Price: $60 (without logs), $75 (with logs)
Manufacturer
KR Models Ltd.
No. 100 — 17865 106A Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T5S 1V8
Era: Early 1900s to 1950s
Comments: Loaded and empty skeleton log cars are now available in HO scale from KR Models Ltd. The ready-to-run model features injection-molded plastic construction, metal wheelsets, and body-mounted metal couplers.
The 40-foot log car has a two-piece plastic body that’s painted brown but unlettered. The upper half features a separate, factory-applied vertical brake staff and freestanding uncoupling levers. Molded details, such as the bolts and straps, are painted black. The log bunk and truck screw boss are cast as a single part that fits through a hole in the top of the body.
The underbody consists of a one-piece casting that includes the draft-gear box covers. The K-type brake appliances, levers, and hangers are freestanding parts. Though the brake pipes are molded, they’re painted black to blend in with the rest of the underbody details. Train line hoses (attached to the sides of the draft-gear box covers) and the body bolsters are separate, factory-applied parts.
Sandwiched between the two halves of the body is a metal weight. The weight of the cars varies. The empty car weighs 1.2 ounces. Loaded cars weigh 3 ounces (six logs) and 3.4 ounces (three logs). Per National Model Railroad Association Recommended Practice 20.1, a car of this length should weigh 3.8 ounces.
The screw-mounted, solid-bearing trucks are molded in black engineering plastic. The car rides on chemically blackened 38” insulated metal wheelsets. When I checked them against a National Model Railroad Association standards gauge, they were all a touch tight. A quick twist of the wheels brought all of them into gauge. The body-mounted metal couplers are at the correct height.
The loaded cars include cast-resin logs with bark texture that are painted and weathered. Log diameter is 5⁄16” to 3⁄8” on the car with six logs. Those on the car with three logs are sized between 9⁄16” and 1⁄2”.
Fans of logging railroads will want to give these new cars from KR Models a look. A string of them would look great with a geared locomotive running through a forested scene.
