I recently purchased two ModelPower cars and was surprised at their weight. Being all metal, as opposed to plastic, I expected the price to be high, but the box car was only $16.50. The next question I had in mind, was how many of these cars can a loco pull? I am sure it is less than a string of plastic cars. How many of you guys have metal cars in your fleet? How do they perform? How well do your locomotives pull these heavyweights?
Edit: Oops, I believe I got off track. I don’t have any expereience with those cars.
the model power cars are heavy aren’t they? i don’t have any but a friend of mine had about six or seven of them being pulled by the model power all metal diesel.didn’t have any trouble on my layout except going up the grades.had to go quite fast to make the grade.im sure that most diesel’s would be able to pull at least eight or possibly more depending on which loco you would use.i don’t have any and probably will not get any.nothing against them though.terry…
I am a firm believer that when it comes to the topic of metal cars. once you start messing with them, The topic of locomotive tractive effort takes on greater importance.
James
Do you mean Model Power or Metal Power? I’ve personally never heard of Metal Power, but I could have missed something somewhere.
Say “Model Power metal model cars” ten times real fast. …
The one I considered buying, new in the box, had broken trucks – a not uncommon problem with Model Power trainset quality stuff, unfortunately. It also felt as though it was considerably heavier than NMRA standards. I happen to think there is a real role for metal flat cars and gons to bring them up to NMRA weight standards, but not beyond that weight. There are some nice plastic flatcars and gons out there but they are so darn light, you are left with two options – add weight to the bottom, which more or less destroys the prototype appearance, or always run them with loads which means you cannot replicate empties in/loads out operation.
Dave Nelson
I bought several of the 50’ flat cars when a LHS went out of business. The weight of the flat car is just about perfect(no need for a ‘load’ to bring it up to weight). The reefer, hopper, & box car are all very heavy and the detail/paint jobs are not all that good. The flat car is quite nice after a repaint/lettering.
Jim Bernier
BOB, it was late at night and I mistyped the word, you are correct mon ami, it is MODEL POWER. Mea Culpa !!
I’ve only handled one of these models – the first box car that was released. It must be at least six times heavier than the NMRA recommended weight and seems to be intended more as a collector’s item than something that can be used on a layout.
If we had more than one, it would take a double- or triple-headed loco set to pull the train up a 2 percent grade.
Charles: That was what I feared…cars are too heavy to pull many up a 2% grade. I don’t have a running layout yet, but gathering items at each LHS stop for a running layout this winter some time…you know how that goes!!!
I thought I saw some sets around Christmas last year marked Metal Power by Model Power that had the good metal frame locomotives in them? Fred
I thought the Model Power/Metal Power were old Mantua models put back in production. I miss the Super Bowl NFL collection.
Wdlgln005,
You’re absolutely right – the Model Power metal trains are made from the old Mantua dies.
Two Modelpower metal locos pulling 10 to 14 of those heavy metal cars will certianly bring out any weight issues in your trackwork.
Yeah, and they will definitely test the load limit of your bridges. If you hear a crunching sound as the train crosses a bridge, you know it’s too heavy.