Re-trucking

Here I am talking about replacing trucks on freight or passenger cars. Sometimes a car will have been supplied with the “wrong” trucks, say arch-bar when they should have been a newer design; sometimes the sideframes are really not up to snuff appearance-wise; and sometimes they roll, as a friend used to say, “like a rock down a gutter.” Replacing them is what I call re-trucking.  

Some years ago, I posted an example of replacing trucks to get the correct prototypes, on the Red Caboose Southern Pacific HO scale stock cars. The models have very nice bodies, but were delivered with T-section trucks, an SP stock-car application for which I have found no prototype documentation or photograph. Instead, I replaced the Red Caboose truck with the truck SP actually used, the Vulcan, using the Kadee model. (See this earlier post:  https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/07/modeling-sp-stock-cars.html .) 

On the passenger side, I have sometimes replaced Rivarossi trucks with Central Valley trucks, with a gain both in car weight and in appearance. I described that as part of my long series on modeling SP passenger cars (for a description, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/06/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-20.html ). 

My second reason for re-trucking, poor appearance, includes such trucks as the snap-in AHM trucks. I showed my method for replacing them in an old post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/replacing-snap-in-trucks.html ). The photo below shows the kind of truck I replace immediately: its coupler, snap-in attachment, poor sideframes, and terrible wheelsets all disqualify this truck for operating use.

 A common source of trucks that roll poorly is brass cars. A large proportion of sales of such models is to collectors, who often don’t care, or care much, about rolling quality. In my case, I do want to operate the models, so trucks often get replaced. This topic has come up before, as part of a larger grumble about the shortcomings of many brass cars (that post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/08/grumbling-again-about-brass-freight-cars.html ).

I don’t want to single out any particular importer or manufacturer of brass models, and the following example is just one recently encountered. I have a number of Challenger brass models of SP and PFE cars, and most roll just fine. But one of them, a model of Class R-40-26, is very much an exception. I had already had to replace all the side lettering (for why, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/05/correcting-brass-model-of-pfe-car.html ).

Fiddling with the trucks didn’t result in any improvement. Most of the prototype PFE class had American Steel Foundries A-3 “Ride Control” trucks. These were the best-selling freight trucks after World War II and many manufacturers have produced them in HO scale. I chose a pair of such trucks from my stash.

To prepare the Challenger reefer, I drilled out the metric screw holes with a no. 50 drill, tapped 2-56, and attached new HO trucks with short 2-56 brass screws. These gave a stable rolling performance and were at the correct height for the Kadee couplers already installed.

I will look forward to seeing this car in service on the layout again, now that it has been successfully re-trucked. I regret the necessity of doing so, but it’s a job that unfortunately is all too familiar with brass HO rolling stock 

Tony Thompson 

Modeling SP passenger cars, Part 20

As in the recent posts in this series, I continue in this post to address lightweight passenger cars of the Southern Pacific. (Finding earlier posts in the series is easily accomplished by using “modeling SP passenger” as the search term in the search box at right.) In the immediately preceding post, no. 19, I was discussing trucks for these cars (see that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/06/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-19.html ). 

I mentioned in that previous post that I’d like to use some of the Central Valley no. 139 trucks that I have (trucks rebuilt with Northwest Short Line wheelsets). These trucks have their bolster hole in the truck center, as do most trucks. But the Rivarossi trucks that come with the lightweight cars most definitely do not have centered attachment and holes. The photo below shows that hole well to the right of center.

I have shown in an earlier post (no. 10 in this series) that this truck design, with the sprung “coupler arm” culminating in a horn-hook coupler, can be modified to accept a Kadee coupler in its own box (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/04/modeling-sp-passsenger-cars-part-10.html ). If that is done, of course, the truck remains in use and its off-center attachment is not a problem.

But the Central Valley no. 139 trucks do have a center bolster hole. Thus the Rivarossi truck attachment location, shown in white below, is off center in the car body truck space (by about 1.5 scale feet) and has to be replaced. In addition, the molded “alignment pins” as I call them, have to be removed. These are quite evident on either side of the bolster in the image below.

So a bolster pad has to be created that is centered in the car body truck space. I experimented with various sizes of styrene strip, and found that the height of the cylindrical center of the bolster, shown above, is about 8 scale inches. I built up a bolster pad of that thickness, attached using styrene cement, as shown below. This was done because attaching the Central Valley trucks to the off-center bolster had already shown that coupler height was going to be correct.

