Anybody buy Accurail freight cars?

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Disclaimer: I have not bought any new freight cars since 2014, when my fleet reached ~800 or so. I have assembled over 120 Accurail cars, mostly PS ribside covered hoppers and ACF covered hoppers; with a few boxcars thrown in. All kits made since about 2000 come with Accumate couplers which work well with Kadee, but they are made of plastic, a negative for some modelers. I have never had one fail, but I have lost a trip pin or three before I figured out to add a dab of super glue when assembling them. Kadee couplers will drop in to any of them if that's your choice. Quality is excellent for what you are paying for them. The newer models have more detailed parts, but many are molded on. If you want to build a fleet of particular type cars, you can send them $4 for a decal sheet with 12 different numbers. This applies to cars bought before 2014, I don't know if it is still the same price since I haven't bought a new freight car since then. At that time they issued 4 car numbers for each model, so it was easy to get 16 different numbers with the decal sheet. Many more if you choose to cut the numbers apart and paste individual numbers. If I needed more, they would be my first choice as they are not fragile and they are not expensive. Plus they are made in America. They do have plastic wheels, or they did when I still bought them, but Kadee or Intermountain fit just fine. I'm sure others do as well.
Ease of assembly is dependent on the modeler's skill level. I can assemble most of them in under 20 minutes, plus the time needed to re-decal them.

I just looked at their website and using the order form inside the kits, it is still $4 for the decal sheet.
I will research tomorrow and find the last one that I documented in the Coffee Shop and will post that link here.
 
Thank you Willie for your response and explanation of your thoughts. Being made in America is a big plus for me and of course the price. At my age I'm always looking to save cost. Never had issues with the accumate couplers.
 


I have built a couple dozen of their cars and always replace the plastic wheels and install Kadee couplers.
 
I have built several of the Accurail boxcar, gondola and hopper car kits. The boxcar kits are, in my opinion nicer than Athearn blue box kits but as others have stated, I use Kadee couplers (they are a standard for my rolling stock) and use Intermountain wheelsets with the Accurail trucks.
The hopper car kits are nice but do have a couple of tiny parts that need to be attached. These little parts, for me, are a bit tedious to install and can easily be lost if dropped but if I can attach these parts, anyone can do it.
Kadee brake wheels sometimes look nicer than the Accurail item. It just depends on you own standard of detail.
As Willie stated, if you want five or six of one kind of car, they offer a renumbering set. Also if you break or lose any parts, you can order replacement parts at a reasonable price.
Plus I like the fact that they are "made in USA".
Hope this helps....John
 
Basic kits, easy and fast assembly. Molded on details, but well tooled. Economical price.

All the people that lament the loss of the old Athearn Blue-Box kits should shut up and be looking at Accurail. Similar sort of easy-to-knock-together kits, but much nicer tooling than some of the old Athearn stuff which was pretty clunky.
 
Accurail does have some nice cars, easy to put together. But I have found some new 3 bay hoppers from Athearn roundhouse that are just as nice and when consider they come with metal wheels and accumate couplers which btw I have never had a problem with. The difference in cost is almost the same between roundhouse and Accurail.
Btw if you want reasonably priced freight cars and don't mind a little less detail, Athearn, newer Bachmann, Atlas and some others, I stay away from the top tier cars like Genesis and others because most of the added details I can't see while its running or even stopped for that matter.

Nothing wrong with Accurail but I think for the same or a few dollars more you can buy some freight cars that go beyond what Accurail can offer.
My opinion only, yours may be different!!

Dave
 


Speaking of Accurail, the couplers that come in two pieces are almost impossible for me to use. The dexterity in my hands from arthritis makes it very difficult. If I had some kd's which I'm waiting for, (they are back ordered). But in the mean time I found a way to use them. Just cement them together and set them aside till they dry. No issues putting them on and they work great.
I just mention this for others who are having the same issues I have of using small parts like these two part couplers from Accurail.
 
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