Is there any type of rolling stock you don't like ?...

[tomikawaTT]

It's not that I don't like them, it's that the question, "Why don't you have a Bullet Train?" has gotten REALLY old!
The JNR Shinkansen (the only route where Bullet trains could be found in 1964) was (and is) a couple of mountain ranges south of my prototype area of interest. 
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - sans Bullet Trains)

Well, how about adding a big billboard (with colorful 60s style Japanese supergraphics) telling everyone to take the 'Bullet train' to the Tokyo Summer Olympics (which was in October of 1964...those wacky Japanese and their Autumn Summer Olympics), perhaps with a route map which you can use to show those trouble-makers that the line does NOT run near the area you model.

If there was a practical way to get to a Shinkansen station closer to Tokyo than Nagoya (which is 125km down the line - in the wrong direction) that would be possible.  Unfortunately, the only Shinkansen station in the direction of Tokyo with easy access is - you guessed it - Tokyo!  Also, we are talking about a REALLY rural area with a rather meager population base.  Such a billboard would have been deemed non-cost-effective.

OTOH, a billboard advertising the Olympic Games (which took place in October) WOULD be appropriate.  Thanks for a good idea!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964) 

[Texas Zepher]

So is there any type of rolling stock that you don't like?

Lets see.

1. I've never liked the looks of the high-cube box cars whether they are 40' or 86'. They just look stupid.
2. There is one kind of air slide covered hopper that has pairs of hoppers oriented lengthwise.
3. A six bay covered hopper, that has some sort of injection air cylinders along the bottom.
4. The new 60' box cars are just - ummm boring, but I can't say I don't LIKE them.
5. I agree with the others on the railrunners.  Once again they just look - wrong.
6. I also agree about the Dooglebugs and RDCs.
7.

As far as model railroading equipment goes I really hate the Athearn BB tank cars because the coupler pockets don't hold up well.  The couplers always end up drooping and eventually catching a glad hand and poping out.   I hate all Roundhouse freight cars with the pot-metal frames because they don't hold the body on well, and the coupler pocket screws always strip out and have to be re-tapped for a real 2-56 screw.

[R. T. POTEET]

Hi gang. I was just looking through one of my model train catalogs, and came across a sales ad and photo of a covered gondola. No offense to those that like them, but that's one type of car I can live without. To me, they look like a box car that's been crushed down...

So is there any type of rolling stock that you don't like ?.

Tracklayer  

I don't like cars which don't stay on the track.

Seriously, however, covered gons would probably not be my favorite either but I could live with them; the same thing holds true with coil cars.  I have absolutely no use for milk cars particularly those which look like bathtub steamliners which didn't quite make it. My era of modelling puts ice-hatch reefers out but that is just an anachronistic technicality; the same thing holds true for stock-cars - they just don't fit my era and theme.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

As far as model railroading equipment goes I really hate the Athearn BB tank cars because the coupler pockets don't hold up well.  The couplers always end up drooping and eventually catching a glad hand and poping out.   I hate all Roundhouse freight cars with the pot-metal frames because they don't hold the body on well, and the coupler pocket screws always strip out and have to be re-tapped for a real 2-56 screw.

BRAVO! BRAVO!

I don't use those Athearn tank cars for that very reason and after some nightmares with the cheap MDC/Roundhouse cars, I avoid them like the plague.

[soumodeler]

Last summer, I got to ride on the E&N Ry Dayliner that runs daily, 7/52, between Victoria and Courtenay.  I must say, and perhaps it was due to the exposure and to learning a bit about its history, and maybe because I had walked many km of an abandoned right of way the previous summer to cross and photograph some trestles, that I warmed up to them.  Also, when I am out in my garden, even though  they are about 10 km away, when they sound their horns entering and leaving Courtenay, at the many crossings, it reminds me of the trip.

So, since Trainworld and other places are blowing them out, and that they seem to have good reviews....hmmmm.  Dang, I wish you hadn't posted that.

Selector, you wouldn't happen to have any pictures of that would you? 

 

[selector]

Ill have to find them and upload to railimages, but I will do that and get back to you later today.

[soumodeler]

We went to Victoria last summer and I saw it in the distance, but didn't get a good look at it. I appreciate it.

 

[selector]

 There she be.  The woman in the foreground is She.  

 

 

[soumodeler]

Ah. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

86' Autoparts boxcars.

Watching one of these swing around a 18" or less radius curve at the LHS years ago pretty much pernamently programmed me NOT to buy these cars EVER. The Overhang on both ends and the middle was something out of this world.

[AltoonaRailroader]

I'm not too hip on passenger cars either at this point, but your ability to turn them into trackside buildings is interesting to me. I have an old Chinese HO scale metro car that won't run, hehe, even though the track is made in China. LOL

Anyhow, could you throw me some pointers or point me in the right direction about how to do this. My wife is an artist so I'm going to approach her about it tonight. Maybe we'll make a trackside Chinese resturant out of it. LOL

 

Thanks for the inspiration.

[SunsetLimited]

I hate any rolling stock with a roof walk, most of that old equiptment is boring, small, usually some ugly shade of brown with some cheesy slogan on the side. Much prefer the 60ft auto parts cars and the modern passenger stuff.

[PFS]

Seems a lot of folks dont like dirty/usefull rolling stock.

I cant get enought of gons/coil cars.

But I do agree that 200 bathtub gons make a boring train, in any scale.

I cant say I hate any rolling stock, but personally I have no use for passenger cars of any type.

 

Cheers

 

PFS

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I'm not too hip on passenger cars either at this point, but your ability to turn them into trackside buildings is interesting to me. I have an old Chinese HO scale metro car that won't run, hehe, even though the track is made in China. LOL

Anyhow, could you throw me some pointers or point me in the right direction about how to do this. My wife is an artist so I'm going to approach her about it tonight. Maybe we'll make a trackside Chinese resturant out of it. LOL

 

Thanks for the inspiration.

