Are Williams freight cars any good

Solid entry level cars.

Also look into Menards for some similar offerings. 

Awesome. Thanks 

I have a some decent looking early 90's William's brass tank cars.   Purchased a lot of mail order Williams before my first 0 scale show.  Fool that I was.   The different box  edition names or lack there of did not seem to mean much of anything.  The only term that Williams did not use was Super Duper or Extra Special.

Sold my problem child Williams engines as fast as I could after discovering Westside, Sunset and US hobbies.

The Williams brass scale repros of the Lionel 700 series cars are quite good.  They only come with tinplate wheels and couplers, but when converted they look really elegant.  The MTH versions were lacking in comparison.  I have not seen the Lionel repros, but the 1939 originals are among my best freight cars.

I have some of them and they do well. They don't derail excessively or anything like that. 

I have a Williams brass caboose..... great paint and looks good!   It glides down the track easily and, with the weight of brass construction, it almost never derails.  

Williams of today and the past 10 years makes a decent car.  Good paint and markings.  They ride solid.  They lack real laters. But thats all.  They are much more detailed than Menard's, and low end Lionels, especially paint and lettering.  If wanted, trucks and couplers can be changed out to O scale easily.  As far as WIlliams engines, They come with sound and are excellent pullers.  Fine tuning by rewiring just two wires on the motors from parallel to series, makes them run as well if not better than the most expensive locos out there.  There are detail kits and items that can be added to freight cars and locos.  A ERR sound board can be installed in a loco with horn and bell that will blow your eardrums out.  Williams may not be considered the best, but by no means are to be considered junk or inferior by any means'...  Reminds me  of  GM, Ford, Chrysler.  MTH, Lionel, WIlliams'...

Very good quality freight cars. Diecast trucks and metal frames. Solid. 

While I do not purchase or operate Williams cars anymore personally because of my obsession with scale fidelity, they are very good quality cars.  For entry level cars they are some of the better ones on the market. 

I really don't have anything negative to say about Williams products overall.  Especially anything from the late 90's to present.  Bachmann has been a good steward of simple and consistent with the product line.

This is all good info to know. I guess I was thinking maybe Williams was made by Lionel or made from Lionel molds just packaged under another name. What I’m hearing is no way Jose. But when I heard Bachman was the owner then it kinda made sense that it was its on tooling. It’s not that I’m looking for something high end, low end, detailed, not detailed, scale, not scale. I was just wondering about the brand in general. Just trying to educate myself on what’s out there. I went to my first train show last weekend and was as lost as last years Easter eggs. I saw I believe was Weaver boxcars too. Never heard of them but I don’t get out much either.

Thanks for all the info.

Williams cars come from two sources; they use the molds made by AMT in the 50's, like boxcars, reefers, and single dome tank cars and they also made a bunch of new molds that are copies of larger Lionel cars, like the three dome tank car and long closed or open three bay hopper.

Hawkshaw posted:

This is all good info to know. ........ It’s not that I’m looking for something high end, low end, detailed, not detailed, scale, not scale. I was just wondering about the brand in general. Just trying to educate myself on what’s out there. 

Thanks for all the info.

With the proliferation of room size layouts, Jerry Williams saw a market for scale size heavyweight passenger cars.  His first five car set has three Pullman passenger cars, one observation car and one REA baggage car, all in Pullman Green.  This set broke the ice, soon sets were offered showing colors of railroads.   Other manufacturers soon followed.  John in Lansing, ILL

Everything has history. Things didn’t just appear.... they evolved. Interesting about Mr Williams. Model trains have been around long enough now it’s a history within itself.