N-Scale Intermodal

[Adrian Wintle]

I just picked up the new Kato Gunderson Maxi-I well car set, which is a beautiful model, so I pulled out allmost of my intermodal equipment and put it on my test track. It then occurred to me that I should take photos of it all, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

If you are interested in intermodal equipment, here are the items that I have, and a mini review of each:

Kato Gunderson Maxi-IV (3-car unit with 53' wells)
This is a beautiful model (as one would expect from Kato), with metal wells and metal wheels, complete with 6 53' containers. It has Kato couplings on each end which are mostly compatible with Microtrains (MT), and has metal wheels. Some people complain about the difficulty of connecting the cars together, but I don't find it difficult.

Kato Gunderson Maxi-I (5-car unit with 40' wells)
This is another beautiful model, with 10 40' containers. The comments about the Maxi-IV apply to this one, except that they seem easier to connect together.

Deluxe Innovations Gunderson Maxi-III (5-car unit with 48' wells)
This is also a model to the same level as the Kato ones, although with plastic wheels. They come as a connected set, in packaging that allows them to be stored with containers in the wells, but they don't come with any containers. MT couplers.

Deluxe Innovations Gunderson Twin-Stack (5-car bulkhead unit with 40' wells)
This is a very nice model of an older prototype. It is completely plastic, which makes for a very fine model, but it is quite light. It is a connected set , again with packaging to hold the unit when loaded, but no containers included. It does come with weights to be added to containers, but running it empty is problematic. Due to the design of the prototype, containers are a tight fit in these cars, with Deluxe Innovations' own containers being the best fit. It will take a 40' container in the lower position and anything up to a 48' container in the upper one.

Walthers Thrall Lo-Pac II (5-car unit with 48' wells)
This is somewhat cruder than the units above, as the casting of the metal wells isn't as fine and the detail is less. The wells have detents in them to match the fine pins on Walthers own containers, but which also match the ones on the Kato containers. As supplied, mine came with Rapido couplers, so I replaced the trucks (bogies) with MT ones. The cars just drop together, and the whole lot runs well. The packaging will only hold the cars, not the containers - needless to say, it doesn't come with containers.

Inter-Rail (now Deluxe) Thrall Lo-Pac 2000 (5-car unit with 40' wells)
This came as a semi-kit, with all the detail supplied as extra. It is a permanently connected set, but the packaging will hold a loaded set (like the Deluxe packaging). The wells themselves are similar in quality and detail to the Walthers ones, but the supplied detail is much better. This still needs some fettling to get it to run reliably. I had to supply my own trucks, so it is on MT trucks.

BLMA Trinity 53' Spine Car (5-car spine unit)
This is a finely detailed set, with separate 5th-wheel connectors in collapsed (for containers) or assemble-yourself raised (for trailers) versions. Unfortunately, the cars will not fit back in the packaging with the raised 5th-wheel connectors. MT couplers and BLMA's own trucks. It is a pity nobody makes a 53' road trailer to carry on these (Edit: Deluxe makes 53' trailers based on their Roadrailers). I believe the 3-car versions of these may have come with the 5th-wheel connectors pre-assembled.

RoundHouse (now Athearn) Gunderson Husky Stack (single 48' well car)
A very finely detailed plastic well car, so a bit light for empty operation (needs at least one weighted container). Mine came with Rapidos, so have had their trucks replaced, but the Athearn versions come with knuckle couplers.

Con-Cor Gunderson All-Purpose Husky Stack Car (single 48' well car)
A slightly cruder moulding than the car above, but of a slightly different prototype. The All-Purpose cars have a 5th wheel at each end to allow the carriage of road trailers. These usually come with Con-Cor containers, either two 48' or one 48' and one 53', with (one of) the 48' container(s) containing a weight. They are too light to run empty. I changed the trucks for MT ones.

Walthers Thrall Stack Car (single 48' well car)
The comments abut the Wathers 5-car unit also apply to this one. Sometimes supplied with drawbars to replace the rapidos to make drawbar connected sets.

Atlas Front Runner (single 45' spine)
A model of a strange and short-lived prototype - a 4-wheel spine car designed for 45' road trailers. The running quality is iffy due to the 4-wheel design and the cars came with Rapidos. The detail is ok, but not great (better than the Walthers cars). No trailer supplied.

Deluxe Innovations Roadrailer
A nicely detailed model available in single, three-car, six-car, and ten-car sets (by car, I mean trailer). They run well as long as you have shallow curves (Edit: on tighter curves the wheels bind against the underside). Some of the detail needs to be added yourself, and the trailers can be configured for road or rail operation. There is something a little strange about the way that they sit in road configuration, though.

Microtrains 89' Flat car
This is a well detailed model, available either with container racks and containers, or with 5th-wheel mounts.

Con-Cor 89' Flat car
This is a crude lump of metal, with a saving grace that it represents a different configuration of car to the MT one. Trucks and couplers need to be replaced.

BLMA ACF F89-J flat car
This is a very finely cast metal car, and comes with MT couplers. It comes with a bag containing the 5th-wheel connectors - raised ones for each end, and the option of raised or lowered for the middle one.

