HeeHee.... I thought I would need something like that when i first started fiddling with them. Tenax 7R is a solvent type cement used to bond styrene parts. Here's a link to the kit that it's sold in. Seems to work pretty well.
My two sets are at the post office waiting to be picked up, but reading about assembling the trailer hitches is bothering me a bit. Not my ability to put them together but how a three piece hitch glued together will stand up to use unless you just put them on a layout and leave them there. Will they be something I find myself gluing back together at every model train show or club running day I take them to? I'll find this out myself by this afternoon, but will they fit back in the box with the raised hitches glued on? I'm already on blood pressure medication, I might have to get my doctor to increase my dosage.
Yeah I was so excited about the reviews and running them on my layout, If I would grade the product, I would give it an A+. However with the hitch issue, especially how much of it is a pain it is, I would have to knock down the grade to a B+. I reeeeeally think BLMA should have went with interchangeable metal hitches that you can swap out if you want to run containers or trailers. Actually the most aggravating part of this model isn't the hitches, but the !@#$% container pedestals! They're so tiny, even most tweezers wouldn't grip them (unless you want to risk some flying into oblivion...) From what I heard, they will fit back in the box, but on some of the inserts, you would have to cut out a bit of plastic.
So you can set them up to carry either containers or trailers but once you do they are stuck that way.:thumbs_down: Another piece of rolling stock that won't fit back in the box once it's assembled.:thumbs_down: I can see a lot of trailer hitches getting broken off, I hope spares are available. Still looking forward to getting them and anything else BMLA makes but the little things can still be frustrating.
A B+ really, I give them an A++. Assembling the hitches is really no big deal. These are top notch models from a top notch company.
Ok putting the hitches together can be a bit of pain. I glued them together with CA glue, but attached them to the spine care with hobbytac so they can be removed and replaced with the closed one no issue. No reason to permanently fix them to the spin car. You need to cut the plastic cradle insert for the box in a few spots to place them back in with the hitches in the up position. Not the end of the world by any means.
I've now got my two sets and after seeing them up close the pros outweigh the cons but I had been hoping to easily alternate between trailers and containers or empty cars during a running session or show. While having to cut away parts of the insert to fit them back in the box is not the end of the world or something I'll lose sleep over tonight it is one of those annoying little things that don't seem to get thought of until the end user gets them in his hands. Not a big deal to someone who leaves the cars on their home layout all the time but to one who does most of their running at a club or shows it matters. The ideal thing would have been a box with inserts that could be left in or out to allow packing the cars with trailers or containers because if they have to be glued on even cutting away part of the insert won't work.
P.S. After putting a set together and running them round the layout behind an SD70Ace for a while I can overlook the packaging.:thumbs_up:
I’m sure Craig at BLMA reads this, and one thing they have been great at, is really incorporating user feedback in future runs (Top Gons are one example) So I would expect the packing issue to be resolved on future runs. I agree, these things do run like a champ thou…. BLMA has recognized and is capitalizing the market desire for ultra-high quality and detail in N scale rolling stock.
More, finer details = BIG $$$$$ OK...first off...I am not an intermodal guy...so these cars mean little to me. That being said...I still have followed and read this thread with a lot of interest. I saw the pictures...I have read the reviews. These cars seem to be on the awesome side of detailing. SOOoooooooooo...I finally went in search of the cost of these things. I expected to laugh at some silly, absurd price !! To my total surprise...I found on several websites that the original selling price actually indicates the individual cars would sell for about $15.00 a piece ! Now...we all know that locomotives pricing have increased with more finer detail. So much so...many modelers wont/cant afford to buy them. A lot of rolling stock has also reached astronomical prices ! If the math is correct...these cars are/where an awesome bargain ! I cant find em for sale anywhere...they are all sold out !!! I know pre-ordering (Grrrrrr) has a lot to do with the lack of further availablity of these cars. Finally...I think BLMA has raised the bar in both detailing and keeping the price affordable. For that...I think Craig deserves kudos and everyones future bussiness !! JMO...thnxs. .
