Well, I'm not sure which scale you're asking about (or just all of them).
Personally, my primary scale is S.
About 1/2 my cars are near RTR. They are from S Helper and are set up for HiRail. Fortunately, they come with scale wheels in the box which I swap with the HiRail. I change out the AF compatible coupler with KD and I'm done. These are nicely detailed and I don't do anything more to them.
The rest are mostly kits varying from fairly simple to complex. Some are plastic, some are resin or urethane, and others are primarily wood with metal details. Mostly, I build these straight out of the box. But sometimes I change out detail parts for better ones.
At some point, I plan to scratchbuild a few cars. I did this when I was in HO and really enjoyed it.
As for brands, I really like the S Helper cars. S Helper sold their line to MTH who are slowly re-releasing the line (albeit without the scale wheels included-except for diesels). American Models is a nice brand also, but many of their cars are for a little later than the early 50's so I don't have many. They used to be simple kits but are now RTR. They come either with HiRail wheels or scale wheels. I have some other brands but haven't built them yet.
Paul
If you are switching to O, I assume you are askng questions about what's available in O. I know they have come a long way since my O days back in the late '50's, but not sure of what is available now. I never built O scale kits then, but knew they existed.
I would go over to the fellows at Classic Toy Trains to chat with the folks that do more with O scale models.
Good luck,
Richard
I have plenty of both, running, and still in the box, waiting. I'm slowly building up my fleet of tank cars, and I have learned to shy away from Walthers kits. The tanks half shells need a lot of work, after assembly, no matter how hard I try.
I'm OK with the MDC/Roundhouse, I use Plano parts for detailing, Kadee couplers, and IM wheel sets.
I also have a bunch of IM cylindrical hopper kits. As I assemble them, I replace walk ways with Plano etched metal. Which reminds me, after I'm done with a few loco projects, I should get back to them.
Along with a lot of steel coil cars. Wow, now that I think about it, I have 2 tupperware storage containers of kits.
Mike.
My You Tube
Because of phisical limitations, I've gone from HO to O.
When I started, in the mid 1950's, my rolling stock came from Varney kits and in the 1960's the consists grew with Ready To Run items.
Am curious:
For the most part are your cars from kits or are they RTR?
If RTR, do you get already detailed cars or do you enhance (change couplers, add spring trucks, decals etc.) more available stock?
Lastly, do you prefer one brand over another?
As always, many thanks.