You can see in the photo above that the new bolster pad was drilled to accept 1/8-inch styrene tube, which in turn was then tapped 2-56 for truck screws. (Note also that the “alignment pins” have been removed.)

Next I had to address coupler placement. The two lengthwise members (sills?) molded on the Rivarossi underbody are lined with rivets (as is visible above), which I removed near the car end, and then glued on a pad of 0.030-inch thickness styrene. I then mounted Kadee couplers in their own boxes.

The completion of these modifications allowed the view above (the car is a 10-6). Note that the trucks are now centered where they should be, and coupler knuckles are located just outside the outer edge of where the diaphragm face plate will be. This means that cars can be nearly in contact during operation.

My last task on this car is to add the diaphragm face plate and stabilizer bars to the Rivarossi “surround” on the end door. (See my previous post about doing this: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/09/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-17.html ). When it’s all done, the diaphragm area will look like this (another 10-6):

I am pleased with my success in adding some of the Central Valley trucks to these cars, both because they add weight and because they separate the coupler from the truck, something occasionally troublesome with retaining the Rivarossi “Talgo” coupler arrangement.

Tony Thompson

Modeling SP passenger cars, Part 19

In recent parts of this series, I described work on creating Southern Pacific lightweight sleeping cars. Most of that work was collected in my article in Model Railroad Hobbyist, in the issue for October 2023. The more dramatic projects were those that used sides from Brass Car Sides to create two car types: 13 double bedroom (13 DB) cars, and 4 double bedroom-4 compartment-2 drawing room (4-4-2) cars.

The work on those cars can be well understood in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/04/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-14.html , followed by the nearly completed cars shown here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/10/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-part-18.html . Below is a view of my 4-4-2 car, shown bringing up the rear of a train passing Shumala on my layout.

But work is not complete on some of the other cars I’m working on. As I mentioned in passing in a couple of previous posts, the stock Rivarossi bodies are rather light when unmodified. Addition of brass car sides is a real help with weight, but cars not so modified need additional weight. I have used, as I often do, steel nuts glued inside the car with canopy glue. For passenger cars, I use 1/2-13 nuts, which I paint flat black to minimize their visibility inside the car.

And while one of these model cars has the roof temporarily removed and the inside accessible, I also need to add view blocks. As I showed in the MRH article, the great majority of modern lightweight cars had all enclosed accommodations, which in turn means that unless someone had opened a door into one of the rooms, there was no way to see through the car. This is certainly clear for the stock Rivarossi lightweight sleeping car, the 10 roomette-6 double bedroom (10-6) car.

At one time, Rivarossi did market an one-piece, molded interior for these cars. It’s a nice idea, but unfortunately they chose to model this interior with all room doors open. Here you see it in my already repainted and lettered SP 9051, a Lark 10-6 car.

To make new view blocks, I simply cut rectangles of 0.010-inch styrene sheet to fit, and painted both sides with one of the SP passenger interior colors. For the car shown above, I chose a pale gray, Tamiya “Corsa Gray,” PS-32, a somewhat bluish light gray. I installed the blocks with canopy glue.

This is an adaptation of my view block ideas to the Rivarossi molded interior. As I showed earlier, for example in the MRH article mentioned in the first paragraph, above, without a molded interior, a full-length styrene strip serves nicely as a view block. The car below is the 4-4-2 car I created, an all-room car, and the view block is painted a cream color.

Another way to add weight to these cars is to replace the very light plastic Rivarossi 4-wheel trucks. I have some of the Central Valley No. 139 trucks rebuilt by Brass Car Sides with Northwest Short Line wheelsets, which do add weight. They also require body-mounting the couplers, but I have wide enough curves on my layout that this will work. 

An aside about trucks for these lightweight cars: Pat Wider’s excellent article in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia, Volume 6 (2001), entitled “Lightweight Passenger Car Trucks,” pages 76–104, is a good introduction to these trucks and also tabulates actual trucks on specific cars of many railroads. 

An even better article, that includes information on model trucks, is W. Gordon Anderson’s “Passenger Trucks of the Lightweight Era: Part 1,” in Mainline Modeler, Vol. 3, January-February 1982, pages 72–83. Below are Anderson’s photos of two model trucks. At left is the Rivarossi truck, and at right is the Central Valley lightweight No. 139 truck.

