both brands can make nice rolling stock with a little bit of fixing up. Kadee couplers are only $1 a car. In many cases nothing more than a shot of DullCote to kill the plastic gloss and tone down the colors can make a trainset car quite handsome. Or a complete repaint, rattle can red auto primer, and decals can yield a very good looking car. Paint the trucks with the red auto primer, and paint the bottoms of the cars with dark gray auto primer. Body mount the Kadee couplers. Put some wire grab irons on the cars. Treat them to metal wheels. Ballast them up to NMRA weight. Look upon your rolling stock stash as material for many “improve-a-car” projects.
As mentioned, they can be used as practicing weathering and other techniques. You can also use them to fill a yard. If they look and roll well, they can be added to your trains, if they are not up to your standards, put them in a part of the yard where you only see the tops. If they are too gaudy a color, pratice painting them. I have a few derelict cars that I plan to use as storage buildings. I have also seen some pretty ratty looking cars on sidings with trees growing around and between them.
Have fun,
Richard
I would research how closely they match a prototype body style. Some old cars with slightly clunky cast-on details and questionable lettering may be close to something no modelable any other way.
Disclaimer- I like prototype researching.
Thanks to all for your advice. I’ll keep reading and re-reading the posts. Appreciate your time.
I say keep them. They may not be the best rolling stock in factory form, but can be kitbashed into nicer cars. If the handrails can be shaven off, you can replace them with wire ones. A good place to learn instead of a nice piece. Also, you can make offices, storage buildings, etc. out of them. While on a train ride from Kansas City to Raton, NM, I spotted an old 3 bay hopper that was set on a raised frame, with space so that trucks could drive underneath and fill up. I plan to use a hopper that came in the original train set (Bachmann) to model this.