deLuxe Innovations

[Herc Driver]

Here's a question...

I'm thinking of adding some coal to my layout and wondering who makes a good BethGon coal porter...I've been looking at the Kato and deLuxe Innovations models. (I don't have any experience with Kato cars, only their diesels.) Are the cars of good quality/realism too? What about deLuxe? I've never seen any of their cars...do they run and look good? How do both companies compare to each other? Oh, I know this is just an opinion question, but I'm wondering just the same.

Thanks

 

[eightyeightfan1]

I've seen the De-Lux Coalporters. Nice. The ones I saw came factory weathered.

 

[extra7000south]

Both a very nice.

The Katos have Kato couplers instead of Micro-Trains couplers.
Older Deluxe have dummy knuckles, some have rapidos too.

I prefer the Deluxe cars myself.....

 

[sandjam]

I compared the two when I bought my Kato’s.

IIRC, both were equally finely detailed and of comparable quality and price.

I chose the Kato’s over the DI’s for the visual appearance of the loads and also the Kato’s seemed to free roll a bit better.

I am not thrilled with the Kato couplers and plan to change them to MT’s.

You won’t be disappointed with either. They are both superb models.

 

[Herc Driver]

Many thanks for the replys...

I've read that others are having problems with the Kato BethGon's, specifically with them hooking up with their Kato diesels. Apparently a Kato to Kato coupler combination doesn't always work so well and some have stuck a deLuxe BethGon between the two Kato products to allow better movement through the turns on the layouts. I don't have any experience with Kato's freight cars to know if those occurances are accurate or not. On my layout, I've had no problems running a Kato diesel with Kato passenger cars so I'm hoping I'll have none if I go with their BethGon coal porters. Still, the deLuxe are a good price...hmmmmm.

 

[DaytonTrainDude]

Athearn makes a coal porter set too. I think Modeltrainstuff.com has em on sale. Also has the Kato coalporters on sale. I have the Kato Coalporters and both the California Zephyr set and the 12-car Super Chief set from Kato. The coalporter couplers are kind of different and they can be a pain. I never have problems with my passenger stock though.

Mike

 

[b28_82]

I prefer Katos over the Deluxe. I also have some LBFs which run pretty well but the loads are something to be desired. I plan on going to the LHS and getting some coal to glue to the top of the loads. Anyway. The Deluxe innovations cars i have need new wheelsets because they are very wobbly on the tracks and tend to hit the coupler boxes. I found out that they are 36" wheels. Does anyone know who makes 36" wheelsets to replace what I have?

 

[n_gineer]

I have LBF's that came with MT trucks and couplers. As mentioned the loads aren't that nice but I spayed my loads with contact cement and dipped them in black sand from the craft store and they look great now. Over all a very nice looking and working car.

 

[b28_82]

Black sand ehh? that sounds better than mashing up coal from the hobby shop. :thumb: