Hi¨
Today I assembled a kit freight car and I finally put on the roof on my New River Mining Company. But now I wold like another freight car kit to do. Preferably it should be B&O but just about any oiltank car would be great aswell. Preferably the kit should come with metall wheels but it is not a must. Any sugestions. It’s HO and 50’s on my layout.
Lillen
Lillen, there was a thread within the past 6 days that dealt extensively with this subject. It was heavily leaning towards how difficult some kits, particularly the P2K kits are. Many experienced guys like them, and find that the boxcars are somewhat easier than the tankers. I built a tanker only two weeks into my return to MRR, and I had to take it to the LHS for them to find a modeller to finish the grabs and strapping. [:I]
Branchline are excellent, and I believe that Accurail (? have I got that right) make good kits.
Lillen,
You didn’t say which kit you put together. I am quite fond of the Accurail kits, as they are very nicely detailed and reasonably priced. Accurail strictly makes boxcars and hoppers. They do have plans for bringing out some 40’ gondolas at the end of the year though. [yeah] I would put them a couple of notches above Athearn kits. You’ll need to purchase metal wheels, as they only come with the plastic ones.
The underbody detailing of Accurail kits is a bit spartan but the rest is very nice. Their wooden end and wood boxcars, IMO, are just exceptional. Sadly, more and more kit companies are going RTR (ready-to-run) and Accurail is no exception.
For tankers, the Proto 2000s are terrific but, as Crandell allude to, they are a challenge to put together. They contain many small, detailed and delicate parts to put together. But, the end result is one terrific looking tanker! [tup]
My first one took me 8 hours to put together. Keep in mind that the only kits that I had under my belt at the time were two Accurail kits. The Proto 2000 tankers are in a class by themselves. Thankfully, with more experience under my belt, my 2nd Proto 2000 tanker took me only 3+ hours to complete. They do come with metal wheels.
Lillen, if you feel you need to get your “kit building” feet more solidly placed, I would go with the Accurail for the next few kits. Then try moving up to Branchline and Proto 2000. Hope that helps…
Tom
Tstage, thanks for a superb reply. I ahve built alot of other model before(non MRR) made out of both metall and resin so I feel quite certain in my capacity to build stuff. I would like to try a Proto2000 tank car but when I checked walthers I canät find any that isn’t either a timesaver or already assembled. Do anyone of you have a link to P2K tankcar(black) that would fit the 50’s I would highly apreciate it. I wan’t the enjoyment of putting it together so I don’t care if takes 100 hours. I’m looking for the enjoyment of doing it myself.
I have roughly 2000+ assembled and painted miniatures behind me so I should be able to do it. I hope! [:D]
Lillen
Lillen, about the only tanker still readily available in full kit form is the Tichy model: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/293-4020
It’s not designed after any known prototype (although it’s close to several), it’s undecorated, and you’ll need to add metal wheelsets and your choice of couplers, paint, and decals. That being said, all the parts fit extremely well, and based on your experience you’ll probably enjoy assembling it.
If painting and decaling aren’t a problem for you, Tichy has other kits that you might also like - the wrecking crane is one of the best kits available anywhere. Their website is http://www.tichytraingroup.com/ and you can order direct; see their “Specials” page for free shipping and discount offers.
Lillen,
I’ve found that the Proto 2000 “Time savers” really don’t save you all that much more time than the “non” Time saver kis. On the tanker, the center portion is partly put together but I don’t really remember much of anything else being preassembled. If Walthers has a good price on it, I’d go for it. With the wealth of experience you seem to have, you should do just fine. I would believe that most of their tankers will fit your 50s scheme with no problem.
Tom
Lillen;
Give Trainworld a call, they have many P2K kits in stock, older ones at very very good prices.
Just what kind of prices are we talking about. Living in Sweden I would like to know before makng a expensive phonecall. Are we talking 5-10$?
Lillen
Lillen,
More like $8.50, $10.50 and $21.50 for their regular and time saver kit and RTR Proto 2000 tank car. That’s probably $4.50 off of the kits and $8.50 off of the RTR prices. Here’s their general link: Trainworld.com
Here’s a more direct link: Trainworld.com’s Proto 2000 stock page. Lillen, the kits are located near the bottom of the page.
Tom
Lillen,
Check out the following link: Proto 2000 kits on eBay. Lots of tankers for sale. Bids starting at $5. A few Buy It Now for $7. There’s a 4-pk of Phil. Quartz 8K gallon tankers with a starting bid of $20.
Tom
Thanks for the links. They help alot. Regarding e-bay there is a slight problem since I live in Sweden so there is a small problem with shipping it. But trainworld seems to have a lot of good stuff and I’ll think I will put in an order to see how the p2k kits are. It’s just such a shame that there website is so increadibly bad. It have kept me from buying from them in the past.
Lillen
Crandell, you’re joking, yeah? What’s difficult about P2K kits?
Cheers,
Mark.
Lillen, if you’ve had previous experience with resin and metal kits, you should have no problem with the P2K kits. to make things a little easier, can I suggest you use sprue nippers when removing the small parts from the sprues, and a small diameter reamer or twist drill to clean out any residual paint from the locating holes.
Cheers,
Mark.
Time saver kits don’t save much time, but lots of frustration. The grab irons on the dome section are particulaly delicate. When cutting the off the sprue heat (warm) the nippers or the grabs will break! This is where the time savers are a big plus, the dome grabs come pre mounted. Which ever ones you buy, drill out the mounting hole or the grabs will not go in them. The paint fills them. Don’t ask how long it took for this to dawn on me. I have built 10 or 15 and they turn out well. Good luck had enjoy!
Ok, I have decided to try one P2k kit and the wrecking crane from Tichy trains. But what wheels should I get to the crane. I want metall and I’m lost in this jungle. [:D]
Lillen
Lillen,
Get the 33" ribbed. Proto 2000 makes some nice ones. Kadee, Intermountain, also.
Tom
Lillen–
If you’re specifically looking for tankers, you might want to check out Intermountain. I’ve got several of their 'forties-style tankers, and they’re really fine! One thing, though, I don’t know what percentage of their current rolling stock is available as kits–most of what I’ve seen lately is RTR. However, I have built several Intermountain kits, and they’re nowhere NEAR as time-consuming or frustrating as the P2K’s.
For other kits, I might suggest Accurail (easy, but nicely detailed), Red Caboose, and Branchline, which offers two degrees of kits, their ‘Blueprint’ series (craftsman level) and their ‘Yardmaster’ series, which go together more like Accurail, but are still quite nicely detailed.
But I’d really build up to the P2K tankers–those kits are DIFFICULT!
Tom
No, unfortunately, Crandell is not joking. Truthfully, I now know that pin vices are highly advised, but hindsight is everything. I will tackle one of these again…eventually.
However, the thread I mentioned did have some respondents who averred that the P2K tankers were female canines to put together. [B)] On balance, the more experienced modelers (you among them, surely) found that they were no problem.
-Crandell
accurail is ok i think the chassie system box car i put together was poor. al though i did like walthers i put together a csx non coverd hopper (4 bin) and was overjoied with the quilty
Ok. As I said before I decided to get the Tichy train wrecking crane. I will order it tomorrow. Now I need metall wheels for it and it’s companion car.
This: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/293-4022
Should I go for the sugested RP33 or should I replace trucks and all?
Would these fit? : http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-23207
or these: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-21251
or these: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-21254
Any help would be most apreciated.
Thanks, Lillen