Anyone know who "Exact Rail N" is?? Checkout their autorack offerings with MBKLEIN: http://www.some train store.com/N_Scale_Auto_Carrier_Cars_s/1470.htm They have other cars listed with woo woo woo... such as trinity hoppers... etc. :tb-cool:
They are new and just started distributing just this year. They look to be pretty decent quality wise and price wise. I am ordering some 5161 Trinity hoppers to go with my Intermountain 5161's. Of course from www.some train store.com
Exact Rail vs Intermountain / Trinity 5161 Hi, Please take a picture of the Intermountain & Exact Rail version of the Trinity 5161 together and post it here. I would really like to see the two together. By looking at on-line pictures of the Exact Rail version and my Intermountains I've seen some "major" differences in the two (stirrups / upper detailing / ride height).
The company is run by a toolmaker named Chris Clune. Sounds like they have a bunch of stuff planned.I have one of the Verti-pac auto carriers and have been happy with it...the detail (plastic-wise) is quite good and the paint and lettering is very good on mine.
There is another thread on this company. They have both H0 scale and N scale. Here is my Exactrail 50 foot hicube boxcar.
So far, from the looks of things, ExactRail has started as a group of projects left unfinished when Huberts dropped out of the game. From the pictures I have seen, the 5161 hoppers don't compare to the IM offerings at close to the same price range. They come with molded roofwalks vs. etched for one thing. The boxcars on the other hand seem very nice. The vertapak is a bit of a high stepper but there have been a few tutorials posted on how to fix that.
At about half what MT and IM charge for auto racks, I can overlook a few "minor" things. The couplers look like Accumates from the pictures, but I'd want to see one in person before saying for sure.
They are Accumates. I converted mine to MTs using the screw and a MT spacing washer as the screw head isn't large enough to hold the MT truck in place. There is a coupler pocket clearance issue; it binds ever so slightly. The frame is exactly the correct height for body mounting couplers. I will do that, but plan to operate with the talgo MTs for a while first. [edit] Oops! I am referring to boxcars in my post; not covered hoppers.
Metal Wheelsets for ExactRail PS4000 Covered Hopper This is a Trinity 5161 covered hopper. I purchased two other types of ExactRail cars this weekend: Gunderson 2420 gondola and a PS 4000 covered hopper. The gondola had the Accumate trucks and McHenry couplers as pictured above but the PS 4000 cu ft hopper had metal wheelsets. Are these metal wheelsets a new standard offering for ExactRail? Thanks.
I was at the Amherst train show this past weekend and the rep I talked to said their new offerings will all have metal wheel sets. I think he mentioned Fox Valley but I'm not sure. He also said McHenry couplers. It was a great show so I was overloaded with info!
The couplers are different on different cars. I have one set that came with what I think are probably Accumates, but another style of car has McHenry couplers. I think they use whatever fits on that particular car. I have some of their cars. To my knowledge, nobody had done N scale Vert-a-Pacs before so I bought a couple of those. Also, I don't remember seeing 2420 gons in N scale. It's nice to have someone unafraid of creating and using new tooling.
Exactrail use Athearn trucks, so the earlier models have accumate couplers, with McHenry's coming in as available. Generally nice cars IMO. Cheers, Kev
I received a PS 4000 from M.B.woo woo woo last week. It has metal wheelsets and etched walkways. The wheelsets look almost like the Athearn wheels, but are metal and free rolling. The car has the same standard as the latest Athearn covered hoppers, which is just excellent. I hope that Exactrail will one day also do transition era models. The PS 4000 has a build date of 1960 and fits almost in my era, I think it doesn't look "that modern" . Is there a dealer list somewhere?