What prototype trucks do these models represent, and which ones do we want to represent? The postwar SP 10-6 cars had 41-ND-11 trucks, while many of the pre-war 13 DB and 4-4-2 cars had 41-HR trucks. (The Pullman truck code 41-N means 4 wheels, 1 bolster, and N = an 8'6" wheelbase; an “H” in the code indicates that all springs are coil springs.) 

The stock Rivarossi truck has a nearly 9-foot wheelbase but looks approximately like the Pullman 41-N; however it has a lower overall truck height, and roller bearing representations resembling no prototype. Below is a Pullman photo from Anderson’s collection, showing a 41-N truck.

On the other hand, the Central Valley truck is really a 41-E (the code E means it has an elliptical [leaf] bolster spring, instead of a snubber, while also having coil springs), though otherwise similar to the 41-N shown above, and like that truck, has an 8 ft. 6 in. wheelbase.

I believe the Central Valley truck is the right length and is close enough in overall appearance to be used on the SP cars I operate. I will return to their installation challenges in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Wheel faces and wheel treads

Here I am referring to the faces and treads of wheels on model railroad cars. These are not terribly prominent features on either prototype or model cars, but they should still look “right” on a layout or even in a display case. For background on how trucks are constructed and a little about modeling them, you may wish to look at my article in Model Railroad Hobbyist, September 2016. (This issue is still available for free, to read on-line or download, at www.mrhmag.com .)

I will begin with an informative overview of what a truck looks like. It happens to be a Bettendorf T-section truck, the later version with the little rib above the journal box connecting onto the frame, very visible in this view. The wheelsets (wheel-axle assemblies) are faded out in this view so the bolster and side frames can be seen better. (Bettendorf graphic, Car Builders Cyclopedia, 1919)

The parts of the wheelsets that we can see in models are primarily the outer wheel faces and the treads. The inner faces and axles are not very visible on most model cars. Since I model during the transition era, when roller bearings were still fairly uncommon, the solid-bearing truck technology was predominant. The journal boxes you see above would be opened to add lubricating oil to the journal box, and inevitably this leaked out of the back of the box onto the wheels.

The result was an accumulation of oil on wheel faces, which of course attracted and held dust and dirt from the right-of-way. Before long a rather thick layer of oily “crud” characterized every wheel face. The photo below (taken at the Portola museum by Richard Hendrickson) illustrates what I mean. Note, incidentally, that the cast steel bolster is hollow and you can see clear through it. You may click on the image to see the wheels more clearly.

Of course, new model trucks, and the trucks on “ready-to-run” models are nothing like this, but are in most cases quite shiny. I show a single example below, though not the most extreme; some machined wheels from China are even shinier.

Obviously we should correct this appearance, another example of what my late friend Richard Hendrickson meant when he said such models should be called “ready to finish” rather than “ready-to-run.” (For background on Richard, see: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-memoriam-richard-hendrickson.html .) 

I generally brush-paint wheel faces a dark gray color, often Tamiya “German Gray,” XF-63. It’s important to make sure the wheel rims are painted too. Many Chinese wheels have rather wide rims, unlike the ones you see in the photo above.

Next comes the issue of wheel treads. In service, these become shiny upon first use, and remain that way if the car is at all regularly moved. Richard Hendrickson invariably polished the treads of his model wheels, using his Unimat lathe, even when the wheels were the old “fat” width, 0.110 inches. Here’s an example. Note that he also has painted the axles and inner wheel faces, something I usually don’t do.

I must confess I part ways with Richard on this one. Polishing the treads of fat wheels merely emphasizes how fat they are. It’s actually a little embarrassing to remind ourselves how narrow the prototype wheel tread really is. Below is an undated Standard Oil photo, taken at Bayway, New Jersey of tank car unloading through bottom outlets (CYCX was the reporting mark of the Conley Tank Car Company). The wheel width in this photo attracts my eye like a magnet.

Even our “semi-scale” HO wheels, 0.088 inches wide, are at least 50 percent larger than what you see in the photo above. I guess I prefer not to remind myself or any viewer that we are still well oversize in our wheel treads. I don’t paint them, but I don’t polish them either.

These comments are just for your consideration, and certainly aren’t meant as firm directions for any modeler other than myself. But these are topics that I think deserve consideration before deciding how you wish to finish your models.

