Spine cars

[sd24b]

I am looking at picking up some spine cars in the near future and was wondering what the pros and cons of the Athearn RTR and Walthers RTR versions were? The Athearn site doesn't show their spine cars with the hitches. Does anyone have photos of the cars on their layout?

I have both. Athearn cars are very light. Even with JayBee wheels, additional weight in the cars and trailers I can only run them at the end of the train to keep them on the rails. Walthers are nice, however age is showing up on their male/female couplings. Only major weak spot I've found them . The bodies are diecast metal with plastic parts to be added. I would go with the Walther's Phil

 

[igmuska]

Recently I bought a set of Walthers Rolling Stock Gold Line Trinity Five-Unit 48' Spine Car. Yay whoopee, all die cast metal, heavy.
The only issue that arose is that the center wheelsets rub against the frames while traversing my 24" radius curves. At least they don't pop off the track as did my plastic Athearn well cars.
Next I have to fix the wheel scrapes and should be alright afterwards...

 

[PEIR]

I ended up buying one three car Athearn set and one five car Bowser set. Josh is going to get them shipped out tomorrow for me and I'll give them a review soon.