As I understood it at the time of the first run the ExactRail Southern Waffle Sides bodies are correct for some of the prototype Southern cars only. The other road names are meant to be “representative” of that type of car, but are not billed as accurate.
The Gunderson 2420 gondola is another example of that approach. The car is an SP prototype and wasn’t really rostered in that same form by any other railroad.
I bought one of the Gunderson cars in SP and am quite happy with it.
Mark Gosdin
This was my thinking as well. Quite often, to justify the production run, they will make alternate versions that are “fantasy” to pad out the production and make it appeal to more people. Even ExactRail appears to do this.
The flip side of this is, Sure, you have picture evidence of doors being different, but doors can be replaced easily and are replaced fairly often. I’d argue that you need a picture of the car immediately after painting to NS and which door it had at that time to prove it’s wrong. These are industrial products that will change over time, you can only hope to capture what is correct for a single point in time.
ALL…
Thanks for all the input and thoughts from all viewpoints - it is appreciated.
As for the Gundeson SP gon… I’m good with that car - it is representitive of the actual SP car and in the EXPRESS series at 19.95 retail, it is an incredible bargin. I’m also aware that the car is not accurate for all the other roads but is ‘a close match’ to several other prototypes(or not). I only was interested in the SP version and they are the only ones I’ve acquired.
I’m going to wind this thread down with my own thoughts:
My arguement has not changed. When Exactrail commits itself to suggesting clearly that their offerings are the most accurate and most correctly detailed in the industry, that is what I expect. I’m not going to applogize for that.
I too, own well over 100 of their products, most of which are autoflood II cars, covered hoppers and gondolas- which I am pleased with and find no real prototype issues with. My only gripe there is minor: I want to see more numbers offered on the Autoflood II’s -and I’m sure they will eventually… you just have to live long enough to get the train built.
But I’m sorry, I can’t agree with this ‘inaccuracy’ at this price-point for this waffle side car. I’ve decided to just sell off these and some of the 4780 hoppers which also appear to be non-prototypes for the roads offered.
There’s no one to blame really but myself - I have gotten out of the habit of researching products before I buy them - part of that is due to the ‘limited run’ syndrome we are all subjected to now. If something is announced, you’ve got to get it reserved if you want to get it.
To be honest, I’ve not been real pleased with the quality control of Athearns products as of late- in particular, their locomotives are very inconsistent in quality(i.e, hand
[quote user=“Heritagefleet1”]
ALL…
Thanks for all the input and thoughts from all viewpoints - it is appreciated.
As for the Gundeson SP gon… I’m good with that car - it is representitive of the actual SP car and in the EXPRESS series at 19.95 retail, it is an incredible bargin. I’m also aware that the car is not accurate for all the other roads but is ‘a close match’ to several other prototypes(or not). I only was interested in the SP version and they are the only ones I’ve acquired.
I’m going to wind this thread down with my own thoughts:
My arguement has not changed. When Exactrail commits itself to suggesting clearly that their offerings are the most accurate and most correctly detailed in the industry, that is what I expect. I’m not going to applogize for that.
I too, own well over 100 of their products, most of which are autoflood II cars, covered hoppers and gondolas- which I am pleased with and find no real prototype issues with. My only gripe there is minor: I want to see more numbers offered on the Autoflood II’s -and I’m sure they will eventually… you just have to live long enough to get the train built.
But I’m sorry, I can’t agree with this ‘inaccuracy’ at this price-point for this waffle side car. I’ve decided to just sell off these and some of the 4780 hoppers which also appear to be non-prototypes for the roads offered.
There’s no one to blame really but myself - I have gotten out of the habit of researching products before I buy them - part of that is due to the ‘limited run’ syndrome we are all subjected to now. If something is announced, you’ve got to get it reserved if you want to get it.
To be honest, I’ve not been real pleased with the quality control of Athearns products as of late- in particular, their locomotives are very inconsistent in quality(i.e, handrails are horrible - Athearn, the celcon has got to go)…(that’s another thread topic) but at least they ar
My final thought on this round of ExactRail bashing. I bought a couple of the waffles, and to be perfectly honest, they don’t look bad running in a freight train or sitting on a siding, and the people who populate my little world could care less, so do I. When you find anything in this world that is perfect, let me know and I will be happy to support it.
Someone on this thread answered my comments about renumbering the ATSF grain cars with a comment that they should have more road numbers. Give me a break! I have 61 or so of those cars, there is no manufacturer alive on planet earth that will do that many individually different numbers, and I don’t expect them to. Being old school, I don’t expect to open the box and sit it on the rails and run.
Bob
Bob wrote:I bought a couple of the waffles, and to be perfectly honest, they don’t look bad running in a freight train or sitting on a siding(snip)
Agreed! When I take my high end cars out and place 'em on my 3 HO display tracks my Southern wafflers looks as good as my Genesis,Atlas,IM and Branchline(RTR) cars…
Why the high end cars?
I been wanting to do a high end ISL for several years using C70 track,highly detailed cars and locomotive…I have 32 cars so far and 2 high end locomotives…So,after I finish the N Scale ISL I might start the HO ISL…
How many numbers did BLMA do on the Top Gons.
There were not THAT many numbers on those top gons. All this is is another bashing thread about not having enough numbers or the “correct” details on a boxcar etc----
If you want everything to be done for you then expect to pay for it–the rest of us will scratchbuild them to our liking so there—[|(][:-^]
Even @$35 It’s a little bit much to expect a company to mass produce a model and make the door detail, which changes from rebuild to rebuild correct. The number of units sold for such a specific car is low enough as it is.
YES, BUT YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THAT EXCATRAIL MAKES SOME OF THE BEST CARS OUT THERE.