Tony Thompson

More about Chrysler trucks

In a recent post about the steel express refrigerator conversions of Pacific Fruit Express, I mentioned the Chrysler freight trucks applied to 25 of the cars when they were converted to passenger express service. These were visually distinctive because of the use of an external hydraulic snubber, which projected upwards on the side frame. (You can read that post at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-steel-express-cars-of-pfe.html .) Here is a photo of the prototype truck (PFE photo, CSRM).

I mentioned in that post that I had made representations of Chrysler trucks for my own car fleet’s PFE steel express reefers, using a casting from Ross Dando’s Twin Star Cars company. This was a nice part and certainly an accurate representation of what you see above. Here is that truck on my PFE car:

I don’t know whether Twin Star Cars will necessarily return that part to inventory. But there is an alternative and perhaps better option today: a company called “Plate C Model Prototypes” has made a 3-D printed version of this truck, now marketing it through 3D Central. You can see the 3D Central trucks at this link: https://3dcentraltrains.com/search?type=product%2Cpage%2Carticle&options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=trucks . The Chrysler trucks are on page 2, and I used Part 4103-01, the original truck design. As of this writing, they are in stock. (The site warns that things can go in and out of stock, so patience might be necessary).

They really are nicely done. I show a rather close-up photo below, and in my opinion, this compares favorably with the Twin Star Cars version or the prototype photo above. Note in the lower view how much the snubber projects, as should be the case.

But if I already had a nice version of these trucks under my PFE express reefer, why did I buy another pair? Three years ago, I posted about the work I did, modeling one of the General American-Evans pioneer DF box cars, where DF = Damage-Free loaders. (That post can be found here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/02/gaex-box-cars-part-2-modeling.html .) 

The just-linked post has more details, but briefly, the consortium of General American, the car builder, and Evans Products Co., the DF-loader maker, built 540 cars, 340 of them with conventional vertical panels, 8 on each side of the door. The photo below shows an example (George Sisk photo, Charles Winters collection), drawn from the 110 cars built in the late fall of 1950 and leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The prototype GAEX cars had Chrysler trucks (visible above), which originally I decided to ignore, and simply used conventional trucks under the model. But in that post, I prophetically wrote, “Maybe I’ll come back later and redo the trucks.” That’s the reason for buying another pair: so I can complete my GAEX box car.

I won’t go into the model itself, as the background and modeling was adequately described in the two original posts (the second is linked two paragraphs above). For the current topic, what’s important is that now I can “finish” that model with correct trucks. Here are the Plate C trucks installed:

I am glad to make this model more accurate with the replacement of its kit trucks with these impressive 3-D printed versions of the Chrysler freight truck. This is yet another example of the accomplishments of 3-D printing in our hobby.

Tony Thompson

Upgrading a Red Caboose SP stock car

Over ten years ago, Red Caboose released an HO scale model of a Southern Pacific stock car, representing Class S-40-5. This was a large car class, as stock cars go, more than 800 cars. Along with Class S-40-4, the -5 class represented a standard stock car body design, differing only in whether their underframes comprised one or two center sills. Succeeding classes S-40-8 and -9 were all but identical, representing the great bulk of SP’s stock car fleet. Many survived into the 1950s. 

For these reasons, the choice by Red Caboose of Class S-40-5 to model is a good one. A post from some time back summarized how they can be upgraded (the post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2015/07/modeling-sp-stock-cars.html ). The primary issue to be addressed is trucks. Red Caboose supplied these models with T-section trucks, a design much used by SP between 1912 and 1925; but unfortunately, not used for stock cars except for some much later rebuilds.

Instead, SP applied Vulcan trucks to most of its stock cars, and as I know from perusal of the SP Car Ledgers, there were no examples of T-section trucks ever applied to Class S-40-5 cars. Shown below is a prototype photo of a Class S-40-5 car, taken from my book, Volume 1 in the series Southern Pacific Freight Cars, entitled “Gondolas and Stock Cars” (Signature Press, 2002). It’s an SP photo, taken at Dunsmuir in 1928, from the Shasta Division Archives. Like the rest of its class, it has Vulcan trucks, and still has the periods between initials in the reporting marks, correct until 1931.

