Identification of HO rolling stock

[ob1canob]

I am 65 years old and new to forum's, so please bear with me if I ask some dumb questions. Is there a source that can help me identify rolling stock by pics. I have acquired a lot of rolling stock as a gift from a friend that passed away and would like to identify the cars as to what set they came from or if sold separately. I have identified the engine's and tender's. I tracked down a few cars already but some of them I can't find. I have Bachmann, Gata/playArt, Rivarossi/Pocher, and Tyco so far but i am still unpacking them. 

[Doneldon]

ob-

Tyco sold sets years ago and Bachmann sells a lot of sets but the other manufacturers sell exclusively or almost exclusively one
item at a time. I'm wondering what interests you about what sets your pieces might have come from. Set rolling stock tends to be
lower-line merchandise (no, not always, but generally) so train set membership isn't usually a plus.

                                                                                                                                                       -- D

[ob1canob]

Thanks for the quick response. I am trying to match up the engine's and tender's with the cars that came with them, if I can. I know I have some that did not come from a set but that doesn't bother me. I'm not interested in there $ value. It gives me a new challenge in my retirement. In my mid younger days I was pretty deep into N and Z gauge. Then raising a family got in the way of my trains.

[jward]

try this site:
http://ho-scaletrains.net/

they don't have all manufacturers listed but they have the most common ones in depth.

[jbrock27]

I find myself using that sight as a reference ALL the time.

Ob-while not totally fool proof, I have found that a lot can be told about the car's maker from how the coupler's and trucks are set up and what they are made from.  Certain manufactures used the same style over periods of time.  One of the manufacturers that totally throws this out the window is AHM/ROCCO/LIMA, their "stuff" can vary on how and what they used for trucks, even though the cars look the same.  At least, this is what I have come across.