Details: Written by Josh Baakko; Category: Quick Reviews; Published: 20 June 2023; Hits: 1622

Quick Review: North American Railcar Corporation 5077cf Boxcar

North American Railcar Corporation has released some of the more desirable models on the market, but kept their distribution in house. Available through PWRS only (elsewhere 2nd hand) their cars are highly desirable. But why?

I picked up this MRL decorated version on ebay at a discount. While the model was used it still retained factory options.

The accoutrement of these models is the scale wheels. These are installed on nearly all NARC models.

These scale tread wheel sets proove to be difficult for most modelers, especially those using Atlas track.

As far as I know these cars come equipped with Kadee couplers which is good, but if you need some please contact us as MRRT is a registered dealer.

Underbody details rival those of all top manufacturers in the market, that's a plus.

I noted that the door hung loose from the body of the car. May this be a side effect if the 2nd hand nature of my model? It's shown below, but it is kind of hard to notice. The top door guides are away from the door track.

NMRA standards take a huge hit... all wheels are out of gauge and have .064" thick wheels. Semi scale RP25 requires .088" thick wheels and standard tread is .110".

Weight is low, for a boxcar I always expect the manufacturer to get it to standard. While only a recommended practice, at least following NMRA RP20.1 would create a consistent car weight across cars from all manufacturers. When manufacturers decide to go their own way, you end up with cars that will stringline in longer trains.

Overall these cars are nice, but I certainly cannot justify the price and hassle required to purchase a product from them. I opted to just wait for one on ebay, rather than deal directly with PWRS. The light weight, coupled with product availability leaves me rating these cars 3 out of 5.