Best N Scale AmTubes??

[Death Star]

Who makes the better N scale AmTubes, Kato or Bachmann?? I am thinking of modeling a mid-late 90's San Diegan and can't decide which to get.

[cnj1524]

Kato by far,bachmann uses molds from 70's

[Death Star]

Ok. I heard that Bachmann re-tooled their AmTubes with body mounted knuckle couplers and did a mold upgrade too, but people say the diaphrams are too huge unlike Kato's. I also hear the lettering on the Bachmanns are still a little large. I hear Kato AmTubes have a large "empty" space by the coupler due to the truck mounts whereas Bachmann doesn't. I also hear Bachmann's mold is closer to an AmTube than Kato is this true?

[tmurray]

Ok. I heard that Bachmann re-tooled their AmTubes with body mounted knuckle couplers and did a mold upgrade too, but people say the diaphrams are too huge unlike Kato's. I also hear the lettering on the Bachmanns are still a little large. I hear Kato AmTubes have a large "empty" space by the coupler due to the truck mounts whereas Bachmann doesn't. I also hear Bachmann's mold is closer to an AmTube than Kato is this true?

They're not the same car. Kato's model is of an Amfleet II car and Bachmann's is an Amfleet I car. The San Diegans ran with Amfleet I cars.
Model accuracy, well, Kato's cars are quite good and do have the correct cross section, but they never ran west of Chicago.
If using Bachmann's cars, I'd repaint them. The lettering is way off. There are a few window dimension issues with the car (namely the doors), but there's not much you can do there.

If you're up for a good amount of work, you can get the old Bachmann cars and repaint them, then make yourself a food service car as they weren't' available in the old run.
They can look quite good:
http://www.nscale160.com/Modeling/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


-Tom