Luckily, Kadee makes a very nice Vulcan truck. When I wrote the post linked in the paragraph above, they only offered the Vulcan design in a “sprung” truck with working springs. Subsequently, they have added an “HGC” version, with HGC standing for “high gravity compound” as the truck material. 

More importantly, the HGC trucks have a molded sideframe, thus without the far-too-open “real springs” of the sprung truck (for more on those issues, you might want to look at my MRH article, September 2016; some blog commentary is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/09/my-column-on-trucks-in-september-mrh.html ).

Below is one of the Red Caboose stock cars, with truck changed out to Kadee Vulcans. Note that the 1946 introduction of spelling out the road name instead of using the initials “SP,” has caused a rather long board to be required for that road name.

But in the early 1950s, one sees, in prototype photos, evidence that some shop repaints of SP freight cars did not bother with that full road name but just applied the initials (the pre-1946 practice). In 1953, the change back to initials became official. On stock cars, this led to the interesting result of that long board remaining, but only initials lettered on it. 

Below is a prototype example, no doubt taken to record the pair of new Trainmaster locomotives, 4810 and 4815, at Carrizozo, N.M. where they first went into service, by Lewis Harlow (Bob’s Photo collection). But this June 1955 image also records SP stock cars 70998 and 73970, both with long “road name boards” now occupied only by car initials. (You can click on the image to enlarge it.) Note also that the deep color on the stock cars suggests that they have probably been relatively recently repainted.

Lettering like this was included in the Red Caboose production of the Class S-40-5 cars, such as my model shown below, SP 73691. But in this photo, the original T-section trucks are still present, despite my having weathered the car and added chalk marks, route cards, and repack stencils. Given that the replacement of the spelled-out road name with initials was only from 1953 onward, and the discontinuance of the 1-inch stripes above and below the reporting marks was in January 1952, I tried to maintain most of the original color in the weathering, as the photo above suggests.

Of course, the truck issue is easily corrected. I simply replaced the Red Caboose trucks with those Kadee HGC Vulcan trucks, product number 1573 (with the 0.088-inch wheel treads), and added a little grime to the sideframes. I also replaced the lame couplers supplied by Red Caboose, with Kadee “scale head” whisker couplers, my de facto standard these days.

The car can now be used in layout operating sessions as a fully prototypical SP stock car, and its lettering is consistent with the model’s reweigh date of March 1953. I like variety in my stock cars, and the “remnant” long road-name board on this model provides that.

Tony Thompson

Heavyweight sleepers, conclusion

I have been describing a conversion of an AHM (Rivarossi) heavyweight Pullman sleeper, from its original 12-1 configuration (12 sections, 1 drawing room) to a 10-1-1 floor plan (10 sections, 1 compartment, 1 drawing room). In the last post about the project, I showed completion of the roof with its air-conditioning ducts (it’s here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/10/heavyweight-sleepers-part-3-roof.html ).

Now only completion of the car remains. I’ll begin with trucks. The AHM trucks are a decent representation of the prototype truck used by Pullman, what they called “Style 2411A,” so their appearance is all right. But there are some operational problems that do need to be corrected. The photo below shows them (the trucks shown are lightweight-car four-wheel trucks, but the principles are the same). The photo is a repeat from an earlier post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/04/modeling-sp-passsenger-cars-part-10.html ).

First of all, the Talgo-like coupler tongue, shown above at left, is molded with a horn-hook coupler. These are, of course, grossly poor in having not even a ghost of prototype appearance, but also problematic in that they don’t behave well if the car has to be pushed instead of pulled at any point. 

My solution is to cut off the horn-hook and drill and tap the tongue for a 2-56 screw (center). Then the Kadee box is attached with a flat-head screw (arrangement at right in the photo). This is the ideal arrangement: a Kadee coupler in its own box. I recommend a flat-head or pan-head screw for clearance under the diaphragm.

Note also in the photo above the AHM wheelsets. They comprise half-sets, a wheel and half an axle each, connected with an internal steel rod. The good news about this arrangement is that it is easy to correct an out-of-gauge wheelset; the bad news is that the wheelsets are free to get out of gauge. And the flanges are oversize. 

I often replace AHM wheelsets with Kadee wheelsets. Prototype passenger cars normally used 36-inch wheels, while classic-era freight wheels, like the Kadee ones, are 33 inches in diameter. But the original AHM wheels are also 33-inch size, so to keep the coupler tongue at the correct height, using freight wheelsets is in fact the correct answer. And of course you get better flanges.