Containers

Containers are available from a number of sources:

Kato: 40' high cube and 53' containers with fine pins, magnets and metal plates to hold them together. Very nice, but a limited range. Also available with an adjustable-length spine trailer and either a Volvo road tractor or an Ottawa yard tractor. Very nice. Edit. The Maxi-I comes with 40' standard height containers - a third type.

Deluxe Innovations: A wide selection of containers including 20', 40', 40' high cube, 45', 48', and 53' in various styles including refrigerated ones. Nicely detailed in many different liveries, but with no positive interlocking for stacking. 40' container trailers are also available.

Walthers: 40' high cube and 48' containers in a variety of liveries. Fine pins help them interlock, and are just about compatible with the Kato ones.

Con-Cor (Herpa?): 48' and 53' containers, decoration quality is variable. Fine interlocking pins, unfotunately on the top (rather than the bottom as in the Kato and Walthers ones). Also available form other sources with different decorations.

Roco: 20' containers in strange european liveries. Lacking in detail

Model Power?: 20' containers,but too small

Road Trailers

Road trailers appropriate to the cars above are available from Microtrains (40' 45', 48'), Atlas (45', 48'), Deluxe (48'), Con-Cor/Herpa (40') and Athearn (28' and 40'). Note that Atlas and MiniMetals also make trailers that are really too early.


Photos to follow.

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

Photographed on my messy test track:

 

Kato Maxi-I (Kato 40' containers)

 

 

Kato Maxi-IV (Kato 53' containers)

 

 

Deluxe Maxi-III (Deluxe 20' and 40' high cube containers)

 

Deluxe Twin-Stack (Deluxe 40' and 45' containers)

 

 

InterRail Lo-Pac 2000 (Deluxe 40' high cube containers)

 

Walthers Lo-Pac II (Kato 40' containers)

 

BLMA Trinity Spine (Con-Cor 53' container) Twin-Stack dominating the background

 

 

 

RoundHouse Husky Stack (Deluxe 48' containers)

 

Con-Cor All-Purpose Husky Stack (Con-Cor 48' containers)

 

Walthers Thrall (kit-built Bulktainer containers)

 

Atlas Front Runner (Atlas 45' trailer)

 

Microtrains 89' flat (Deluxe 40' containers, Con-Cor and MT 40' trailers)

 

 

BLMA F89-J (Athearn 28' trailer)

 

Deluxe Roadrailer

 

Collection of road trailers, Con-Cor 89' flat

 

Collection of containers and container trailers

 

Adrian

[trisonic]

Adrian,

 

I'm sure I saw an advert somewhere for a retail site that was specific to N and Inter-Modal stuff. Do you know the place I mean?

I couldn't find it again.......

 

Best, Pete.

[roundhouse]

Nice article Adrian.

 

Gold Medal do repalcement etched walkways and steps / handrails for both the Walthers Thrall 5 car unit and the Roundhouse Husky stacks (Athearn have since released these with etched walkways).

These etches really do make quite a differenece but it does make them a little delicate when handling.

 

Ian

[warbonnetuk]

Add to those manufacturers the ex-Alan Curtis kits (and a lot more) produced by N-Scale Kits

 

http://www.nscalekits.co.uk/

 

His range fills a couple if niches not currently available as RTR in the shape of 89' channel sided flats TOFC flats, Long Runner Triple 53' flats with the wider mid section and 48' spine cars. Kits are reasonably simple but reward a little care in assembly.

 

Dan

[Adrian Wintle]

I was listing RTR (or close to) equipment, but I do also have some kits:

 

The Bulktainers shown above are an American Limited kit.

 

Inter-Rail made a 10/20/30/40-foot contiainer kit (could make up to 4 containers depending on configuration). I would not bother with it these days unless you wanted to make 10' or 30' containers, as the Deluxe/Walthers/Kato containers are nicer.

 

Fine N-Scale made resin 48' Thrall wells, requiring the Gold Medal detail kit (for the Walthers Thrall cars) and MicroTrains trucks. I just picked up a pair of kits (4 wells) because they were cheap - otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

 

Walthers makes a kit of a Mi-Jack container crane.

 

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

To update this slightly:

 

Maxi-IV cars are now also available from Deluxe Innovations. I didn't get one because I have a sufficiency of Kato ones.

 

MicroTrains, in their infinite wisdom, have produced a new-tool Gunderson Husky Stack, the same prototype as the Roundhouse/Athearn car with a 48' well. At the same time they produced a new-tool 53' container (which won't fit in their new car).

 

New manufacturer Scale Trains have produced some quite nice 53' and 53' refrigerated containers.

 

Previously unknown Chinese manufacturer Rolland has produced some nice 20' and 40' high-cube containers with internal magnets to keep them aligned.

 

Adrian

[Adrian Wintle]

 

MicroTrains, in their infinite wisdom, have produced a new-tool Gunderson Husky Stack, the same prototype as the Roundhouse/Athearn car with a 48' well. At the same time they produced a new-tool 53' container (which won't fit in their new car).

 

I have now obtained one of the MT 53' containers and discovered that it has been designed to stack only with other MT 53' containers. It will not sensibly stack with other manufacturers'  containers nor with other MT containers as it has locating pins that just don't make sense. I can't see buying any more. The Scale Trains ones, on the other hand, have locating pins that match the Kato and Walthers containers.

 

Adrian