Rolling stock kits.

[Rob24]

Howdy all,

I am looking for the "model" kits for HO rolling stock. Every time I do a search it comes up as "model Railroading".

Any ifo you can give would be great. Are there pros and cons with the kits? I enjoy the scratch build stuff, so I figured this would be right up my alley.

 

[viperman]

the kits are mainly very easy to assemble. I myself much prefer them over the ready-to-run items

 

[Rob24]

Where do you get yours from? Do you know of any links I can take a look at?

 

[DeckRoid]

I have a Proto 2K stock car that I am attempting to put together. I think they got the name for the company from how many $#%@% parts there are to these things.

But this is actually a good thing. I am sure someday I will want to model my own cars and will need to know how. But schnikie, does there need to be SO many parts?

George

 

[rekline]

Hi Rob24,

There are a bunch of kits to put together, I like the Athearn Blue Box kits, simple and easy to put together and then let my kids weather them as an added bonus pretty inexpensive. For a higher skill level I have some Bowser kits, A little harder to build (more parts) but look nice when done. I have been able to find them at any of the internet sites (be careful, they may only show a list of what they can get and then you have to wait for it) or my LHS. If they give you a hard time about it, go someplace else.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

[MasonJar]

Rob,

There are many, many (many!) kits available, from "shake the box" or "Blue Box" kits (denoting easy to assemble, usually no more than a dozen parts or so) to "craftsman" style kits that require you to cut parts from raw materials, do lots of drilling, painting, decalling, and so on - and even then you need to add your own couplers and trucks.

Give us a better idea of your skill/comfort level, as well as what kind you want (modern tankers, 1890's boxcars, etc) and people will be able to make better recommendations for you.

Andrew

 

[stevechurch2222]

Rob,I too like the Athearn Blue box kits,they are very easy to put together.

 

[TruckLover]

Rob,I too like the Athearn Blue box kits,they are very easy to put together.

Ill third that lol

They are very easy to build (5 mins or less on most of them), not expensive, and look great when assembled :thumb: :thumb:

 

[stevechurch2222]

I hope Athearn brings back the Blue box kits for the ex Roundhouse items,i enjoyed putting then together,and they too were easy to build and looked great.

 

[radar]

I like the Accurail kits about 10.00-12.00 $ each.
Not real thrilled with the couplers that come with them but K.Ds work fine.

 

[Kanawha]

The old athearn blue box kits were awesome, so easy to build, smooth rolling, and with a little extra detail you could make them very nice looking. R-T-R cars will be the death of modeling. lol

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

The old Athearn kits were pretty good, got me started on modelrailroading. Accurail has come on the scene with their take on the 'easy' kits. But now I'm looking for a bit more of a challenge. I like the time and it takes to put a Proto2000 kit together. I also like building the wood craftsman kits. I built an old-time gondola that wasn't more that scale lumber in the box with some metal castings and instructions. The kit took a couple weeks of evenings to build but in the end I felt it was worth it.

 

[Rob24]

Thanks for the great responses! I decided the heck with it and went to the LHS. He had a few different brands. I picked up one Accurail BN box car. Very simple to build! I would guess less then 20 parts. As far as quality go's I would give it a 6.5 out of 10. Also bought one box car from Round House products. Little more in depth. All metel chassis (except the trucks). One gripe I have about this one: It has screws to hold the trucks on. I could not get the screw to tighten up all the way. I do have an alternate plan but, I really shouldn't have to do that. I had to use the dremel all the way around the bottom. Not a big deal. I would rate this one a 5 because of the screw issue. I don't remember the other brand he had. He did not have anything but box cars. Really inexpensive thats why I picked these two up. Plus to see whats it's like.

What I am really after is Intermodel/container. Would also like to check out the taconite stuff.

My skill level: I am pretty good I guess. lol

My comfort level: I'll try anyhting once!

 

[nachoman]

You will find that most kits don't go together or fit together as planned. For me, that is part of the fun. You may always need to file of some flash, tap or drill a hole deeper, or make a shim here or there.

I am really disappointed the hobby has changed and the LHS no longer has the "wall of kits". Now it is the "wall of RTR cars" with a small shelf for kits. The Athearn kits were very easy to put together and one could assemble a few while watching a half-hour teevee show. And they didn't cost that much. I remember just a few years ago buying athearn kits for about 5 buck a piece. One could spend about 40 bucks and have a nice fleet of 8 hoppers put together in an evening. Now 40 bucks may get you 3 RTR hoppers

Kevin

 

[slekjr]

This fellow has some really good deals on P2K kits, but if you aren't a patient modeler you won't think of thanking me for the linksign1
eBay Store - Franko's Rail Depot and Design: Branchline, HO Scale Structure Kits, HO Scale Vehicles People
He seems to be a great guy too.
edit I see he doesn't have the p2k kits listed, if you are interested e-mail him if you are an ebay member I'm sure he has lots left.
Charlie

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Bowser used to offer spline cars and road railers, but I don't know if they were kits or r-t-r. Athearn and A-line offer container cars, but I think Athearns are all r-t-r, I'm not sure if A-line offers kits of his cars or just r-t-r. Most of the craftsman type car kits are for 1950's era cars. Intermountain offered the modern Canadian type cylindrical hoppers, but I don't know if they still offer it as a kit or not. I think Intermountain has quit offering decorated kits. I think they came to the conclusion that anyone who would build one of their kits would not mind painting and decalling it. I think now days if you want a factory decorated car from Intermountain, you have to buy r-t-r.

 

[NIevo]

I too really like the Proto 2k kits. I think they are the best out there for the price. You can buy lots all the time on eBay for $6-$7 a car. Here is a link to a build I did on a covered hopper so you can see exactly what goes into it. http://forum.zealot.com/t156651/ Search for lots or groups of cars on ebay, I've gotten 9 of the hoppers so far for about $55.

 

[sgtcarl]

I use nothing but rtr stuff. I would rather kit build, but when one suffers from uncontrollable muscle spasms, it kinda retricts what you can do.

 

[csiguy]

i like the proto 2000 kits too. very nice, lotta detail to them also. and they are not very expensive. l agree with charlie, frankos rail depo has some of the best prices i have seen relative to both the bowser and proto 2000 kits.

 

[santafewillie]

Nachoman, it's just your LHS. The LHS I go to in a small town nearby, carries 200-300 Athearn kits as well as 150-200 RTR's. He has no problems getting them from Horizon. He has other brands as well. 30 miles away in an upscale Dallas shop they have no kits. The owner there says he can't sell them (re: margins aren't as good). Steve, so far I have only seen RTR editions of the old Roundhouse cars.