Just want to get some opinions on their all metal range of freight cars.Thanks
I give thme 5 out of 10 in all catagories…not much positive or negitive to say about them.
David B
High on weight, short on detail.
I got a few of them at a show just to check them out. They are very heavy. The only one worth keeping would be the flat cars and run them as empties.
True they are heavy but,still those are the Mantua/Tyco(possible some cars may Varney) cars born in the '60s that’s why they are short on details…
B:
Actually, no. The Model Power “Metaltrain” cars are new tooling. The Mantua Classics cars are from Mantua, of course, but oddly enough, only the old-time cars are Tyco tooling. The former Mantua “Heavies” were originally the Lindberg line. The freight cars in the old Tyco line went to IHC.
I think Model Power’s original plastic trainset line came from Cox.
The old Varney cars went to Life-Like.
Interesting…
I had forgotten Lindbergs line of cars.I always like their smooth rolling trucks.
The Cox cars was produce by Athean as was the locomotives…
Thanks!
B:
Yes, those trucks made a big splash - weren’t they the first to use delrin and needlepoint axles? Quite an innovation, that was.
The early Cox line was Athearn, yes. At some point (1974 according to Tony Cook’s site) they started importing their own line, and this ended up going to Model Power. Their wide-vision caboose and weird container cars, for instance, are old Cox cars.
Walthers’ Trainline GP9 is apparently an upgraded Cox GP9 with a new drive.
Tony Cook is doing a great job gathering up information on these various trainset lines, which is an interesting and neglected field of HO model railroading. I don’t necessarily want to run 'em, but I sure do like to read about 'em.
Interesting…
This is from Cox’s 1972 catalog.
http://www.hoseeker.org/cox/coxcatalog1972pg02.jpg
So,the change over was after '72.
Athearn was among the first to use needle point axles with RP25(.110") wheels and was smooth rolling however,the Lindbergs was by far the smoothest rolling.
Indeed Tony is doing a great job on the old train set lines which is part of the history of model railroading.
Another good research site is HOseeker.Net