I should also mention the attachment of the AHM Pullman trucks. It’s a friction pin, which can work well when new, but inevitably gives trouble after some time in service. As I have mentioned for the AHM lightweight cars, the simplest solution is to drill out the pin attachment holes with a No. 30 drill, glue in a short length of 1/8-inch styrene tubing (Evergreen No. 224), tap for 2-56, and then use a screw of that thread to attach the trucks.

I have used a remarkable variety of diaphragms on my model passenger cars over the years, including a variety of home-made ones (to see examples, you can use “diaphragm” as the search term in the search box at upper right of this post). For the Lake Merritt, I combined a diaphragm folds from one in the scrapbox, with a new striker plate. I also replaced the poor AHM brake wheel with a brass Cal Scale one.

That completed the project. You can note in the photo above that both the roof and the diaphragm striker plate are weathered. This was done with my usual method based on acrylic washes. Most railroads washed their passengers cars fairly regularly, but that wash only involved the car sides, not roof or ends, so those areas should certainly show some dirt. Here’s the final product, shown on my layout.

This was a fun addition to my fleet of heavyweight passenger cars, and probably concludes my conversions of the old AHM cars to different floor plans. I have enjoyed doing them all, but likely already roster more such cars than are needed on my present layout, so I don’t expect to do any more.

Tony Thompson

Improving a freight car, Part 2

The previous post on this topic took up the challenge, describing what I might typically do to upgrade a car kit to my usual layout standards. The kit is an InterMountain 12-panel box car kit. You can read my preliminary analysis of needed changes and upgrades in that previous post, which is at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/12/improving-freight-car.html .

These particular InterMountain kits do not include car weights. I decided to use what I often use for house cars, a pair of 5/8-inch steel nuts, glued inside with canopy glue. This has proved a secure attachment, and adds close to the needed two additional ounces to meet NMRA weight standards. (I might mention that I doubt there is any great significance to the exact NMRA weight values, but I do think that consistent car weight matters in operation, so the NMRA standard is as good as any.)

I should add that before adding the weights, I drilled and tapped the bolster centers for 2-56 truck screws (discard those self-tapping screws!). This makes the screw holes evident inside the car body, and prevents gluing the weights atop them. And since the doors will be glued on, no need to paint the weights.

I mentioned in the previous post that the kit side doors were not the correct style, but that I had replacements. Here are the replacements, with the kit placard boards and route card boards in place.

I also mentioned using a Kadee Morton running board to replace the kit’s incorrect board. This has been received. But it isn’t quite the same color as the InterMountain kit parts. So both the running board and the new doors called for a paint match to the IM molded color. Like many modelers, I have a considerable stash of red-brown paint colors, of many brands. The closest match here was Tamiya “Hull Red,” no. XF-9.

The kit coupler boxes are intended to be glued in place, including box covers. I learned long ago that this is a prescription for coupler maintenance problems, so I clipped off the posts on the box covers, drilled a hole centered on the post location, and tapped both box and cover (and car body) for 2-56. This isn’t a great coupler box, and a Kadee box might be better; but I did use the kit box to install Kadee #58 couplers.

Incidentally, one advantage with making the kit coupler boxes removable, and attached with a screw, is that if any problems later develop with these boxes, they would be readily replaced with Kadee boxes. 

Lastly, in changes to kit parts, I discarded the kit’s molded plastic wheelsets intended for the trucks — this type of wheel has long been banned from my operating equipment — and replaced them with InterMountain Code 88 wheelsets. These metal wheelsets look better, run better, and don’t collect dirt.

I should mention that although these InterMountain trucks resemble the ASF A-3 trucks actually applied to the prototype cars, they are not quite an A-3, but I decided to use them, since they are close. For a great deal more on this point, you may wish to consult Richard Hendrickson’s 2014 article on model trucks (there’s a link at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/07/another-update-to-richard-hendricksons.html ).

With these modifications, I was ready to proceed with the more mundane aspects of the kit assembly, most of which I won’t bother to describe, but will then carry out weathering and other finishing details. Those will be described in a future post.

Tony Thompson

Modeling SP passenger cars, Part 10: trucks

 A number of my model sleepers, both heavyweight and lightweight, are stock or modified AHM (Associated Hobby Manufacturers) plastic cars, manufactured by Rivarossi. In the latter part of the 20th century, these were ubiquitous in hobby shops and swap meets, and can be modified beyond their original form. 

