For us old guys: Favorite car kits from the 90’s

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rgeiter

rgeiter

Conrail Quality
I was in my 20’s through the 90’s. Very new to model railroading. The local hobby shop was just walking distance from my house and my only source at the time. So naturally I lived by their word… until I learned the hobby more.

With that being said, they had a ton of Athearn blue box and Roundhouse kits. Some Accurail but they were “expensive”. I gradually fell in love with the Roundhouse kits. In fact, the last train show, I just bought 12 more RH cars. I also will grab any Accurail, Athearn and Intermountain cars too, kits or assembled. Assembled Intermountain car kits are usually not to my standard. That takes lots of patience and a sharp knife.

So what kits did you guys like?
 
In the 90's, I was still finding Athearn shake-the-box kits from the 60's and 70's. Depending on what it was and who was selling, I could get them for a couple of dollars each. I remember when E&B went under, sellers were blowing out their kits for a buck each. I ended up with a ton of coalporters and wood chip cars that way.
I still liked the old Athearn kits, though.
 
Most prevalent for me were the Athearn Blue Box and Roundhouse kits. I still have close to 300 of them on the layout. Accurail was around then and I had a few of them, but most of my over 150 Accurail cars were bought after 2008. Lifelike was starting to produce the P2K freight car kits sometime in the 90's and I fell in love with them, but back then they were $10 apiece when Athearn and RH were under $5. The P2K's are still my favorites and I still have 4 or 5 left to build.
 


Is it just me or do you guys notice our stories all start with “back in the nineteen hundreds…”

Back then and to this day my favourite is still the Accurail covered hoppers.
Just the right amount of weight and detail and the paint and graphics are spot on.
 
Rico said:
Is it just me or do you guys notice our stories all start with “back in the nineteen hundreds…”

Back then and to this day my favourite is still the Accurail covered hoppers.
Just the right amount of weight and detail and the paint and graphics are spot on.
Click to expand...
While P2K is my favorite, Accurail covered hoppers, both the ACF smooth side and the newer PS rib-side ones are close seconds and make up a lot of my fleet. One nice point about Accurail cars is that you can send them $4 and get a sheet of decals that match their paint exactly and number 12 additional cars to make a reasonable fleet. Since each model comes with 4 numbers, that allows 16 different numbers all together. Actually you can get even more if you carefully cut & paste some of the numbers like I did.
 
santafewillie said:
Most prevalent for me were the Athearn Blue Box and Roundhouse kits. I still have close to 300 of them on the layout. Accurail was around then and I had a few of them, but most of my over 150 Accurail cars were bought after 2008. Lifelike was starting to produce the P2K freight car kits sometime in the 90's and I fell in love with them, but back then they were $10 apiece when Athearn and RH were under $5. The P2K's are still my favorites and I still have 4 or 5 left to build.
Click to expand...
Ah, the P2K kits were amazing! Intimidating at first but fun to build.
 
Rico said:
Is it just me or do you guys notice our stories all start with “back in the nineteen hundreds…”

Back then and to this day my favourite is still the Accurail covered hoppers.
Just the right amount of weight and detail and the paint and graphics are spot on.
Click to expand...
I remember buying my first Accurail cars. ADM covered hoppers. Actually covered hoppers were all I bought. They were solid and easy to build. Didn’t like the way they designed the friction pin to hold the trucks on though.
 
bnsf971 said:
In the 90's, I was still finding Athearn shake-the-box kits from the 60's and 70's. Depending on what it was and who was selling, I could get them for a couple of dollars each. I remember when E&B went under, sellers were blowing out their kits for a buck each. I ended up with a ton of coalporters and wood chip cars that way.
I still liked the old Athearn kits, though.
Click to expand...
Got about 50 or so E&C/ LBF coalporters. Really liked them too.
 


I really like the Accurail Covered hoppers, but my favorite kits of the 90s were the then contemporary Walthers kits. I still have some to build. In fact I found an unfinished Scale Test Car in my to build shelf, that Walthers is re-releasing for $50.00 Ready to Run.
 
I did not re-enter model railroading until 2012, after a 35 year hiatus.

Since I am modelling early steam, I have acquired a few dozen Roundhouse truss rod box cars and 30' flat cars.

I also have many Accurail and Walthers kits that fit the end of my era.

I like em all!
 
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My oldie but goodie with keep alive lighting...
20181110_102248.jpg
 


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