Kits or RTR

[ericsp]

I noticed that many model railroad manufacturers are going to ready to run. However, most people I have talked to seem to prefer kits. What does our august (I am not refering to the month) panel think?

I have clarified the poll question. I did not mean "What do you buy?", I meant "What would you buy if for a particular piece of rolling stock you could choose between a kit or ready to run?".

[cacole]

Kits for rolling stock and ready-to-run for locomotives, especially steam engines. I have found that most ready-to-run rolling stock has poor rolling qualities and I usually have to change out the wheelsets or the entire truck.

[BRAKIE]

Well,I buy both kits and RTR..I found that is the only way I can have a rounded freight car fleet..As far as kits I prefer the simple kits as I never did like a car kit with a million and one iddy biddy pieces.[:0]
I also find that I need to tune up my RTR cars sometimes just by adding KD couplers or in rare cases changing out the wheel sets.
Currently I am burn out on building kits lately and seem to favor the RTR cars.I have not purchase any car kit in the last 6 months save for 3 odd name short line boxcars.

[Eriediamond]

OK, I didn't vote on this one, only because I like both, in locos and cars. I must admit though, I'm like Brakie and like the simpler kits. About 90% of my fleet is steam and steam era and I've built a few steam loco kits, though very few, back in the old days when kits or "semi-kits" were the norm. Thanks, Ken

[lupo]

I like both:
so no vote! [:D]
Loco's are RTR, but cars I have a lot of kits, and If you buy for instance Walthers RTR there is still a bag of goodies included to put on before you model is ready to roll

BTW:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18476
you could take a look at these posts as well.

[Anonymous]

kits for cars

rtr for engines

[Anonymous]

No vote, I purchase both based upon needs
Ch

[csxns]

RTR Rules dont Cuss with them only when they derail.

[IRONROOSTER]

I also do both depending on availability. In S scale I find there is usually only one option. While I enjoy kitbuilding, I also appreciate being able to get the trains up and running quickly.
Enjoy
Paul

[Catt]

I prefer kits for cars and RTR for locos even though I voted just for kits.I think you should have had two questions on your poll .

[Anonymous]

Kits in General. I prefer them, and there's almost no accurate 2nd gen power for the road I model, so I need to kitbash my power. Luckily, there's plenty of available RTR 1st gen power for CN, at least in hood units, so that got me up & running, while I slowly build the newer power.

With the decline in Shake-the-box kit availability, I'm moving to Resin as my primary source of Rolling stock. Lots of fun to build. As I'm in an apartment, building rolling stock is my primary outlet for the hobby, I should have a nice fleet by the time I've got a basement.

[nfmisso]

Both.

[Junctionfan]

I prefer ready to run on certain model like Walthers and Intermountain which have kits that can be a senior pain in the butt to put together; but athearn and accurail for example are pretty easy to put together so I don't mind them. For engines though, I prefer RTR.

[CP5415]

I prefer kits so that I can use the couplers I want instead of the crap that comes with all RTR.
I hate having to change couplers!

Gordon

[CP5415]

I prefer kits so that I can use the couplers I want instead of the crap that comes with all RTR.
I hate having to change couplers!

Gordon

[Anonymous]

i didn't vote because i like both. i prefer kits but if a manufacture comes out wit a RTR car that i can' t get other then in RTR form then i'll buy it. But buyin just RTR gets alittle bit expensive. I am 17 and i have a summer job 2 pay for 4 things! Trains, girl friend, savings, and the lord. And a large chunk of it goes 2 the trains!! This all said i've racked up all lot of cars. 65 in total[:D], wit 4 Blue Box engines (3 Sd40-2 newer style[^] and 1 older ac4400cw)

[jmozz]

i go with kits I really like to build models jmozz

[Anonymous]

I've made my views on this subject pretty well known. I'm for kits!

[Anonymous]

I like kits better, as far as freight cars go. They're more rewarding and you also gain experince in building models. I prefer RTR locomotives because most of the detail is already there.

