How good are Life-Like Products freight cars? I have been offered an amazing deal but I won’t buy them if there crap regardless of price.
Lillen
Hi Lillen;
It depends. If they are LL’s Proto 2000 line, they are excellent. Proto 1000 line are okay, and the regular train set line are not.
For a specific example, regular LL hopper are often offered very inexpensively. Once you carve off the molded on details, replace the trucks, add draft gear, add back the details removed, add brake details, add missing features, paint and decal, you will have a pretty good hopper - almost as good as a Proto 2K hopper.
The Proto 2000 cars can be nice, but all the companies seem to have their toy-train-set low-end stuff.
Look at it. If it looks like a toy and has horn hook couplers and the detailing is superficial, don’t get it.
If it has Kadee couplers, has metal hand rails, metal wheels, (or at least not cheap plastic) and you like the way they look, get them.
Proto 2000 cars [tup][tup][:D]
Proto 1000 cars [tup][:)]
Standard line [tdn][xx(][xx(]
In Canada, some of the P1000 cars are near as good as the P2000, so I would agree with the P2 or P1 being good.
Note that they never came stock with Kadee (metal) couplers, but with their own brand of Kadee compatible coupler. Still OK though.
Stay away from the train set types, they would not be much of a “deal”.
This hobby is not as straight forward as it first looks is it? [:D]
Lillen–
The Proto 2000 cars are pretty terrific, but very difficult for me to build.
I’m not familiar with the Proto 1000 cars.
The ‘train-set’ Lifelike are, if I remember correctly, the old Varney dies, and while they were awfully good for 1956, they’re certainly not up to today’s standards as far as details go. I’d stick with Proto 2000 if you’re interested in their products.
Tom
Personally, I do not care for them… they look like just exactly what they are - cheap imports from China.
Brian
Well the verdict is in. I won’t buy them. Especially since I have been dissapointed with cheap crap before. Only quality items for me in the future.
Lillen
Personally, I think they would be great to have.
Great to practice weathering on.
Great to learn superdetailing on.
Great to learn how to strip and repaint on.
Why screw up a good car when you can learn on a cheap one?
Just my thought.
Craig
That is a good point and I have been considering get some just for that purpose. I mean I can get 10 of them for 25$. Ad some kadee couplers and re-paint them and they should probably look ok. But the wheels are an issue. I hate plastic wheels and replacing them would be more expensive then the cars themselfes. Anyone who knows any cheap wheels to change them with?
Lillen
Those would be about my last choice. Proto 2000 makes some excellent metal wheel sets, as does Atlas, and the best are probably Reboxx. But the thing to remember is that all wheel sets aren’t the same. The Axles are different length so depending on the application they can end up being too tight or too loose. Too tight and the wheels don’t turn well, too loose and the cars can slop down the rail or lean to one side or the other.
I don’t know that even that is a good deal. 25 for $10 would be a better price.[:-^] I used to pick them up at our LHS after Christmas sale for $0.88 each.
I used to stock up on their N scale cars for next to nothing. I use very few of them now. Their Proto line, now part of Walthers anyway, is better.
LL used to sell their Nscale cars for $3.00. Very few roadnames/numbers. Good for paint practice. Some hoppers & boxes could be made to look OK. Very easy to convert to MTL. Metal wheelsets chemically blackened. Walters appears to have discontinued them. Even the NE caboose is OOP.
I find that the Coal(hopper) cars are too tall! And the worst part is I can’t figure out why. Otherwise they don’t look bad. They have the wrong kind of trucks though. If anyone didn’t mention this yet, most still had model trucks with journal boxes. Even if you were to use these cars that would have to be changed. I didn’t think of this back then but wouldn’t buy cars with them now.
They are ok. I use them to practice weathering and other uses. For the $2 or $3 I pay for them they are great.
RMax1
The Proto 2000 line is pretty good. I’d avoid the cheaper stuff.
Hal
As mentioned above, the cheap “toy-line” Life Likes (as well as Tyco and Bachmanns) are great pieces for airbrush and kitbash practice.
I still have a couple of “mutilated” LL and Bachmann cars that I have no intentions of getting rid of.
Like everyone else, I got some of them when I first came back into the hobby. I did not know any better at the time and did not recognize their short comings for some time. I have actually enjoyed the challenge of making these decent running cars. Metal wheels, Kadee’s, correct weight, paint, loads, wire stirrup steps in place of heavy plastic. I just could not throw them out and was not about to sell them on eBay. So for all their short comings, and for all the time and effort and cost that I have now put into them, I am rather proud of them. I would never buy another one, but the ones I own have provided some fun modelling experience.