Very well said MTNTRAINMAN. I had not thought about the cost per car. Even with shipping, mine came out to $15.85 per car. Now that I think of it that way, I am even happier than before. I am not huge on detail. I still have roundhouse and other less detailed cars on my layout, but these are awesome! Not much into intermodal either, but bought them based on the pre-reviews and my friend at FRT who said they were going to be AMAZING. They are and I am happy and this is going to raise the stock of BLMA for future releases. Some of the comments about fiddly detail pieces... common! This is N-scale. Any details are going to be fiddly and if a fat fingered modeler like me can handle them, anyone can. Two thumbs up from me.
Well I am an intermodal guy So these cars mean a lot to me. The price wasn't really an issue for me. $89.95 MSRP sounds like a bunch but I was able to get these for $76.46 each which, at a LHS, no less, and considering their availability and that the second run would cost $30 more from what I heard, the price was perfectly fine with me. Unfortunately, you can't really split up the 5 units into individual cars, since most of them share a common truckset (and only the end units have couplers) So paying $15 for one unit really isn't worth the trouble. Do they look good? A resounding yes. Do they roll/track well? An even more resounding yes. My only real gripe was the extremely delicate trailer hitches, their fragile nature and apparent difficulty in piecing them together. I really don't mind a little more model building work, I grew up on Athearn bluebox kits and putting a car together is quite rewarding (the painting bit, okay, you're gonna lose me there, that's why the N Scale Kits line has little appeal to me) I recently lifted a trailer from one of these cars and the 5th wheel hitch part fell off. Methinks that's not going to be the last time it will happen.
True...you CANT split them up....I understand that :tb-wink: BUT...if you look at them objectively....they really are 5 individual cars...even if they share trucksets. :tb-nerd::tb-cool: .
The bit that worries me is the fifth wheel just glued to the top of the trailer hitch, the hitch itself is pretty solid once it's glued together and onto the car but I can see the fifth wheel breaking off and getting lost. I could glue the trailers to the car to make the whole thing more solid I suppose but I want to swap the trailers around occasionally or run the cars empty.
Thanks! I've been reading and reviewing all comments to amend and upgrade future production runs. Currently I'm in discussion with our factory on a number of solution possibilities for the hitches. Of course, our goal is to always make them 'fine-scale', but along with that comes the fragile nature IF the cars are handled without care. Proper gluing and handling shouldn't result in hitch failure. More to come and many thanks for the kind words, support and feedback.
Craig, you ROCK, dude! :thumbs_up: Your post made my day. If you are somehow able to make a metal collapsible hitch, even if it were a wee bit larger than scale, I would still nominate you for next year's Nobel Prize. :mbiggrin: Anyway, look forward to your Trinity Spine Cars 2.0 solution! (Just make sure the new hitches are available to us 1.0 owners! Here's a video of my two sets of spine cars on the layout. I do believe it's the first "fan" video of the cars with all the hitches installed (well, I messed up on one and put a folded hitch and the container pedestals on that one...look for the red 53' Hub Group container ) Speaking of which, I used DeLuxe container putty to secure the container and rolled it into 4 tiny balls of which were put on the appropriate hitch corners. You can hardly tell the putty is there, so that part worked out fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Gz5A6vzpk
Yes, the hitch base is pretty sturdy, as the prototype is. I used Testor's model cement for plastics to put the three pieces together, applied with a toothpick, Then I used CA to put the hitch on the car. I don't seem worried about the hitch knocking off (Though I hope and pray that those cars won't get in a nasty derailment...yikes!) The 5th wheel is the hardest part to install. I glued the legs together, then laid the 5th wheel upside down, put model cement on the indentations, then lowered the hitch base upside down. That made the process much, much easier. On the first set of cars, I messed up on the hitch so badly that it started to deform from too much cement. That and one of the tiny nubs got bent. So I gave up and installed a lowered hitch (MUCH easier, lol) and the container pedestals (a challenge in and of itself, but I made it with a squeeze-release tweezer and a flathead jeweler's scewdriver to guide it into the square hole.
