I'm looking into expanding my knowledge of the 2 rail o hobby, and I would like to try my hand at building some of my own rolling-stock, just to get a feel for it. I wan't something a little more challenging than Intermountain kits. Any recommendations?
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Some of the old Walthers kits are on E-Bay at reasonable prices.Get on O scale and then search on Walthers. Another choice are the Quality Craft kits.All Nation also had good kits .These are for starters there are others that I can't think of right now.
Thses are all simple to build and will get you started.
Intermountain kits are also a joy too!
Ahhhrggh! Don't tell a beginner to build Intermountain kits!! Today is not April 1. They are a pain of multiple fragile plastic parts, to include the trucks and wheels, and the grab irons are thin plastic you get to install with a tweezers. You will need to add weight and install Weaver #711 or some other metal wheeled trucks to get them to track. Others to choose...Walthers reincarnated as All Nation and old Athearn kits.. I HAVE to build and run Intermountain because they offered Colorado Midland and Colorado and Southern roadnames (I don't think they offered D&SL), but I don't have to like them. They make into a very fragile car, but if you put something like a Walthers passenger car kit together with two-part epoxy, it is a solid car.
There are lots of Athearn and All-Nation kits still out there on the secondary market; same can be said for Quality Craft and Gloor Craft kits.
There's Huff'n'Puff and Main Line Models Kits still in production.
And, then there are La Belle kits still in production, although probably not for beginners.
Walthers kits are still out there, too.
There's a host of "others" yet after that - take look at eBay in the O scale section under the "Others" category and you'll run across all kinds of kits that are still getting passed around and round.
I think Intermountain cars are great. I can build one in a weekend. All you need are a good set of cutters/nippers to cut the small parts off the sprue. I run mine with metal wheels and extra weight and never have any problems. True, they are delicate, but careful handling and a little bit of extra glue usually solves the problem. Since I grew up building palstic ships and airplanes, I would much rather construct an Intermountain kit than an Athearn, but that is just my own viewpoint.
The bottom line is, each railroad is our own creation and we can do what we want.
All the best,
Miketg
I think Intermountain cars are great. I can build one in a weekend. All you need are a good set of cutters/nippers to cut the small parts off the sprue. I run mine with metal wheels and extra weight and never have any problems. True, they are delicate, but careful handling and a little bit of extra glue usually solves the problem. Since I grew up building palstic ships and airplanes, I would much rather construct an Intermountain kit than an Athearn, but that is just my own viewpoint.
The bottom line is, each railroad is our own creation and we can do what we want.
All the best,
Miketg
I completely agree! I don't want to build a model that's simple and straight forward..completely boring and no challenge frankly.
Notice the original poster stated...I wan't something a little more challenging than Intermountain kits...and to that I want to add that building an intermountain kit can be very challenging if ones standards of construction are neat and crisp. I've seen some which had glue smears, and misaligned parts and were certainly not build with challenge in mind.
I completely agree! I don't want to build a model that's simple and straight forward..completely boring and no challenge frankly.
Notice the original poster stated...I wan't something a little more challenging than Intermountain kits...and to that I want to add that building an intermountain kit can be very challenging if ones standards of construction are neat and crisp. I've seen some which had glue smears, and misaligned parts and were certainly not build with challenge in mind.
Ah, then I can recommend a La Belle passenger car or trolley car kit for you! 
And, it's easy to make a mess of any kit and not altogether correlating to the actual difficulty or challenge of the kit, 
If you want to make an Intermountain kit more challenging why not replace the fragile plastic detail parts with brass, either 3rd party castings or scratch built. Intermountain raised the bar for rolling stock. You can find kits more challenging but it would be hard to exceed the detail of Intermountain.
Pete
As for InterMountain cars, when built properly they can rival brass. They are heads above the old All Nation and Athern cars. If I can build them, you can. I find the key is to use Tenex 7R plastic solvent. Don't use ACC. They are not so fragile when built with Tenex. The only problem with InterMountain is they're not manufactured anymore, although you can still find them at the shows and on eBay.
If you're looking for something more challengin, try a Chooch or Ultra Scale kit.
Have fun... that's what's important.
Michael Rahilly
If you want something more challenging than an Intermountain Kit you can always take a shot at a Mullet River Kit. But I promise the brass framework will get you. These are not for the faint of heart.
Berkshire Valley also have resin kits that are interesting. More resin is available at Funero and Camerlengo http://fandckits.com/.
You could build one of my flat car kits this coming Sat afternoon while at the O Scale Nat'l Convention,
If you want something more challenging than an Intermountain Kit you can always take a shot at a Mullet River Kit. But I promise the brass framework will get you. These are not for the faint of heart.
Try a Mullet River CB&Q boxcar. It's a wood underframe and a fairly easy to built kit.
Contact Ted Schnepf at Rails Unlimited. He has all kinds of O Scale kits, usually in stock, plus some exclusive resin kits done specially for him.
http://RailsUnlimited.ribbonrail.com/
Ted's eMail address is: railsunl@sbcglobal.net
A good brass rolling stock kit if you are in to modern cars are Mike Calvert's Gilmaur kits.
May I suggest Suggest Southern Car and Foundry?
http://southerncarandfoundry.c...230e516f016918bd2df7
ChipR
Ben wanted more challenge then the IM kits. Perhaps this may fill the bill.
I just received my Southern Car & Foundry kit for the ATSF raised roof boxcar. The instructions are ten pages and include some how-tos and lots of photos of steps and parts.
Charlie
Well, this thread made me take a look at my pile of unbuilt Intermountain kits. One NYC boxcar down and another one at the 50 percent mark. Since I did write and say they were great, I gathered it was time to put my money where my mouth is and get back to building.
All the best,
Miketg
I checked out the SC&F Bx12 raised roof box and it's on the way. Meanwhile I'm working on a Rails Unlimited Heinz Coffin Style pickle car, a Mullet River Caboose and am getting ready to start a Weisman flatcar kit. I like to have 3-5 projects at a time going so I don't get bored working on a single project.
Finished mine this week.
Nice job. Whose brake hardware castings did you use on the brakewheel end?
I bent my own brake platform supports from 1/64 x 1x16 brass strips I get from Special shapes. The platform was from my stash of Intermountain arts and the rest from a Grant Line brake package.
With patience you will find a very wide choice of out of production car kits on eBay and at O scale shows. I like building Quality Craft/Gloor Craft wood kits (of wood prototype nofreight cars). Same would go for LaBelle passenger car kits. In plastic Intermountain and Red Caboose. In resin Chooch-Ultra, Rails Unlimited, and Cameron. In brass consider Mullet River, or up detailing old MG and USH cars. Steel & wood kits by All Nation and Walthers are also fun to build. Most kits will offer some initial assembly challenge (like IM trucks) that once mastered significantly reduce the time to build the next one. I have no one favorite brand as my objective is to build a representative roster for my 1952 era railroad, but IM kits are a great value and hold up well with just a little handling care.
Ed Rappe
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