It seems that many people ask about buying stock and the minute they get them they change the coupler and trucks, is this pretty common? Is there another method? Can you buy Just the shell, and modify to your taste, this would seem to be a better system than the existing method, I guess scratchbuilding your own cars would solve the problem, and cheaper too. Oooops, does buying expensive high end cars solve the problem???
Most rtr or kit cars come with magnetic/KD compatable couplers and decent trucks today. The old Tyco/Lifelike stuff had the old horn hook couplers & so-so trucks, but Tyco is gone, and since LL was bought by Walthers, the el-cheapo’s are mostly only in toy train sets, not the better stuff offered today. There are many kits under $15, and rtr under $20 to choose from that don’t require new trucks & couplers![:)]
A lot of the lower cost cars have pretty cheap trucks and couplers. People find it’s quick and easier to swap trucks (sometimes just swap wheel sets) and couplers than build their own either from scratch or craftsman kits. It’s also usually cheaper than high end cars with good trucks and KD couplers.
OTH some folks find the cheaper trucks and couplers work okay for them.
Enjoy
Paul
Regardless on the couplers it came with, every piece of rolling stock I have gets Kadee couplers. Everything also has metal wheels, however, it comes factory equipped with metal wheels, I don’t bother replacing them. Only the plastic wheelsets get replaced.
Nick
Almost all rolling stock kits and ready to run models are too light to match NMRA standards, even higher end ones. Some have no weights at all. Adding weight to NMRA standard will help the car to run reliably. There is a simple formula for each scale to calculate the correct weight for a particular car length. For a kit, weight can be added when it is built. Ready to run can be a problem if there are no openings. Drill a hole somewhere on the bottom where it is less visible, and add BB shot or lead shot coated with silicone sealer to bring it up to the correct weight. Shake the car to distribute the shot, hopefully to get an even distribution on the bottom or some low point.
Another area of concern are cars with plastic trucks. There have been many discussions about this on the forum. Plastic trucks pick up dirt and stuff from the tracks making them run poorly. They also redeposit the gunk elsewhere on the layout like at turnout frogs causing problems there. Replacing plastic with metal wheel trucks will help this problem.
Many mass market wheel sets are manufactured out of gage. A wheel set that is too wide or too narrow will not track correctly leading to derailments. It is important to check all new wheel sets with an NMRA standards gage and, if necessary, adjust the wheels or replace them if they are not adjustable. Rarely, I have found a wheel set with a bent axle - like 3 times in 10 years. When you check a wheel set, check all around the wheel. A bent axle will be in gage at one point and out of gage elsewhere. Contact the manufacturer for a replacement - this is a warrenty item and they usually are helpful.
Many people do not mind a shiney plastic kit right out of the box; others add weathering to make the car look used / more realistic. Again, there have been many discussions about weathering on the forum, do a search for more information.
A lot of model railroading is making silk purses out of sow’s ears. There are plenty of old, or cheap, or both, cars out there that with a bit of upgrading, can make very nice cars for cheap. A brand new car, either RTR or kit, often sells for $20 or more. A sow’s ear picked up at a train show or a yard sale, might be $3. Treat the sow’s ear to Kadee couplers and metal wheels might give you a very decent car for maybe $7 dollars total. Plus many of us enjoy tinkering with rolling stock, so making a few changes comes under the heading of fun.
A heluva lot of older stuff came thru with hornhook NMRA couplers. They were industry standard until the early '90’s when the Kadee patents finally expired. Most of us now run Kadee couplers, so any older NMRA equipped cars need a coupler change out before they will couple to the rest of the Kadee equipped fleet. A lot of low end trainset cars still come with truck mounted (“Talgo”) couplers. There is general agreement that body mount couplers are superior, and so a lot more couplers get changed out.
Most cars, even the high end brands, come with molded plastic wheels. It’s generally accepted that metal wheels are nicer. Metal wheel treads have that bright steel gleam that black plastic will never have, they sound cooler clattering over switch points, and they add a bit of weight, low down. So many folk buy metal wheels and upgrade their cars.
Shells are not generally sold separately, except perhaps as replacement parts. If I’m making cars, I can charge a good deal more for a complete kit/RTR car than I can for just a shell. So I mold up my shells, pop them boxes, add a molded floor, trucks and molded McHenry couplers, and a sprue worth of detail bits and pieces, and I have a kit I can sell for many more bucks than I can get for just a shell. So I sell kits and don’t bother selling raw shells.
A lot of it is about standardization too. Whatever the car, make sure it metal wheels and couplers and everything is weighted and adjusted properly. Just do it as your building it and you have less chance for problems once it hits your rails.[2c]
What I do with my rolling stock. I buy that bluebox tke at my LHS. I get it home and fly into it. If its an older BB kit with Horn Hooks I toss those out and replace them with the old stand by Kaydee # 5s.
