Athearn Well Cars


Those are Maxi-I's, they hold 40' containers on the bottom. The track well, much better then the old Maxi-III's.
 
I was thinking of buying a few sets of them for my shorter containers. Just as long as they will hold all my 40 ft containers in the lower hold I can put my 45' on top.
I was wondering how many cars to make an average full length Intermodal train anyway?
 
I have them. They're nice, and will do what you want. I run them either at a rear of a train or just a straight intermodal. Since it is 5 cars, 2 or 3 of these is plenty long.

These will run on 18" curves. The older Maxi IIIs (48' containers) will run on 18" curves too, but will creak and groan doing it.

The details are amazing, and they are fragile.
 
I passed on the Athearn well units as they are all plastic. I don't see these staying on the track unloaded in the middle of a train. I'm purchasing die cast exclusively for my well cars. The Maxi I and III's that I looked at seemed awful fragile, especially for the price.
 
For a full intermodule train, I would think you would need at least 20 of these sets. When ya mix them with the TOFCs and put it on broad sweeping curves, its very inspiring.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
For a full intermodule train, I would think you would need at least 20 of these sets. When ya mix them with the TOFCs and put it on broad sweeping curves, its very inspiring.
Click to expand...

Well My intermodal will be a mix. I have some 53 ft Kato units and just ordered a couple sets of the Athearn spine cars. and I will also throw in a couple of flat cars as well.
The Kato Units will make up the front of the train and eather these or the spine cars will make the middle Weight will be solved by just adding weight to the containers.
 
Well it all sounds good and I read all the reviews and I went ahead and bought two sets of them in TTX. I will add my review after I get to try them out.
With this purchas I now have 4 KATO 53 ft 3 car sets. Two 48' 5 car sets unknown make. two Athean 57 spine car sets two Maxi 1 sets from athearn and one 5 car impak set that I will need to paint. Heck thats getting close to a full Intermodal train.
Lord knows I already have the power to pull it.
 
DCCinstalled said:
Sounds like your putting together a nice train... Wheres the pics and vids?
Click to expand...

Well for one I dont have a layout yet. I have alot of stuff to move out of the basement before I can start to build it, I do however from time to time have pictures of some of the engines and rollingstock I do have. I spend alot of my free time weathering the engines and rolling stock. Right now I only have a
4 by 8 table that I can test run everything on. I have been busy installing DCC to a few of my engines lately. I will have to try to figure out my digital camcorder and get some video of them running however not much to look at now just a mess.


KATOIntermodal1.jpg


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More this weekend
 
Geez, the more I think about this, I beleive I left at least 4 sets of the 5 car wells at a train show when I was in the train club. I've looked all over for them and can't find them at home. When breaking down the train on the modular layout, I would usually move the cars from the staging yard to my train boxes then to my truck. I probably forgot them and left them on a table while I loaded the modules to the trailer then took the rest of my stuff, loaded it in the truck and went home. Dang, that erks me.
 
I have a set of them (you may have noticed in my pictures in the Weekend Photo Fun). I really like the cars. I had to play around a bit with the wheel assembly to get them to turn the freely and not wobble (as with any train car). I would recommend putting some weight in the bottom container, this will help keep the center of gravity low, and add some needed weight to keep from derailing. They are by no means bad cars, just light. They run ultra smooth, and handle my 18" and 22" curves no problem. Just be sure to check for low spots in tunnels, and under signal bridges, as you may encounter some clearance problems.

Hope you like them!
 
Nice pics, Don. I always like outdoor lighting.
Nice weathering on those engines, but the girder bridge looks brand new.:D
 
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