I’m in the process of adding another train to my HO setup. I purchased a MTH K4 steam loco, and am looking for passenger cars for her to haul. My question for all you seasoned MRR’s is, who makes a good set? I don’t want to spend a fortune, but would like a bit of realism. I’ve seen four car sets from Bachmann that look decent. (Spectrum Heavyweights)How about their ability to negotiate curves? These cars look long, and my layout has a few tight radi - 18" center of track. Will this be a problem? What about couplers - are they all compatible? Thanks for your help!
Hello. I have the Bachmann 4-pack. They are quite nice looking, and seem to track well, but the couplers are poor (Kaydee clones made of plastic) and needed work to get their heights to match on my set. Additionally, my set had been pilfered…someone had taken the coupler box mounting screws from the small clear plastic bags…each one had been torn open.
I tow mine behind a Pennsy Duplex and they seem to work fine. Here is an image, although the cars are not focused…sorry. You can still get an appreciation for them.
Note that these cars live up to their namesakes, and they require substantial power to tow up grades more than about 1.5-2%. In my case, the heavy BLI model manages to haul all four and a reefer up my 3% grades, but it ain’t easy. Your K4 will probably not be able to manage the same load on anything more than 1.8-2.2%, or near that range because it is substantially lighter. Also, these cars have functional interior lighting, so allow for that current draw on your layout with other engines working.
Thanks Selector! Good info, and your T1 duplex looks great - nice photo! Have you run those cars around any tight curves?
Thanks for the compliment! My tightest curve is about 23", and those cars are not very happy on it. Fortunately it is in the yard, so they have to be “walked” through it anyway…good thing. If you have an honest-to-goodness 24" minimum, you should be fine. If you are good at getting the curves smooth and flat, even better. Once you get into less than pristine track and near the 24" lower limit, you can count on headaches.
The curve in the photo, even though it has also has a vertical apex that you can see in the distance, is very close to 28". You can clearly see the tight angles between cars even with that broad curve, so you know what I am saying when I urge caution below 24".
Sorry if that sheds an unfortunate light on the matter for you.
I would get a set of Walthers heavyweights. They are always on sale and can be had for 19-44$ just wait until a couple of cars that you like are available and buy them. They are very nice but just as Selector described with his Bachmans they need kaddee couplers and to be checked.
Magnus
In general what was said about the Bachmann cars is true, especially the part about needing power to pull them. However, mine do fine on 18", althought they look awful doing it. On the other hand, since the Walthers cars are full length, they do NOT do 18" very well at all.
Bowser has a nice set of the Athearn heavyweights in Pennsy and they are fine with 18". They are still on the website under English Model Railroad Supply so I assume they are still available. They show up on ebay quite often, along with the same cars done by Bev-Bel previously. In fact many sellers do not know the difference and I often get one brand when trying to buy the other. Also Horizon did the same car once in PRR but they are hard to find. Life-like has the old Varney tooling and does them in PRR but they are pretty awful. Again, they are shorties so 18" is not a problem.
I have the Bowser set of the Athearn heavyweights and they handle tight curves quite well. They are 70’ passenger cars.
You might also want to consider the 60’ passenger cars from Rivarossi. Check the Walthers site. They will be available right around year-end according to the web site. There is a 3-car coach set plus a separate baggage car.
I have several sets of Rivarossi 60’ passenger cars and they are superb, handling the tighest of curves very well.
WOW - Thanks all for the great input, but I’m still very confused. It would seem to me that “scale is scale”“, but what I’m learning is that manufacturers cheat scale to meet real world demands. Is this a correct assesment? So far I’ve found Pennsy heavyweight passenger cars that range from 60’, 70’ and larger. What’s worse, most websites don’t even mention the scale length of their cars. Many thanks to you guys for providing this for a couple of brands, but I’m still undecided - my mainline has 22” radius curves, and the sidings get as tight as 18’. Will this be a problem? I’d reallly appreciate if someone could tell me where I could find a four car Pennsy set that is 60’ cars, that way I’d be sure they’d handle my layout.