Depends on what you’re after: My MT wood boxcars are top-shelf stuff…after I weather them. But for steel boxcars, the paint is just different on Atlas; their darker boxcar reds (N&W, C&O) just come alive after chalking and Dullcoat in a way that MT steel boxcars just can’t. And an Atlas caboose and steel boxcar or two at the end of a train is the non-invasive cure to MT slinky shenanigans, especially if you’re looking for an excuse to by a few more cars
I have a bunch of Atlas N scale freight cars. You name it I probably have it. Am I happy with them. That would be a longer discussion then I want to get into here. Now that most have MT trucks, wheel sets and knuckle couplers. I can say they run like champs. The expense and time spent well, I won't go into all that. MT, IM, are my favorites. I do have some early Life Like, Model Power, and early Chinese Junk. Again with MT's they run great however dimensions and accuracy is questionable. I'm missing something here. Maybe that will come to me later. Oh yes, the Bachmann $#!*. I have either sold off or given away my B... !! You do know what ... means. If so you are reading me correctly. Not happy with anything, from that provider. Okay, enough frustrate, frustrate, frustrate from me straight. Say what? What did he say? No, I didn't say that did I? I'm afraid I did. And then I won't say what I found with my IM diseasels. Aiiyiiyii Later all.
Get some of those with the cattle or hog (and now sheep) sounds inside ‘em: 1. A press of a button verifies they’re all there. 2. The doors don’t open, anyway.* *Can’t see between the slats, either. Not sure I would want to peer inside a stock car and see a speaker & decoder, anyway.
If only someone would invent something that would keep things from moving, they would make a fortune. They could call it...say, 'glue'? I would probably use something called 'white glue' since I would imagine that it would be water soluble and could be undone by soaking in water...if only someone would invent it.
Oh gosh, here I go again. What Rick! Aren't you ever happy with anything? No, I'm not. I quit playing with kindergarten white glue when I left grade school. Hate that stuff.
Glue.... just about the time i use it to keep the doors closed....I will hear some banging coming from the inside of the doors. Brian
It seems that just about everything causes cancer or reproductive harm in California. It's a good thing I don't live in California.
I do not like it here either, but the wife is from here. If I leave I will lose half of my trains. And that is unacceptable.
I bet some boogers made from blue-tac would actually work well if put between the inside door rail/track located under the roof. One could also tape the doors shut from the inside. These box cars come apart quite easily to implement either of those solutions.
Someone noted- a very small touch of superglue will hold the door in any position. I weight my boxcars with tire balancing weights in the center of the floor, so I keep the doors closed.
Those aren't just weights, they're scale wheel weights for those gigantic mining trucks! You know, the ones where the stairway to the cab crosses the "radiator" looking like a decorative, diagonal pin-stripe? I remember the first time my brother-in-law took me to see the Kennecott open pit copper mine near SLC UT. The mine's dump trucks looked normal enough from the observation point, until I noticed those really teeny-tiny F-series pickups running around at the same distance. He pointed out where he lived as a young boy was now several hundred feet above the mining surface, inside the pit. I've heard of "that town's not there anymore" meaning it's abandoned and nobody lives there. This was like, "No, the town is really not there anymore!"
I suppose someone with the time and gumption could scale it out... https://www.ritchiespecs.com/model/caterpillar-793d-rock-truck