[Hawks05]

well when i was first getting started everything i bought was RTR. i was kind of afraid to put together a kit because i figured i'd screw it up and it'd look bad. well since then i've put together probably 10-12 kits. most have been really easy so its no biggie.

i prefer RTR because i want to run stuff right away, but kits are great to. as long as they are really complex, give me a little time before i take on a Walthers or Intermountain kit, i'll stick to the Athearn and Accurail for now. as for locomotives i prefer RTR. on some of the P2K locos i have i haven't even touched the details that came with it.

being 17 i don't have a lot of money. i have a job but haven't been able to work all summer because of baseball. i also have a car that i have to pay for and i might be getting a motorcycle so i won't have much money after any of that.

[Anonymous]

I buy anything that fits my need. But mostly kits because of the price. Kit's is my vote.
Andrew

[Hawks05]

ya the price of kits are really good for a high school kid. can usually buy 2 kits for the price of one RTR piece. not much but it saves a lot.

hopefully i can get to the hobby shop sometime this week. buy a building, some kits maybe some RTR stuff, the latest MRR mag, and some other stuff that might pop into my mind while browsing.

[sebamat]

I prefer kits as long as they can be built in ca 1-2 hours on the kitchen table. A good trade of between investment (time and patience) and personal satisfaction (I DID something on my own).

My attempts for something more complicated ended with bad results, specially because of missing specialised equipment (a swiss army knife is my tipical tool).

[twhite]

Didn't vote on this one, because I use both. I agree with a couple of the writers, though, some of the RTR come with problematic wheelsets--I just switch them over to Proto 2000. Of the kits available, I really like the Red Caboose and Intermountain, they are complex, but go together quite well. Wish I could say the same about the Proto 2000 kits, though. For some reason, no matter how much I try, nothing seems to want to fit. But maybe that's just me. And while I'm complaining, do you think we could get Walthers to improve their drill-starting points on the RTR cabooses they're producing? Or better yet, I'd be willing to pay a few extra bucks for pre-drilled holes.

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twhite
[And while I'm complaining, do you think we could get Walthers to improve their drill-starting points on the RTR cabooses they're producing? Or better yet, I'd be willing to pay a few extra bucks for pre-drilled holes.

Use a dental pick ($2 at Ace Hardware) to poke a starter hole where you need to drill, and let the rest of us pay a little LESS for Walthers cabooses!

[Anonymous]

when i buy new i go kits... most. im a broke collebge student, but some how still manage to get a lil money to spend on trains. i mostlay buy uses (kits and alreade built up kits). the few that i have boughten new have all been athearns or MDCs. i just cant bring myslef to fork our more money for a car that is alrealy built when i can get simular for cheeper and have a good time building it. as for specific prototypes, i wish everthing was a kit so that i could get cars such as walthers centerbeam flat cars cheeper. the only advantage that i see RTR having is that they stick more detail on, which i wi***here was a way to do on kits.

as far as engines go i honeslty wish i could save a few $$$ by getting them in a kit. most all the deisel companys either make their engines in RTR or almost RTR. i honelsly would not minde saving a few dollars and puting the whole thing together. i usualy take all my engines apart after i have had them for a month or so anyways.

[Anonymous]

double post.... sorry

[CBQ_Guy]

Actually, I would prefer RTR over the kits because I'm primarily a model railroader rather than a railroad modeler. But since in many cases the RTR stuff costs so much more than a kit, I try to go with the kits. And the simpler the kit the better, too. I'm one of those nasty "good enough" modelers and if it looks like a boxcar, it's good enough for me. I've got a large layout to build here, after all. I need to populate it in an expediant manner.

With the price of kits going up, too, the price of the RTR Athearn stuff doesn't seem all that costly now, so I've been scarfing up some of them recently.

[darth9x9]

It really depends on the manufacturer. Athearn, Walthers, MDC, and Accurail kits are fun to put together. But if anyone has built an InterMountain cylindrical covered hopper, they are worth every penny for the RTR model!!! I have it down to a science and I can build them in assembly-line fashion but they are still painful and time consuming. I really like the RTR cars from InterMountain, Kadee, and Atlas.

[novacoach]

The freight stuff that is genuinely rtr is not really high quality apart from the Intermountain/red caboose and similar level stuff. I have found some with broke grabs though but my supplier had replaced. The Walther RTR is not RTR and the drilling out and painting is a personal choice. I quite like it most of the time especially as I get better at it and the cabooses are a good move. BUT even the high quality cars are not that not good for me because the fitted weights tend to be magnetic and as I switch with under track magenets the cars are normally useless for that. Ditto the couplings except where KDs are fitted