HO kits - time to move on to other manufacturers

[nfmisso]

There has been a great deal of discussion on the availability of Athearn freight car kits, it is time to move on to other manufacturer of kits, here is a partial list of some kits that I have come accross and been very pleased:

http://www.bowser-trains.com/hocars/hocars.htm
http://www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/hokit.htm
http://www.mdcroundhouse.com/
http://www.easterncarworks.com/page4.html
http://users.multipro.com/westerfield/
http://www.accurail.com/accurail/
http://www.red-caboose.com/cgi-bin/e_catalog/catalog.cgi?&page=new_product_pages/front_page.html
http://www.stewarthobbies.com/
http://www.branchline-trains.com/index.html
http://www.lifelikeproducts.com/proto/timesavers.htm
http://www.lifelikeproducts.com/proto/protonews.htm

and for cabooses:
http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm

Walthers lists over 1200 HO scale freight car kits, some from manufacturers not listed above.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=&item=&split=300&category=Freight&scale=H&instock=Q&keywords=kit&start=0

So , my suggestion is that each of you complaining about the lack of Athearn kits go out and support the companies still making HO freight car kits by buying just one kit from each manufacturer. There are many manufacturers of HO kits that I have not listed above, so some of you should be able to add to this list.

[Anonymous]

I like Branchline and P2K kits - some of the other manufacturers offer very poor reproductions, especially Roundhouse and in-Accrurail (for RI, at least). Some Athearn kits are good, but some are also inaccurate.

Although most of my locos and cars are currently Athearn (by a hair), I find that I rarely buy Athearn anymore, either rolling stock or locos. I feel that Branchline and P2K kits, or P2K, Atlas and Kadee R-T-R rolling stock give me better quality and better reproductions, and Atlas, P2K, Kato and Stewart locos are far superior to even the Genesis locos.

So ... I HAVE moved on to other makers!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the list. I find it hard to buy Athearn anymore. $5 for a gondola kit or $13 for the same car RTR that I will need to dis- assemble to work on anyway. I bought an Athearn RTR caboose that is really nice but rolls really bad. I'm going to need to take it apart and redo somethings to make it work.

RMax

[joseph2]

I like to build kits,hereare some more manufacturers:LaBelle,Tichy or Gould,Huff'n Puff,Funaro and Carmalengo,Westerfeld.For me building kits is the best part of the hobby

[Hawks05]

right now Walthers is beyond me. i'll stick to Athearn which i actually find quite a bit of and Roundhouse. Red Caboose i know is good but costly.

the Athearn locomotives though don't appeal to me at all. seem like they are lacking in detail to say Atlas or Proto 2000. i think if i buy any more locos they will be the later brands.

[tomwatkins]

Red Caboose and Intermountain are among my favorite kit manufacturers. I also like Branchline and P2K. I'm looking forward to Branchline's new heavyweight passenger car kits. The photos of them look great. Recently I've been doing a number of resin kits and they are a lot of fun. In addition to Westerfield and F&C, three good sources for resin kits, particularly for southeastern prototypes, are Smoky Mountain Model Works, Wright Trak models and Blue Ridge Historics.
Tom Watkins

[sparkingbolt]

Great list, Nigel. I appreciate the websites, and added them all to my favorites list for easy reference. I agree, it's time to move on. Dan

[CP5415]

Excellent list Nigel.
I plan to stick to Athearn locomotives & kits though.
I have kits from Intermountian (still in the box), Roundhouse, Accurail & Walthers.
The Athearn, Roundhouse & Accurail kits offer me something the others don't.
Simplicity.
I have a 2 year old daughter that loves to play 'choo choo'
I really don't want her to handle a $200 locomotive that has all the bells & whistles of a Proto, Atlas or Kato locomotive for fear of breaking off one of those delicate detail pieces.
If she grabs a box off the shelf, I'm not going to have a panic attack as I know it's just a simple kit. Nothing to break off.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

I've never owned an Athern product other than from the LHS "dead pile" to use as testbeds for weathering and painting ideas. I don't consider two screws and a glop of glue a "kit".

To the above lists I would add: LaBelle, F and C, Sunshine, REM, Westerfield and HuffNStuff.

Randy