Brands of HO rolling stock with separate grab irons?


E

Epimetheus

Member
What brands of HO rolling stock fit into pre-WWII, have separate grab irons and a little better detail? Or is it easy enough to shave off the grab rails and add your own detail?

I am getting back into the hobby and modeling pre-WWII PRR. If I end up with 40 pieces, including flats, boxes, reefers, etc, that would be a lot. I'm selling all the old Athearn and whatnot and upgrading to better looking rolling stock. Brass rolling stock is too expensive for me. There are 5 engines, 2x4-6-2, 1x2-6-0, 1x4-4-2 and a GE 44-tonner. That's it. The diesel is to emulate modern times and run a short excursion train with the "old" equipment.
 
Certain lines within Atlas, Proto-2000 and Kadee are perhaps the most common. Intermountain has a great selection of cars good up to my limit of 1957. All are excellent but Kadee freight cars are still made here in the US as far as I know. Same pricing too. Go figure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I too spend too many years carving ladders and grabs not only off the sides but even the dreadnaught ends of mostly Athearn cars. Here's an old blue box kit with that treatment and Kadee metal trucks. SP&S-BOXCAR.jpg
 
Epimetheus said:
Or is it easy enough to shave off the grab rails and add your own detail?
Click to expand...
Depends if you are a builder or a buyer, if you value your time or your pocket book. I scraped so many hand rails off the old Atlas locomotives and then the next run Atlas did it for me. Sigh. I would not put it in the easy category. Not hard but definitely not easy.
 
Charles Smiley said:
I too spend too many years carving ladders and grabs not only off the sides but even the dreadnaught ends of mostly Athearn cars. Here's an old blue box kit with that treatment and Kadee metal trucks.View attachment 42853
Click to expand...

Charles, beautiful job on the box car. Nice weathering and the details look fantastic. So far, I've only replaced the stirrups on several cars. Never have scrapped the handrails off. Next challenge.
 
Thank you for the ideas. Yes Charles, that is very fine work. Scooping the plastic out of those dreadnought ends is intimidating. My first try will be scraping the grabs off a steel caboose - nice, flat plastic sides.

I found the Tichy Group, and those models would pretty well cover it - all from the 20's through the 50's, resin kits with separate grabs, about $15 each. They are undecorated. But sometimes i just don't want to paint and decal.
 
I understand the paint and decal thing. I set up assy lines in the 80's, 20 reefers, 25 ore cars, all my passenger cars, U.P. Loco's (nose is a pain) maybe that's why my reading vision is so bogus today.

I have a few new Tichy things too, ore cars (4) a flat, couple of others. They are all really nice models.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I can tell you that the fumes from airbrushing Floquil for 40 years don't help us much either. The most I ever did was six cars at a time. I envy your productivity! Wish I'd done that with PFE reefers back then.
 
Charles I had a paint booth and a drying rack in So. California. I agree with the Floquil too, I have a couple of hundred surviving bottles now, all over 25 years old. I have all the equipment to paint, less the booth and those are easily made. I previously painted all my steam with automobile laquer, a ragu bottle lasted forever. I have lots to look forward to doing again (no more gang paint, no need. Little back woods log/mine layout. No more double track main and 42 in curves.
 
I've done more than my fair share of cutting off grabs and ladders over the years as well. Epimetheus, I would also check the kits available from Funaro & Camerlengo, and Westerfield as well. Many of their kits are from "The Golden Age of Railroading", 1920-1940. These are resin kits. For wood kits Labelle, Ye Olde Huff & Puff, and unbuilt kits from Northeastern, and Ambroid, (these can still be found on E-bay and at train shows). All of these, like the Kadees are made in the USA.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Another thing to think about. There is some distance that you, owner, operator, modeler enjoy your models. That's the distance that you need to remember when you are looking at the models. My LHS guy, who must be a hundred couldn't figure out what I was doing when I walked backward two or three feet and looked at a $23.00 Bachmann 40 foot boxcar with seperately applied details and knuckle couplers. That Bachmann car didn't look AS GOOD as lightly weathered unmodified cars at my house (and I weather everything) so I don't know. If I'm gonna dirty it up and run it from a few feet away I'll be sitting on a comfortable stool a few feet away.

I may add lots of details to my freight cars because I like to. Paying $20-30 dollars for a freight car probably won't happen for me, can't afford to do that stuff anymore. I am all for those who have the money (as I once did) and want to pay someone else to fix up their models before your (or ) me buy them for our layouts. My most expensive items are track and lumber. Just a few thoughts, Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top