I dont replace the wheels until they wear out or they have a defect. So when you come to my layout, you will find plastic wheels running with metal wheels. I know there are some of you that will sutter at this. I only run with ALL Metal Wheels! Thats good for you, and eventually all of my 700 + frieght cars will have metal wheels on them. But if they are tuned right the plastic wheels will roll as good as metals do. Sure they will pick up the dirt and lay it back down. But there are ways do deal with that also. KB
There are some venues as to trucks and couplers, as well as additional detail. For what it is worth, I have built a lot of kits in my lifetime, and have, at this writing, “stepped up” to higher quality product. I am a builder of kits like Funaro and Camerlengo, Westerfield, Sunshine, Intermountain, Red Caboose, Tichy, et al. These kits can come with trucks and couplers, but I usually install CentralValley, Kadee, etc trucks. These are live-sprung trucks and, to my mind, negotiate trackwork better than the so-called “equalized trucks”. Metal wheels do much more than “look and sound cool”; they do not deposit that oily grunge inherent in plastic compounds used on producing wheelsets. The will add a tiny bit of weight, as well as generally run better than plastic. Couplers I use are Kadee #58. Weighting down a car is an iffy proposition. I tend to over-do it; but bird shot in a condom will fit pretty much anywhere; and glued down, it has conformed and will stay put. Unless you drop said car on the floor.
I tend to give the moulded on detail a shove with a chisel, and replace the plastic lump with either wire, or other detail parts from Grandt, Tichy, Detail Associates, etc. Paint is Floquil.
To me, decent trucks and couplers are a neccessity, and like anything else, going the extra mile usually pays off hansomely.
Now, all of the above is only my opinion after many active years in this hobby; so you have to do your own experimentation to find your own comfort level. Good Luck.
EF3 Yellowjacket
I recently purchased a string of RTR hoppers, deliberately choosing one in basic black with minimal lettering since the color was right for my prototype and the lettering could be fast-faded to black with minimal effort.
They arrived with Kadee-foobie couplers (horn-hooks in a little baggie, for those who want them) and trucks with nice rolling quality. Without further ado, I put them on the rails (even though they felt rather light) and coupled an appropriate locomotive (DD-14 class Bo+Bo catenary motor) to one end. An appropriate coal/brake (TTT SeMuFu103) was tacked on to carry markers.
The test run was enlightening, in a disappointing way. They were unhappy with my one (for now) spring switch and derailed in places where all of my other rolling stock had stayed on the rails without a bobble. Belated inspection revealed that they were WAY under standard weight, and every truck that derailed had an out-of-gauge wheelset. Oh, well - they’re actually kitbash fodder, so the ‘opportunities’ will be rectified (by an extreme makeover!) before they enter revenus service.
The coal/brake previously mentioned is actually an unsanctified union of half a 2-bay hopper car and half a bay-window caboose. My coal-hauler is home for all of my wild exercises in imagineering. All of my earlier kitbashes track at least as well as my bought-in-Japan freight and passenger stock. My present layout has been operating all but derailment free except for the first run of the RTR out-of-the-box express. Once the culprits are dissected, modified and reassembled with proper weight and wheel geometry I’ll expunge that fiasco from the record.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - as it might have been)
I think I have maybe 10 RTR freight cars, the rest are kits or are rehab worked ones that got wheels, KD’s, grab irons and weight. Some are the typical $3 train show models. You can do allot with these like some stated with minimal $$$. I know of several MR that do this, because of tight budgets and plus they like doing it.
I have seen some older AHM, Tyco, Bachmann and other cars that have been turned into nice liking and pulling little gems. The RTR market is fine for those that want to spend the extra money for a pull it out of the box and place it on track. There are allot of MR that still like the shake the box models, or the bargins. For me I like to rehab and upgrade BB kits, MDC, Branchline, Accurail, and the out of production cars. Whats not to like?
I also enjoy taking older plastic freight cars, adding sprung trucks and Kadee couplers. One reason I like the older models is that they are cheep when I need a bunch, finding them used at train shows. I don’t have any Kadee freight cars, not when they cost upwards of $40.00 each, but do have plenty of Atlas and Athearn newer cars on my layout, but they’re reasonable priced. As I get older, I just don’t seem to notice the cast on plastic grabs as I did during my twenty’s when I was a nick-picker.
All the equipment I have gets “Real” Kadee couplers. Locomotives, Cabeese, and both freight& Passenger cars are Kadee equipped. The imposters just don’t make the grade.
All freight cars get Kadee trucks correct for the car. In cases where Kadee dosen’t make the correct truck then the wheels get replaced.
Weight is also another area. I use a modified NMRA standard of one ounce per ten scale feet of car length. (ie: 60 ft. car weighs six ounces.) There is a minimum of 3.5 ounces for any cars under thirty five scale feet and a maximum of 7.5 ounces for any cars over seventy scale feet.
All railcars on the market whether kit or RTR get modified.