Accurail Monon wood side twin hopper

Job done. Result - a nice looking US bogie hopper wagon. It runs well on straight track (no points for testing at the moment) and would fit in with a RTR based consist.

Construction is really simple, certainly a lot easier than most British wagon kits. If I were in a hurry, going from box to built would be around 20 minutes. If you paint the black plastic bits black then add in another 10. For batch building, I'd probably spray the sprues and bogies with an aerosol can and leave them to dry overnight bringing the time per wagon to about 25 minutes.

One possible drawback with the kit is that they all have the same running number, but for $4.00 for half a dozen numbers printed on the body colour, Accurail can supply a decal sheet to fix this. Neat.

In the UK, we'd almost call this a CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kit. There is a little glue work required for the brake gubbins but the bogies screw into place as do the couplings. Detail isn't bad although there is potential for lots of separate parts. The ladders up the side look a bit thin to me and there aren't any handrails.

Could we have this in the UK? Not sure. I'd like to think so but have a feeling that UK modellers are now firmly entrenched in RTR or kitbuilding camps and I'm not sure they could be easily persuaded to jump from one to the other even with an easy to build model. Looking at the number of on-line complaints about the detailing packs supplied with models now, usually along the lines of "I don't know what to do it's too difficult why can't they do it for me" I'm not sure those people would appreciate having to attach their own bogies.

It's also quite an investment to produce a kit like this and UK sales aren't likely to be high enough to justify the investment. US modellers are greater in number and many will happily by a fleet of wagons bringing the unit cost down to the under £10 level this is.

A pity really, as I enjoyed making this kit up.

Two types of buckeye

Another new one on me, or at least I don't remember finding this before on a kit.

The buckeye coupling is supplied in two parts made from a different, more flexible, plastic from the rest of the kit. These both go inside the draft box, one on top of the other. Result is a sprung, working buckeye with an opening jaw.  Hanging underneath is a steel pole on the end of which is crimped a half moon to fit in the similarly shaped hole under the coupler head.

What I don't understand is the non-working coupling also provided. Who needs this? It's not any more realistic than the working version and you'll not be able to make up a train without lifting each vehicle up and hooking it on manually. Even then the train will struggle with curves as it wouldn't swing from side to side much. I suspect that most of these end up as scenic additions dumped in the corner of a yard.

Disappointing bogies

In general, I'm quite impressed with Accurail's kit, apart from one thing. The wheels.

I don't know how they think in the land of the free, but over here in Blighty, we like our wheels made out of metal. We do not like shiny plastic with wobbly, and near impossible to remove, flash around the flanges thank you very much.

To be fair, the bogies roll well although I had to try one of the axles in a couple of places to get it to work. Not sure how that is as putting a different axle in the position it had just come from showed no problem.

If I'm being picky, the brake shoes don't line up with the treads either but since I think this kit was originally designed in the 1990s, that isn't so much of a surprise. On a layout you probably wouldn't notice and if you did, the vast gap between shoe and wheel tread will probably offend you more.

Still, other than clipping the axles in, there was no construction to this step making it pretty idiot proof.

Brake bits and undeframe

Nice drawing in the hopper instructions. In theory it shows were all the brake gubbins goes on the underframe spine. It's a pity the illustration is of the underside and they all go on top.

To be fair, we are only talking about 3 parts and if you bothered to look at a prototype picture (I didn't) it's probably obvious. For the rest of us guesswork will do aided bu locating pins in the shape of half-moons that fit in similar shape holes. You can't really go wrong unless you really work at forcing the wrong part in the wrong hole the wrong way around.

 

The underframe fits beneath the hopper. It's a very tight squeeze, the central beam takes quite a hard shove to go between the chutes. This means sliding it back and forth for final positioning is pretty much out for the question. The body isn't quite symmetrical either so you have to make sure the brake gubbins is at the right end. Fortunately I hadn't glued it in place at that point...

 

In the photo you can see one of the big steel weights that slots in under each bin. These are really neat and invisible from normal viewing angles. The instructions do suggest painting them black if you want to - I can't imaging anyone not wanting to if I'm honest. Really keep types will fill around the edges but it's not essential IMHO as the framing and dark colour hide any tiny gaps.

 

While the paint was out, all the black plastic parts needed a coat. I suppose if you aren't fussy then self-coloured plastic is OK, but I am and it isn't. Not when my good friend Humbrol 33 is to hand anyway.

Hopper wagon

Now for something completely different. My friend Chris Mead has been collecting American rolling stock during business trips. He's fallen for the Monon Railroad and has amassed a modest collection for a layout many years in the future.

Some of the wagons are kits and on seeing them, I offered to put one together out of curiosity. After all, I've been told many times that American kits are superior to ours...

In the box is a pre-painted hopper wagon body and some black plastic fittings on a sprue. The bogies are one piece mouldings and wheels are included.

Cost: $15.98 - £9.78 in proper money. That's got to be some sort of bargain. For about the price of a UK 4-wheel wagon kit you have a pre-painted and lettered bogie wagon. Of course this is all down to economies of scale. I'd bet that Accurail can knock out 20 times the number of these than Parkside can sell mineral wagons. Chances are the same wagon can be shipped in a variety of liveries too, making the unit cost lower still. The box it arrives in is rather good too.