Bottle Cars

[Havone]

I want to build bottle cars in G scale.   I need to know what kind of trucks and couplers are available and the cost.   I will be making them mostly out of wood.   Can anyone help me.   Thank you

[Jim Banner]

I tend to use Bachmann trucks and couplers for scratch building in large scale, mostly because the majority of my factory built cars are Bachmann.  And mostly I have taken trucks and couplers off complete cars purchased on sale or off eBay.  The details and even the frames may go along with the trucks and couplers while the bodies often get recycled into other projects.  I particularly like box cars (reused as sheds, field offices, and other small buildings) and tank cars (used on stands for water, oil and fuel storage or cut in half and the halves set on end as storage tanks.)

Do you have a source for the bottles or do you plan to scratch build them?  I remember seeing some in a smaller scale and I seem to recall the builder had turned them out of hardwood.  Detailed, painted and weathered, I guess it doesn't matter much what the original material was.

You might get more answers by posting this on the large scale section of this board.

Jim