Before I start my thread; no, Athearn is not putting out N scale blue boxes. I walked into my LHS today to find some old Roundhouse car kits that had been sitting there for so long that the jewel boxes were yellow. So I said "why not" and brought 2 home. I opened the boxes to discover there were only a few parts and that they could be easily be built. After an hour I had 2 very nice boxcars (BN and CPR) complete with good-enough detail and MT couplers. Anyone else have bought some of those "N scale blue boxes" ??? They sure are great if you're on a budget or if you're sick of RTR. Also if you have tips on how to improve those nice lil' kits, feel free to share.
I have well over a hundred of these kits on my layout.Most folks around here think that N scale car kits are to much trouble to build.
While a little modern for my era, the Roundhouse kits are very nice. I do have some on my layout as I stretch the timeline. One of the very nice things about them is their prototypical height, unlike a few of the other companies products. I like InterMountain kits, too. but they take a lot more time. I would say the vote is in on kits, though, and there will be no more. Not from IM, anyway. I am not sure of the Roundhouse (Red Caboose?) position on this, but I liked kits better because I can modify and add weight as I construct them. More later. Flash Blackman San Antonio, Texas
I enjoy building rolling stock kits. I have built several Roundhouse kits including a fleet of express refers and have kit-bashed their 50' coaches into longer, 62' versions. While frustrating at times and a bit more challenging, I have enjoyed building IM's kits too. It would be a shame to have them disappear from the market completely. Perhaps Athearn will eventually release an N scale version of their HO "blue boxes". Let's hope.
Through my entire time in N (1988-present) I have run nothing but, Roundhouse (MDC) cars. Especially boxcars, of which many were painted in shortline Railways from the factory. I have one complaint: the printing/painting on the recent releases (1998-present) are not that good. The lettering doesn't look crisp anymore. About the only improvement on these cars would be to sand off the ladders and add brass ladder stock....... The only MT car I have, is painted "MofW Orange" and is used as a "toolcar" on my maintenance of way train. Jerry G.
I think MDC are okay, and I have a lot of them. Some of the paint jobs have been superceded, and the MT stirrups are clearly more fine scale, but in a freight car fleet of hundreds, having some $5-9 cars makes lots of sense, and is hardly noticed.
Am not certain how many IM kits I have built. But have enjoyed doing so. I developed sort of an assembly line procedure. And could roll out a complete one fairly fast. Boxcab E50
The Roundhouse boxcars are fun. They assemble quickly and accurately. A little weight and attention to the trucks/couplers and you have a fine piece of rolling stock. I agree that we need an equivalent of the "blue box" in NScale for no other reason than it takes a lot of courage to cut up a few $30.00US M-T cars for a kitbash. Thank you Atlas and MDC for continuing to produce undecorated models. While I will always strip when necessary, your generally available undecorateds tend to keep me busy.
What few MDC kit cars that I can use are not bad (most are too modern). I did buy most of the express refrigerators until they stopped putting them in kits. They are not bad 'shake-of-the-box' kits. My only quarrel with them is that you can not get the MDC knuckle coupler to go to the correct height. The IM kits were good except that the grab-irons tended to launch as you cut them from the sprues. If they did not launch then, they would launch when you tried to attatch them to the car bodies. This only applied to the box-type kits; the gondolas were fine (I guess that the IM got their act together on them). If the IM would fix the problems on their box-type car kits, I would buy more of their kits. We kit-builders will not buy unbuildable kits. [ 14. July 2003, 04:11: Message edited by: brokemoto ]
I rebuilt my fleet on these Roundhouse kits. For $3-$5 per kit (usually on clearance), they are one of the best deals out there. But I have found that the trucks are pretty much junk, and need to be swapped for MT’s or Accumates (I used the 70ton Accumates). Once you have nicer trucks on them, I think they hold up to anything else in appearance and performance. I recently got my first MT 50’ boxcar and ran it with my many Roundhouse 50’ boxcars. I still don’t see much of a difference between them (except for price)! The only other thing I have found is that you need to do a little filing of the metal frame in order to get it to fit better onto the box. No big deal there. [ 14. July 2003, 15:28: Message edited by: Bruce-in-MA ]
I had to use those little plastic washers that you get with MT trucks to get the trucks to fit. Even with MT trucks I had to use them. The coupler box is too high otherwise...
Oh how I love my Roundhouse kits. IM too. But with the Roundhouse being so easy as well a less expensive, I'll stop by the local hobby shop, pick up a couple and build them trackside while waiting to take some pics. I have dozens of em! I do however use MT trucks and couplers.
Sliding the subject just a little- Are the current issues of assembled IM cars coming with weight added? I bought a couple when they first were available. And they had excellent weight. Boxcab E50
Boxcab: Yes, at least the reefers are weighted. Run well. I just had this issue and found that they were weighted. (The reefers are all sealed up.) My new PFE reefer weighs 0.7 ounces. Don't know about the boxcars. Flash Blackman San Antonio, Texas
Flash- When the IM assembled cars first came out, I bought 2-3. All boxcars. I could see inside, and they were weighted with pieces of what looked like thin steel plates stacked up. Since then I'm still working at the stack of their kits that was accumulated. Haven't bought an assembled IM car in some time. So was wondering if the original weighting practice still continued. Boxcab E50
I could never understand why the Model Die Casting / Roundhouse "kits" never sold well. Everybody apparently was afraid of building them..... even though the trucks, underframe and brake wheel were the only parts to be applied to the body. They had no trouble buying an Atlas or other brand "Ready to Run" car and immediately replacing the trucks with MTs..... so the Kit Assembly would have consisted of popping in the underframe and brake wheel, and you wouldn't even have to remove the old trucks! Go figure. Charlie Vlk
Seems like people don't want to take the time to build things or do anything that requires more than 1 minute or their precious time anymore. Just look at how many people eat almost only fast food and kraft dinner. I know this has nothing to do with model RR, but you get my point. This society is all about having "tout cuit dans le bec" as we say in French. It means having everything with no effort and of course paying big $$$. This doesn't mean RTR is bad. I have severval very nice pieces of RTR equipement. Just my 2 cents worth
I'll second that! Many things about building a layout are far more complex, yet something seems to come over people when a car comes as a kit... But I shouldn't complain, because it just leaves more bargins for people who like these kits (like me) to find.
Some people just assume they can not build a kit, without giving it a try. If they do take the plunge, most realise it really is not difficult, and that it widens the range of models available to them.
