Beware of High Speed brand N scale engines and cars

High Speed N scale engines and cars are made for static display. Their trucks and couplers are not suitable for running on a layout. The engines are dummies.High Speed, or High Speed Metal Products is a brand that was manufactured for static display. I believe these trains were given away by Reader's Digest during a book club promotion. The detailing on the bodies of cars and logeotives is quite good. But the undercarriage is not designed to run on an N scale layout. They have several major problems. One is that the trucks do not swing freely from side to side for curves. They move only a tiny bit from side to side, and even in that tiny distance they do not move freely. Another problem is that the couplers look like Rapido couplers, but they do not move up and down like Rapido couplers. On the logeotive and one of the cars, these couplers are mounted directly on the body, rather than on the trucks. Also, the couplers are shaped somewhat differently from Rapido couplers, so they do not couple well. Another problem is that the wheel flanges are not shaped correctly for running on N scale. You will not be able to couple these cars to your regular N scale cars and run them on your layout.You can recognize the engine because it is a solid gray color with a
bit of red trim. It says Southern Pacific in large print on the
side, and has a number 9725 on the cab. The engine is always a dummy. Some sellers don't mention this, so beware. The cars are harder to
recognize, but one good clue is that they gee in white cardboard
boxes. Most sellers give the brand name as High Speed because that
is clearly printed on the bottom of the cars and logeotives. I currently have a logeotive, a canister car, a log car, a
hopper car and a caboose. I have seen a few other cars for sale. Sometimes you will see one or more of the cars in a mixed lot without a brand name given, so here are some identifying characteristics.The canister car says "SO UTH ERN PA CIF IC"
in all caps on the side, with spaces as I have shown them. It looks like a black gondola with 5 white canisters standing up in it. The
log car has only two wheel sets instead of four. It looks like a flat car with ends and with stakes on the sides to hold the logs. It has three layers of logs. It has only very small white lettering on it, too small to read in a picture.The hopper car says "DS
RG W" and "Rio Gr an de" with spaces as I have shown them. It is a white covered hopper with black lettering.The caboose is silver with red and black lettering. It says "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" with the first letter of each word red.I have seen a brown gondola with a load of coal and a silver tank car in listings, but I don't have samples of them.High Speed brand engines and cars are fine for static display. But this warning is for people who might accidentally buy these engines and cars hoping to run them on an N scale layout.