For my dining car turned trackside diner I simply removed the trucks, blocked it up like you would a mobile home and put in steps and a wheelchair ramp. The actual kitchen is in a small building attached to the diner. A little parking area out in front and an appropriate sign on the top and a couple of little signs in front complete the scene.

[twhite]

In the era that I model (WWII) I like 'em all.  Even those silly-looking Heinz pickle cars!

Tom

[Texas Zepher]

For my dining car turned trackside diner I simply removed the trucks, blocked it up like you would a mobile home and put in steps and a wheelchair ramp.

You are talking about a shorty passenger car here, right?   I can visualize a 34', or even a 50 footer in this service, but it seems a full sized 80' car might look silly set up on blocks.

[Metro Red Line]

I don't like coil cars. I don't know why. Other gondolas are cool.

I also have no interest in anything with a roofwalk. Nothing against them, I just don't model that stuff. Is my modern era bias showing? :) I do like steam locos (the bigger the better) and wouldn't mind modeling a classic steam-era passenger train (i,e, the Daylight, UP City of ____, etc) just because. but steam/transition era freights don't interest me at all.

 

[SOU Fan]

I dislike passenger cars, period. There are passenger cars on my layout. One is a baggage car set up as a storage building, the second is a dining car set up as a trackside diner and the third is an office car on a MoW train.

on the passenger cars.  I have never liked them never will. 

I do like 86' boxcars and flats though.

-Smoke

[jeffrey-wimberly]

For my dining car turned trackside diner I simply removed the trucks, blocked it up like you would a mobile home and put in steps and a wheelchair ramp.

You are talking about a shorty passenger car here, right?   I can visualize a 34', or even a 50 footer in this service, but it seems a full sized 80' car might look silly set up on blocks.

Mostly it depends on how it's set up. If it's viewed broadside on it looks pretty long, but if it's set at an angle, it doesn't look to be so long. One way to set it up could be to leave the trucks on it and have it sitting on it's own piece of track. I saw this approach used on a real diner in New Mexico or Arizona years ago. The wheels were welded to the rails so there was no possibility of it rolling.

[aloco]

I prefer rolling stock that was built in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.  The only 'modern' freight cars I like are the round-ended tank cars, especially the whale bodies.

I don't like container cars, especially unit trains of container cars.  

[jasperofzeal]

However, that doesn't mean I don't quesition the purpose of some of them.  For example, ore cars, with their small size, I don't see the purpose if a larger car can have more capacity than the smaller car.  I guess it has something to do with weight limitation along the lines they serve on, but still, not that I don't like them, they're just my least favorite.

The problem is really with the people, not the cars or track.  Ore is usually much denser than the lading larger hoppers are designed around: coal.  If coal hoppers were used for ore (and this has been tried) in short order the operators start filling the hoppers to the maximum volume rather than the rated load capacity, resulting in damage to the cars and track.

KL

Thank you for clarifying, makes sense and now I can see the purpose for the car in a whole new light.  They're still my least favorite, I think that they are too small compared to most other equipment, toy-like.

[AltoonaRailroader]

Thanks Jeffery that is a good idea. I told my wife that we'd have to find some kits we could use to make a small attached buidling behind it and a sign of somekind for on top, I doubt that will be too much of a chore. And since I'll be breaking it down any how maybe we'll put lights in it.

[GAPPLEG]

I have no idea why, but I hate tankers. Rolling Molotov cocktails if you ask me

Awww bb4884. Come on man... Tankers are among my favorites.

Tracklayer

I love tank cars , Not enough of the type I like are available though.

[vsmith]

Circus painted steam locomotives, by any manufacturer, any model, they simply look retarded!

Now I'm hardly a rivet counter, but no circus ever 'owned' there own custom painted locomotives, they owned their own freight and passenger cars that made up their trains but never owned any locomotives, they were always-always-always pulled by the locos of which ever road they were traveling on, just like an extra passenger train. The roads crew and conductors were in control of the train and the circus troop were just passengers.

The circus locomotive is a gimmick by manufacturers to simply sell more sets, and as such just make me cringe whenever I see them.

[Brian In Arkansas]

For some reason, the tiny ore cars look fake to me just as the 34' cars and small tank cars.

At the other end of the spectrum - those 86' flat cars and high cube box cars do not "flip my switch"

Brian

[coborn35]

I don't know what they're called, but I've never been a fan of those "self-propelled" passenger cars - half Pullman, half subway engine. Yuck!

Are you referring to doodlebugs or RDCs. I would agree with you on RDCs. They don't have a lot of character. But doodlebugs are another matter. They will be serving my branchline if and when I ever get it built. RMC even has a story about converting the Bachmann doodlebug to two way operation. Doodlebugs can serve as single car passenger trains on lightly traveled branclines and can even haul a coach or two and or freight cars. Typically they had a combine configuration with passenger seats in the rear, the baggage section up front. The would handle mail and express shipments as well. I think they are one of the most interesting pieces of equipment we can run and a great choice for small layouts.

From an operating standpoint, a locomotive has nothing on them anyday! RDC's have more character than regular passenger cars if you ask me.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Remember those cheap HO F7's with thick, shiney chrome paint? You can include that on your list.

Or how about those rocket launcher cars?   Or glow in the dark rolling stock?

Enough of that.

[Brian In Arkansas]

ACK!

I was just thrown back to the AHM 99 cent sale days in the 70's

Putrid at best!

Brian 

 

[hardcoalcase]

I really could do without the ones that derail!

[Beowulf]

I find single axle bobber cabooses very annoying during an operating session!