walthers new cabooses & Bowser's N8 class cabooses: which is best?

[caboose63]

has anyone bought any of Walther's new cabooses or Bowser's N8 class steel caboose kit? i know that the wheelbase of walthers' first wood caboose kit that came out a couple of years ago was so close that it rubbed against inside of the steps. are their ready to run cabooses still suffering from that, or has walthers corrected the incorrect wheelbase? i see they are coming out with ready to run bay window caboose. hopefully it will have the correct spacing of trucks. Bowser's N-8 caboose looks like it would look nice on end of an HO scale way freight

[tstage]

jrinnorthcountry63,

I'll be curious to know the answer to that question myself. I bought one of the Walthers NYC 30' caboose and, as you alluded to, had to trim the inside part of the back stairs to eliminate the rubbing - with only partial success. It's fine on straight tracks. But, even on R22" curved track, the trucks still bind slightly going around the curve. There was an article in MR within the past year addressing and offering a fix to that particular problem with the Walthers 30' cabooses. I believe you substituted an Athearn(?) frame for the Walthers one that came with the caboose. The Athearn frame had the trucks closer together and eliminated the rubbing issue completely.

Tom

[cacole]

Wheels rubbing on the center sills seems to be a big problem with many Walthers products. Several years ago I purchased a set of Walthers double-stack container cars that would not go around a 22-inch radius because of wheels rubbing on the center sills, and the only cure was to cut away the sills. A member of our club recently bought a set of Walthers Amtrak passenger cars and is having to cut away the center sill so they can negotiate a 22 inch radius. The biggest problems seems to be that Walthers and many other manufacturers don't indicate the minimum radius required by their rolling stock, and the purchaser doesn't find out until its too late.

[red p]

I have a couple of the the Bowser N8s (in PC of course).
I think they are very good looking cars with good detail.I also compaired the models to prototype photos I have and I can say the paint and markings are right on the money.
I am very pleased with these cars.[^]

[tstage]

I'll grant you, the Walthers gondolas and caboose I have are VERY handsome models. I just wi***hey operated as well as they looked.

Tom

[DigitalGriffin]

I bought three of the Walthers cabooses. The grab irons are a bit of a pain, and I had to replace the queen post up top of the coupla with metal ones. (The thin black plastic just kept snapping and breaking in two.)

I replaced the plastic wheelsets with real ones. But I didn't have any problem with them.