Shapeways

As expected the Shapeways cars arrived just in time for the trip to Florida.

When I got back I was able to get them painted up and I have assembled one of the three bay cars. Unfortunately one end platform on each of the two bay cars have been damaged, so I will have to rebuild them before I can put them together.

The cars are much easier and therefore quicker to build than the RLW ones because the end platforms are already built. For this initial evaluation I didn't bother building anything else up, but the cars can be detailed with brass wire grab irons, styrene brake platforms, and brass brake wheels like the RLW cars would be and should look pretty good when they are done.
 

First impressions of the three bay cars: They are roughly the same size as the RLW cars, as they should be. The RLW cars have a white metal bottom which the Shapeways car lacks, so the Shapeways car is lighter. This will likely cause problems with running them, but the good news is you can pull more of them.

Also nice is the trucks. For the first time ever the proper Vulcan trucks can be had. I had been using Z scale Bettendorfs, which worked but weren't quite right. Now they are right.

The trucks are available separately, so I will be putting them on the rest of my hopper fleet as well.

I also built up some of the passenger cars from Shapeways as well. They are pretty nice little cars, but they are fragile, I got the coaches done but I destroyed the combine while I was putting it together. I'll have to get another one to complete the set. The baggage car arrived without trucks, so I'll be using MicroTrains trucks on it when I put it together.  Pictures will be up soon.