Earlier parts of my series of blog posts on SP passenger cars showed my conversions of some of the heavyweight Pullman  cars to various different floor plans (the easiest way to find all of the series is to use “modeling SP passenger” as the search term in the search box at right).

An important part of these conversions is couplers. Although I body-mount couplers on shorter cars, on 80-foot cars there can be problems on curves sharper than about 36 inch radius. My solution has been to modify the original AHM Talgo-like arrangement. I mentioned this briefly in one prior post (see it at this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/09/modeling-sp-passenger-cars-sleepers.html ), but want to expand on that description here.

The photo below shows the sequence. At left is the truck as produced by AHM, with a long, spring-loaded tongue, terminating in a molded-in-place horn-hook coupler.  I simply cut off the horn-hook coupler, then drill and tap the tongue for a 2-56 screw, as shown at center. Then a regular Kadee coupler box is attached on top of the tongue, using a screw, right. I continue to use Kadee #5 couplers on passenger cars because of their wider gathering range, though nearly all of the rest of my rolling stock is being converted to Kadee #58 couplers.

The trucks shown above happen to be 4-wheel trucks, but of course the exact same process is used with 6-wheel trucks. Shown below is one truck of each type, drilled and tapped. The length of the tongues appears different at first glance, but in fact, the distance from bolster center to the drilled hole is the same for both trucks.

An advantage of this kind of mounting for couplers is that they are then located just about ideally at the car end. Shown below is a car end without diaphragms, so the coupler can be clearly seen.  The car here is a Lark sleeper.

Another issue with the Rivarossi design is that trucks are attached with friction pins. This works all right when the models are new, but after a few truck removals and replacements, for painting, maintenance or whatever, the pins are no longer doing their job very well. The simple solution that I’ve used is to drill out the body bolster hole with a No. 30 drill, insert 1/8-inch Evergreen styrene tubing and glue with Plastruct “Plastic Weld,” and then tap the inside of the tube for a 2-56 screw. Then it looks like this:

I have several of these 10-6 sleepers, reasonable stand-ins for Southern Pacific’s post-war Pullman-Standard sleepers, assigned to several trains, including the Coasdt Route’s Lark. I will say more about the paint and lettering, and my layout uses of the cars, in a future post. 

Tony Thompson

Workin’ on the fleet

 In a number of posts over several years, I have talked about maintaining a fleet of freight cars: my own fairly large fleet. What happens from time to time, in essence, is that cars that have been pulled off the layout for any kind of poor performance gradually accumulate until they are in the way. Then it’s time to work out the kinks and return them to service — if possible. The background here is what I call my “rookie test” for freight cars (see my description at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rookie-test.html ).

The worst offenders are the cars that only misbehave occasionally. This makes you pull your hair out. But they still have to be fixed. The most common type in my experience is derailment due to misbehavior of the trucks. I postulate that occasionally a wheelset gets cocked or jammed in the sideframe, leading of course to derailment, but because this rarely happens, it’s hard to find. Simple solution: replace trucks. Here’s one of my misbehavers, shown right where it derailed

I replace lots of trucks nowadays. Back in the day, I always tried to use the kit trucks, sometimes with Kadee replacement wheelsets. Now I’m realizing that it can be the fault of the sideframes, and that replacing the truck can correct the problem. It can also be the wheelsets, if I used the kit ones, and nowadays I tend to replace with InterMountain wheelsets when they fit the sideframes.

Replacement of trucks can easily throw off the coupler height, as some manufacturers of model freight cars have designed models so that they have to be mated with the company’s own trucks. I always carefully check coupler height after truck change (for more about this, you can see my post on coupler maintenance, at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/10/maintaining-model-couplers.html ), and verify on the layout.

There are also problems that arise when a kit coupler arrangement is entirely replaced. Careful checking of the new coupler is essential. As always, I use the Kadee gauges, shown here with a Thomas Trains wine tank car from the 1950s:

Lastly, I have mentioned before that I also make “dynamic” checks of freight cars that have been repaired or upgraded with new couplers or trucks, deliberately pushing and pulling a group of suspect cars, often mixed with correct cars, through a sequence of turnouts (I described this process in an earlier post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2019/06/rolling-stock-upkeep.html ). The photo below shows such a test at Shumala on my layout. I continue to do that with cars that have had trucks replaced, since it was truck misbehavior that caused replacement in the first place.

