500 vs 200 series cars.

The jury is still out on this one for me. I really like the overall larger size of the 200 series cars but like the smaller 500 series wheels. I really need to sit down and analyze which sets I should use. I only run modern repo 400Es for my freight trains. I have mostly 500 series cars now simply because that is what I won at the first auction. At that time I didn't even know there was a difference between the two. I am going to set the cars up on the track and compare them to make a final decision, just got other things to do at the moment.

I like them both, depending on what I'm pulling them with. 200 series cars have a certain massiveness that is appealing to run with a 400E or the bigger electrics like a 381E or 408E. On the other hand, the slimmer, lower 500 cars are better proportioned and more realistic, and look great behind a 385E. 

I have a lot of modern MTH repro cars that I have bought for the decoration: i.e. Milwaukee Road, Schlitz, Robin Hood Beer, Iron City, Battleship Hams, etc. It didn't matter which size they were, I bought them because I liked the paint. Some are 200 and some are 500. I just run trains of all the same size cars behind an appropriate engine. 

I have only the 200 series, because it was the tank car that first caught my eye in an auction.  I don't have an engine yet, and I understand it is hard to find the right tender for the higher couplers of 200s.  You could say that the 500s look more realistic because the wheels are smaller, but really, with tinplate how important is that? I would probably go with the 500s if I were to start again.

The only tender that was made especially for the 200 series cars is the 390X, which as you note is rare. With the other ones, you just bend the coupler to work with the taller cars. That's an advantage of tinplate; you certainly couldn't do that with a die-cast coupler. 

TimDude,

I thought the 400E could only pull the 200 series?

JoeG

I should clarify that I have the MTH repo and they apparently come with offset couplers. Mine runs 200 series cars fine.

On the MTH reproduction 400e, if the engine was cataloged with comet cars then the wheels on the tender matched up nicely with the 500 series cars.  The MTH Black 400e or Grey 400e tenders had the 200 series wheels that matched 200 series freight cars and were cataloged that way,

Sunrise

400e with 500 series freight:

NICE!!!