N Scale BLMA Spine Cars

I have had a few sets of BLMA's new spine cars ever since they arrived but needed to add hitches to the platforms.  The hitches are provided unassembled in a small plastic bag. 

The car overall is a very nice model with a lot of great detail.  The frames are made of metal which gives the car some weight, and comes with metal wheelsets.  I have had them operating empty on the Marias Pass and they track well, however I did find a couple trucks that were tight on the bolster and simply removed some of the paint with a file to loosen it up.  I found a few very wobbly wheels almost as though they were egg shaped and need to remedy that issue by replacing the offenders.  A few of the platforms had detail parts that had come loose during shipping or had fallen off during my intial handling of the cars.  This is easily fixed with some CA and reapplying the parts.

The hitches are very delicate and require a steady hand to assemble.  There seemed to be a lot of noice around this from the N scale community.  Since then, BLMA now offers the cars with assembled hitches.  While I haven't purchased any of these models, I have heard that the preassembled hitches are not well made.  This maybe one of those "be careful what you ask for" types of things. 

As N scale models continue to get more detailed I have to wonder if perhaps there can be TOO MUCH detail.  I sometimes think about the poor person that has to sit at a work table day after day and add details to an N scale model because we "demand" it.  Oh well, I don't want to get controversial on my own blog and will simply enjoy my BLMA spine cars.

My truck trailer collection is thin, especially in the common 53' version as I am sure many other N scalers have also experienced since purchasing these spine cars.  Deluxe Innovations hasn't given us product in a while.  If anyone has any extra trailers they would like to part with please let me know, or I will simply wait in line like everyone else until they are available again.

The hitches need to be assembled using 3 seperate parts.  Here are the contents to 1 package including raised or collapsed hitches depending on your preference, and also pins for containers.  I added an assembled hitch to this photo as a comparison.