MIKE
Actually the only thing wrong is the doors and ends is wrong for the number series ER used.Had they taken the time for researching the difference in cars they would had the correct number…A easy fix if one wants to change the numbers…I will use the cars the way they are since they’re such a beautiful car…
Assuming you model the correct place and time to use them. There are lots of great products out there today, but many are of no interest to many modelers. As time maches on, and the available “history” of railroading expands, the model market will shrink and become ever more specialized unless the total number of people in the hobby expands greatly, which it does not seem to be doing.
So I wish Exactrail lots of success, but unfortunitly I will no be helping them with that success based on their current offerings - virtually none of them are in the era I model.
Sheldon
My 2cents.
If a company is going to use a name like “Exact Rail” and advertise that theirs are the most accurate models on the market and also charge a fairly high price then they should get things right including doors and numbering. otherwise why not just take old bluebox kits and use them.
I think the real problem here is that the manufacturer failed to identify his prototype model. Even at $35 the best the manufacturer can do is follow one prototype car exactly. With molded on doors, the tooling is too expensive to do multiple times, one for each variation. And to keep the cost relatively low, the production run has to be fairly large. But the manufacturer, is this case Exactrail should identify their prototype.
One advantage of kits with all the parts separate, is that the manufacturer can include variations of parts or you can buy/make alternate parts where you want.
Only in brass would I expect the level of correctness that you desire across multiple versions. And that comes at a higher cost.
Enjoy
Paul
I see we have to talk about seperate parts and pieces for seperate time frames now. Sigh.
OK–lets see if we get this straight. Let us suppose that we have a boxcar of the transitional era. This particular boxcar has the number of 4556676. I’m just saying that that is its number for argument sake. This boxcar gets impaled on the door by a forklift in the early 1960’s. The door gets replaced by a non conforming door. The other door gets impaled about 6 months down the road and it gets replaced by another non conforming door–so we have 2 seperate replacement doors. Over the years we find that the boxcar got renumbered by a new owner—new decal sheet also included—then we get a new end for the car—
Out of all this we see now a kit boxcar that comes complete with 2 sets of doors, a seperate sheet of decals for the numbering, and a new boxcar end—or better yet—research the period you are modelling better and if it does not fit that period DON"T BUY THE DANG THING!!![:-,][:-^]
There are many plastic boxcars with separate doors. If exact rail had done just a little more homework they could have made provisions for different doors with minimal additional cost.
And, I suppose, seperate boxcars for every number that that series came out with----even if the series were 566 cars—
Barry… in your own words: Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics–Hartz’s law of rhetoric
I’ve arranged to divest myself of the CSX cars - another responder(Ricky) was very helpful in providing what I had originally requested - again, Ricky… thank you.
I’m also going to divest myself of the ExactRail 4780 hoppers in a particular scheme that apparently never existed for this type of car - no fantasy crap for me.
To ALL: yes, I’m particular about the modelling I do - and when I pay $35.00 or more for a freight car, I want it to be representitive of a given prototype and I’m not being unreasonable about this - I understand that the real cars will undergo many repairs and changes over its service life - that isn’t the point and many keep missing it.
AGAIN: the point was that ExactRail has offered a car based on a prototype of the PS car that was utilized by the Southern and later, the CRR, and NS and a similar design by CSX (I’m not sure that this model is even a correct rendition of the CSX car, but it is close enough to pass my scrutiny- except for the original door) …and I find the car to be a excellent model for the SOU version.
Ricky had sent me a photo which I was requesting , that has satisfied my concern regarding the NS cars and I have since found a second of the prototype that is evidence that there may be a handfull still operating today.
Someone mentioned here the tooling should have been made with the doors separate - and I agree except that as previously stated, I would bet that this tooling has been done a while ago and the cost (ROI) would not have been justifiable to alter the tooling further.
Barry: moving forward, I plan to be more careful regarding the accuracy of the cars I buy - ExactRail has done some nice offerings and I’ve been pleased with most of products. Had I caught this error prior, I would have done exactly what you suggest: Don’t buy the dang thing.
If this car was offered in thi
And I agreed with you once I understood the error, but I have a question about this “particular” kind of modeling - somewhat retorical, somewhat serious, somewhat not, and a little bit of a challenge.
In this highly “particular” modeling that you do, what radius curves does your layout have? What number turnouts are on your main line? Do you have a signal system? Just to ask a few of the possible questions.
Obviously they are your trains and you should be particular, or not, in any way you see fit, just as I do.
I model 1954 and I insist that passenger cars have working diaphragms that touch ALL the time and stay touching in curves. I couple all equipment as close to scale spacing between cars as I can, passenger or freight. My typical freight train is 35-45 cars, a respectable representation of my era. I model a large Class I, so signals are a must.
I do find it interesting that many “particular” modelers today are very concerned with each piece of equipment, as in your orginal question/problem, but many seem more than willing to overlook gaps between passenger cars, run 80’+ cars around 30" radius curves and through #6 crossovers, put 14 cars behind 6000 HP worth of locos as a “regular” train, etc, etc.
And, we all have different goals for our layouts/trains, but if the goal is a believable layout, balance and overall impression is often more effective and more important than the number of ribs of every boxcar door or end panel.
I don’t pay $35.00 for many, if any freight cars. In fact, I’m more likely to spend that much on a craftsman kit for a freight ca
I understood the original post to be commenting that this car was only accurate regarding the doors for one railroad. And that the doors were innacurate for the other railroads that they offered paint schemes for, not because the doors had been replaced somewhere along the line. If this is so it would not have geen difficult to have them molded with separate doors. As I stated there are many inexpensive plastic boxcars out there done this way. Of course this ship has already sailed but maybe these upscale companies wanting to have a rep for super accuracy should do a little better advanced planning when desiring to release a car with multiple markings.