Quick Review: Scaletrains HO Scale Modern 40' Container

This new release Scaletrains Container continues in their line of great containers at a great value, and a price lower than most other manufacturers.

I missed the preorder period on these containers, but noticed the three single packs of the MSC were still available for preorder about 2 weeks prior to their arrival, so I quickly placed an order.

Fast forward to a month later and I finally paid, receiving my containers in 2 days time from the date I paid.

These containers come packaged in an attractive blister pack like hot wheels.

Sadly for me, between the time of arrival at Scaletrains and the date I paid, the 3 packs of MSC containers cleared up for order and sold out, so I had to stick to my three individual containers.

Scaletrains followed HO scale convention with pins on the bottom of the IBC and open holes in the top. While this means they can inter-stack with other brands, Scaletrains decided to oversize the top holes. This means the containers will not friction stack safely, and I recommend that modelers lightly glue any Scaletrains containers in double stack trains. Failure to do so means the containers will rattle and may eventually unstack themselves.

Other than that issue, the containers are great and the price was just as good. Intermodal trains can get very expensive so I prefer my containers to stick near $10-$12 each. I'm giving the models 3.5 out of 5 because they sell it so fast that some modelers get left out, and the loose stacking effectively eliminated any chance for the modeler to add/remove containers from their train.