March 24, 2013 was the Flag City Train show at my local club. The NW Ohio Rail Road Preservation. http://www.nworrp.org/index.html.
At the show I bought a few HO cars, A soo line 2 Bay Hopper kit, A ATSF Tank car kit, and two Proto 2000 Hopper kits, along with a BNSF Walthers auto rack, and the star: a Atlas ready to run Articulated Auto Carrier in TTX colors, with UP markings.
Lets begin with my thoughts on it. It is an over all great model! I paid $40.00 For it which is high in my opinion for one car, but I'm not complaining too much. It is great quality, from the hand rails made of a heavy plastic, to the detailed under carriage complete with brake lines, or the trucks. I'm not much of a "rivet counter" but it is a pretty nice model.
BUT; and here I go on my tangent, where to put the blame is.. I'll let you decide. So here we go.
The model comes in the box, partially assembled.
The A and B cars are separated along with the middle portion. To connect the cars you must remove a Screw that you would see in many HO scale cars to connect the trucks to the body.
Well this screw is the start of my problems. Please note that I am doing this AT the show on the Group layout. Which was open to the public, so people began to watch over.
Okay, so this screw.. It comes in the trucks and screwed into the plastic rod, that the A and B cars will Pivot around. The Middle portion also has four large plastic prongs coming down from the section that clasps around the Wheel set loosely (Remember that). As I am figuring out workings and such of the car set I go to undo this screw. Within four turns it stripped. It was such a low quality screw, which is even more upsetting when it comes down to it being a monumental piece to running your "ready to roll set" I was horrified after realizing what had happened to my pricey set. With out really thinking though, I kept turning the screw driver until there was a shape that kinda looked like a plastic kiddy pool with high metal sides and a low flat bottom. The bottom being the screw shaft that I had begun to wear into... I started thinking of ways to remedy this as there was no way to remove the wheels with the remnants of the screw head.
So feeling pretty much defeated I took one last stab at bringing my car back. I took a dremmel tool that fit perfectly into the hole in the wheel set. My initial goal was to find a drill bit that was the same size as the screw so I would be able to place a slightly bigger screw in eventually. In stead I settled with a flat top dremmel bit and began wearing away at my screw until it finally became flat and pieces of yellow plastic began to spray about. I figured since I was stuck I might as will try it. I assembled the car and placed it over the truck, figuring I would need a pole or something to guide the middle section and wheel set together. To my amazement the weight of the cars along with those four prongs I mentioned earlier kept the wheel set in line perfectly. Meaning the screw was not a make or break piece and a full on annoyance...
END OF PART 1
At the show I bought a few HO cars, A soo line 2 Bay Hopper kit, A ATSF Tank car kit, and two Proto 2000 Hopper kits, along with a BNSF Walthers auto rack, and the star: a Atlas ready to run Articulated Auto Carrier in TTX colors, with UP markings.
Lets begin with my thoughts on it. It is an over all great model! I paid $40.00 For it which is high in my opinion for one car, but I'm not complaining too much. It is great quality, from the hand rails made of a heavy plastic, to the detailed under carriage complete with brake lines, or the trucks. I'm not much of a "rivet counter" but it is a pretty nice model.
BUT; and here I go on my tangent, where to put the blame is.. I'll let you decide. So here we go.
The model comes in the box, partially assembled.
The A and B cars are separated along with the middle portion. To connect the cars you must remove a Screw that you would see in many HO scale cars to connect the trucks to the body.
Well this screw is the start of my problems. Please note that I am doing this AT the show on the Group layout. Which was open to the public, so people began to watch over.
Okay, so this screw.. It comes in the trucks and screwed into the plastic rod, that the A and B cars will Pivot around. The Middle portion also has four large plastic prongs coming down from the section that clasps around the Wheel set loosely (Remember that). As I am figuring out workings and such of the car set I go to undo this screw. Within four turns it stripped. It was such a low quality screw, which is even more upsetting when it comes down to it being a monumental piece to running your "ready to roll set" I was horrified after realizing what had happened to my pricey set. With out really thinking though, I kept turning the screw driver until there was a shape that kinda looked like a plastic kiddy pool with high metal sides and a low flat bottom. The bottom being the screw shaft that I had begun to wear into... I started thinking of ways to remedy this as there was no way to remove the wheels with the remnants of the screw head.
So feeling pretty much defeated I took one last stab at bringing my car back. I took a dremmel tool that fit perfectly into the hole in the wheel set. My initial goal was to find a drill bit that was the same size as the screw so I would be able to place a slightly bigger screw in eventually. In stead I settled with a flat top dremmel bit and began wearing away at my screw until it finally became flat and pieces of yellow plastic began to spray about. I figured since I was stuck I might as will try it. I assembled the car and placed it over the truck, figuring I would need a pole or something to guide the middle section and wheel set together. To my amazement the weight of the cars along with those four prongs I mentioned earlier kept the wheel set in line perfectly. Meaning the screw was not a make or break piece and a full on annoyance...
END OF PART 1