When these 36’ Old-time box cars were announced by Athearn N-scale back in May of 2017, I knew I would have to buy some. I own several other items from their inventory, both before and after they acquired Roundhouse, and have been pleased with their quality. Since I model a branch-line of the Maryland & Pennsylvania railroad, the M&PA cars were a natural. When I finally saw them in stock at modeltrainstuff.com, I ordered them and waited for them to arrive. The wait was well worth it. The completely assembled models are highly detailed with molded on a separately applied details, such as grab irons, brake wheels, and a roof walk. Even though the doors are not moveable, the underbody has good details, including truss rods with turnbuckles. Printing on the cars is clear and crisp. Athearn’s description states that the cars include truck mounted couplers. But much to my pleasant surprise, they are body-mounted and easily comparable with Micro-Trains knuckle couplers. Wheel sets are low-profile metal and roll freely and smoothly on Atlas code 55 track and turnouts. The trucks mount to the body with small screws, which makes them easy to adjust. Lastly, the car is weighted nicely, not too light and not too heavy. Overall, I am very pleasantly surprised with these cars, even though they are slightly outside of my modeling era. Oh well, I guess I will need to weather them heavily and not allow them to be used in interchange service. I can’t wait to see more offerings like this from Athearn.
Naval Gun Load and Pennsylvania F22 Flatcar Kits
Back in early April, 2018, The N-Scale Architect made a post on Facebook and other social media sites looking for three candidates to build their 'Naval Gun Load and Pennsylvania F22 Flatcar' kits and provide their unbiased feedback on building the kits. They would provide the kits for free and gave a timeline to post feedback. I thought that I would throw my name into the ring, and low and behold, was selected as a participant. Shortly after being notified, I received the kit in the mail with a nice letter from the company's owner.
Over the next several weeks, between work, family, and personal obligations, I began work on the kits. The first task was to open and inspect the parts and instructions. All of the pieces were in great condition and had some excellent detail. The instructions were thorough and complete, and included many fine diagrams and photographs. Most of the parts are 3-D printed through Shapeways (I assume) and needed to be cleaned first. I have dabbled in some 3-D printing of my own and have found Goo Gone followed by a mild dish detergent and a thorough rinsing to be more than adequate for this task. After air drying for several days, the parts were ready for a coat of primer. I just used a regular spray can of gray primer and found that I liked this color for the main portions of the gun barrel. Following the primer, came some color coats for the gun barrel supports and the flat cars. I used an airbrush for this task with some Badger Model Flex paints. Assembly of parts was next, starting with the gun load. All parts went together easily without any kind of sanding. The wire rods on the gun load were a little tricky and I wish that I had painted the brass before assembly. Fine details on the flat car such as the stirrups and coupler levers were somewhat of a challenge and required a bit of patience. After painting the trucks, adding the axles, and installing them on the cars, I noticed that some of the stirrups were a bit too long and interfered with the movement of the trucks. Decals were next; wow are they small! Again, taking your time can really pay off. Since there were three flat cars, I would apply the same decal to each of the cars before moving onto the next decal. After installing the brake wheels, lightly weathering, the kits were completed and ready for a run around the layout. My minimum radius is 15" with Atlas code 55 track and turnouts. The load made it around my layout with no trouble whatsoever.
Review
Here are my thoughts about this kit: there is a lot of bang for the buck in this kit, being that it is really four kits in one, three F22 flat cars and the gun barrel load. Seeing that I was building multiple items at once, it was nice to be able to bounce back and forth between items while paint or glue dried. All of the 3D printed parts have excellent detail and hold up well to handling. Paint goes on smoothly and glue adheres properly if the material is cleaned properly. The gun barrel load assembles easily and looks quite good. While the flat cars are weighted sufficiently and there is not really much assembly, the detail parts and decals on the flat cars are quite a challenge to get aligned properly. Instructions for this kit are more than sufficient, but some of the detail assembly is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Conclusion
I have been an N-scale modeler for almost 40 years and have built many structure kits, from plastic models, to wood craftsman kits, to kit bashing and scratch building. I have only assembled a few rolling stock kits which include an American Model Builders caboose and an old Roundhouse caboose. I am NOT an armchair or display case modeler. Whatever I am going to spend a significant amount of time building, painting and detailing must have a place on my layout. This kit from the N-Scale Architect will definitely have a place on my layout as an occasional "extra" in my operating sessions.
Lastly, I would like to thank the folks at the N-Scale Architect for the opportunity to share my modeling skills and thoughts about their product. I most certainly will continue to purchase the products that they produce as they fit into the scheme of my layout,
Decals
Since I model a short line railroad that never really existed, it was necessary to create my own herald and custom lettering. When I started on this adventure 20+ years ago, my model railroad mentor directed me toward dry transfers from Greg Komar (no longer in business). Those worked quite well for me to do my first custom locomotives, box cars, passenger cars, and cabooses. But now that my fleet has grown and now includes many locomotives that were not even on the market then, I knew I had to go into decals. First off, when I purchase a new piece of equipment, I either go with something undecorated or a very basic color that I can alter with minimal work (black works nicely). I certainly did not create any elaborate paint schemes for my basic railroad. When starting to shop around for a supplier of custom decals, the first company I came across and was recommended was Rail Graphics. But with them closing down operation at the end of 2017, I eliminated that supplier. Then I came across Circus City Decals & Graphics on someone's Facebook page. They were offering a special of $20 for an 8.5" x 11" sheet of decals that were text only (normally $40). So I set out on Microsoft Word and created a page of my road name in various formats for different purposes; locomotives, box cars, passenger equipment, etc. I also made a page of just potential locomotive & rolling stock numbers in a couple of different sizes. It can be a pain to try to cut and align individual numbers from a decal sheet. I contacted the company about how to submit the file and was promptly responded to by Matthew Welke with a proof sheet before printing began. In less than a week I had the decals in my hand ready to be applied. Following their directions, I applied the decals with a bit of Micro Scale's Micro Set and Micro Sol, allowing the decals to dry completelty between steps. The decals are very thin and require some care when applying, but the results are outstanding. Even before applying a dull-coat to the model, you can hardly even see the decal film. Now that I am this pleased with Circus City's work, it may be time to have my herald printed out on some decals.