A large fleet of model freight cars like mine simply requires maintenance, there’s no way around it. What works for me is to have an established procedure for this work, as I’ve described in the present and previous posts, and to stick to it whenever a batch of repairs/upgrades is being done.

Tony Thompson

A resin gondola kit

I have been completing the construction of my stash of resin kits, and the latest on the firing line is a Funaro & Camerlengo (F&C) kit for a Union Railroad gondola. This kit models a low-side mill gondola, just 50 feet long inside, that belonged to one of the U.S. Steel railroads, the Union. It’s kit 8141, and has a one-piece body, making it an easy build. (There was once a flat kit also, and the kit directions describe the construction of both, though not always clearly — make sure you use all the parts.)

The Union Railroad operates even today in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, and when I lived in Pittsburgh, I railfanned and photographed the Union a number of times. Serving what was then a vast complex of U.S. Steel facilities along and near the Monongahela River, it was an endlessly interesting prototype, so I was delighted when F&C offered this kit. Below is a prototype photo from the F&C directions.

It’s just possible to see in this builder photo that the “builder label’ reads “Pressed Steel Car Co.” The built date on the car is June 1936. Other builders of Union gondolas like this included Ralston, and Greenville Steel Car Company.

The one-piece body is very nice, with folding stake holders modeled on the inside walls and very nice sides and ends. The white resin body isn’t easy to photograph well, but shown below is an overall view of the body before adding any parts. Even the profiles of the Dreadnaught ends are correctly modeled on both sides.

The first step is the addition of bolsters and end sills to the one-piece body. The heavy, extended end sills fit perfectly on the body, impressive design and manufacturing. I pre-drilled a pilot hole in each bolster. Then the sills and bolsters were installed with CA, followed by the AB brake parts. I chose not to include piping on this model, as it would be hidden by the center sill.

With the bolsters in place, I drilled them for 2-56 screws, and tapped them using a bottoming tap or “gun tap.” Styrene sill steps are provided in the kit, but I substituted A-Line metal steps, Style A, to match the prototype photos. I installed them with canopy cement. The photo below shows the underbody at this stage. I have not yet fitted the coupler boxes. 

Then the floor casting is filed to fit inside, and installed.This is a very nice bit of resin casting, beautifully rich in rivets but a thin sheet. I attached it with canopy glue. On the underbody, I now installed several A-Line lead weights, so that the completed model will have some weight. These weights were cut in half with a large side-cutter so they will fit between center sill and sides.

Next I installed all the grab irons, noting that the side grab irons, 24 scale inches wide, are different from the end grab irons. With that done, I installed the handbrake gear box and chain on the B end, but used a Kadee Ajax brake wheel instead of the kit casting. Last, I installed corner caps and the retainer.

With the car supported on “interim truck support blocks,” I spray painted the entire model black. (The “support blocks” were described in an earlier post, at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2014/11/interim-truck-support-blocks.html .) Though the cars were not delivered in this color, by 1950 they had all been repainted black.

My next step of course was lettering. I used the kit decals, after applying a coat of Microscale Liquid Decal Film (F&C decals often need help). The Union had two groups of essentially identical cars, 1000 originally in each group, 6000–6999 and 9000–9999. There were slightly more of the 6000 series in service in my modeling year of 1953, so I chose a car number in that series. 

Another issue is trucks. Modelers routinely use 50-ton trucks under 70-ton cars like this one (I’ve done it myself. . .), but in fact the 70-ton wheelbase usually differs, sideframes may be heavier, and spring groups are different. Looking at the photos in the F&C kit directions, the closest sideframe appearance I could find in a 70-ton truck is the Tahoe Model Works ASF truck (Tahoe no. 210), though this is actually a postwar design. At least it looks about like the Union Railroad prototype.

This photo shows the car with lettering completed but awaiting weathering. Couplers are removed until weathering takes place.

     I chose to write about this kit because it is simple. I know there are some readers who are reluctant to take on any resin kit, but the modern resin kits with one-piece bodies are really not much more challenge than a styrene kit that has upgraded details. And you have access to an immensely greater variety of freight car models than if you depend entirely on styrene.

Tony Thompson