Passenger car sides question

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi all,

I saw that both Laser Horizons and Laserkit make sides for N&W passenger cars I’d like in HO and N-scale. However, any reason to go for one brand over another?

Thanks
Alvie

2

Depends if one or the other makes sides for a particular passenger car you want to model.

3

The American Model Builders stuff is good to go. I would highly recommend using Train Station Products core kits and not even wasting the time or money on an Eastern Car Works core kit (if you are going HO). Depending on your experience with car sides, there are even better quality brass car sides out there. They require a bit more skill to construct properly, though.

4

Thanks all,

I’d like to build a Powhattan Arrow consist in both HO and N, and Laserkit, for both scales, makes all but the observation. However, Laser Horizons does.

TSP makes a good HO core kit, I hear, and American Limited does one in N-scale that should work.

Again, thanks.

5

I just built an ex-PRR PS124 sleeper around a TSP core. It’s sooo much better than the ECW one. It’s a bit more expensive, and there’s no underbody detail (available as a separate kit), but the parts fit 1000% better.

6

Definitely go with the TSP core over the Eastern Car Works one- the ECW one just takes too much work to get mostly straightened out. Mostly straightened out is as far as I’ve ever gotten an ECW core.

If you wanted to simplify this even further and aren’t terribly worried about having the underbody details be absolutely accurate, you could use Walthers streamlined cars for the core. Choose a car that has a roof, ends and underbody which look close enough for your taste, then simply remove the old sides and glue the new sides on in their place. The sides will probably require a little shimming from behind to line up correctly with the edges of the ends.