New N-Scale Steam...WITH SOUND!
Within the past two weeks I have purchased three new N-scale steam locomotives (yes, my wallet hurts). The first was one of the Bachmann Pennsylvania K-4 Pacifics to go along with my Micro-Trains set of heavy weight passenger cars. This set of locomotive and cars is not really appropriate for my layout, but they sure do run and look good. The K4 runs exceptionally well with good slow speed control and a good range of speeds on the throttle. Electrical pickup is great, not even hesitating over the dead frogs on my code 55 Atlas turnouts. As far as the sounds go, there are the usual compliment of chuffs, whistle sounds and other steam related sounds. Although the sounds are good and quite loud, N-scale sound is still relatively new and has bit to be desired. But I am sure it will get better in the future. I just still can't get over the fact that the manufacturers can pack the DCC decoder and speakers in the tenders. Click here for a video of this locomotive and cars traveling across my layout.
A couple days after the locomotive above arrived at my house, I got an email from Pete at Brooklyn Locomotive Works that the two MRC/Model Power locomotives that I had pre-ordered early last year were now in stock and had shipped. I already have the DCC/Sound versions of the 2-8-2 and 4-6-2 MRC retooled from Model Power a year earlier, and these are fine locomotives. The new locomotives arrived after a couple days and I could not wait to get them on the rails and see (and hear) how well they run. The 4-4-0 "American" and the 2-6-0 "Mogul" type locomotives are perfect for my Deer Creek & Susquehanna Railroad. On first running, these locomotives did not disappoint, running flawlessly right out of the box. All wheels are within gauge and electrical pickup is excellent due to the re-working of the pickup wipers on the drivers and truck-mounted pickups on the tender. Knuckle couplers similar in size to Bachmann's are mounted on the tender and the front pilot, making these locomotives perfect for switching operations on my railroad. If you want to customize your version of either of these locomotives, the undecorated version comes with some alternate parts including a cab, tender trucks, front pilot, valve and cylinder and front plate with alternate headlight position. Although I have not tried to change anything yet, these parts look easy enough to swap out. After a good break-in period, it was time to see what kind of speeds I could get out of these locomotives. Both run similarly and have a maximum scale speed of about 55 smph and an impressive slow speed of about 2 smph, with a mid-throttle speed of 25 smph. This indicates that the throttle response is very consistent with the full range of speeds spread over the entire throttle range, unlike some other N-scale small steamers that get fast very quickly on the throttle. Now for the sounds, and boy are there a lot of sounds. With 10 different chuffs, 8 bells, and 17 whistles to choose from, as well as a full compliment of other steam locomotive sounds, these locomotives are ready for your pike. Although the sounds are great, the volume of these locomotives leaves a bit to be desired, with the sounds being somewhat muffled. The speaker is located in the tender under the coal load and could probably benefit from a few tiny wholes drilled for the sound to escape better. Having ordered the undecorated versions of these locomotives, it is time for me to get to work lettering them for my home railroad. I am very pleased with all three of these steamers and hope to run them for many years to come. Maybe, just maybe N-scale steam has finally come of age and the future is looking bright. See these locomotives in action here.
For another review of these locomotives (and many others), check out all of the reviews at spookshow.net.
New Small Switcher
Earlier this month I received two of the new Hornby/Arnold N-scale SW-1 locomotives. These came from Brooklyn Locomotive Works on a reserve that I had placed about a year ago. First impressions were quite good, placing the locomotive on my test track and running it on straight DC. It ran almost completely silent and had great slow speed control, essential for a switcher. Detailing on the cab and body were excellent and paint was crisp. Before moving it to my layout, it needed to be converted to DCC. With just a few wiggles, the body shell came loose from the frame, revealing the motor and control board with a smaller board plugged into a 6-pin plug. This smaller board was easily removed and replaced with a TCS EUN651 decoder; one of the simplest conversions I have done to date. Now the locomotive was ready for the layout. At first, the locomotive ran fine on straight track, but then had trouble navigating some of the turnouts. On a closer inspection, it seemed as though every one of the wheel sets was slightly out of gauge on the narrow side. This was not too difficult to remedy, but should not have needed to be done. Once completed, the SW-1 ran like a champ and pulled at least 12 cars on a straight level grade. The only other complaint is that the couplers don't mate perfectly with micro-trains and need a little fidgeting to get them to hold. Other than the couple of minor problems, this engine will make a fine addition to my fleet with some relettering and a little weathering.