2-Railing a Lionel Hoods Milk Car

 I don't have these trucks. On the modern roller bearings, I remember drilling out 2 ? rivets and taking it apart. That released the 3 rail mechanism. You have to take it apart to get the 2 rail axles in anyways.

I think a lot of people just dremel it out.

 The rivets drill out easily. You may have to trim a bit with a Dremel. 

 www.highballgraphics.com     Go to the milk car listing. They have HOODS decal with the A.

 Mario.   Central Fan on the Forum makes the Kadee mounts for these cars. He's a 3 railer so not sure what happens as far as coupler height when you add 2 rail wheel sets. I am in 3RS. I added Kadee's years ago by using a hole already provided on the chassis for the milk tanks. The rear mount on the Kadee gets screwed into it. Puts the coupler in pretty much the proper spot. You need to drill one more hole and probably add some shims. You may need to file the car body a bit to form a pocket for the Kadee. Most of this depends on what you end up with as far as ride height after installing the 2 rail wheel sets.

We offer 4 thickness' of KD coupler shims the following link will take you to them. we also offer KD 's as well as Intermountain wheelsets.

http://www.scalecitydesigns.com/COUPLERS_c_30.html

Thanks to all who offered suggestions.

I was a bit timid with the first truck.  I even removed the side frames and then, of course, had to put the springs back in at the end.  I vowed not to remove the side frames and create the re-springing problem on the second truck.  

Here's what I did.  I cut the wheels off the axles.  Cutting the axle once near one of the wheels was sufficient to remove both wheels.  I did the same to the other axle.  This gave me a clear shot at two of the rivets.  I drilled them out with my cordless drill.  Drilling out the other two rivets at this time would have endangered the side frames.  Using my Dremel with a cutoff disk, I cut away the remainder of what I considered non-essential material.  I cut across the top of the bolster where the pin comes up.  I continually evaluated what I needed to leave.  It turned out that the bolster itself with no attachments is sufficient.  This left me with an open shot at the remaining two rivets.  I drilled them out and now I had the bolster with both side frames attached.  No need to remove them and no springs to re-insert.  I vacuumed and brushed the truck.  Blew out any dust in the journals and then added a drop of LaBelle oil to each journal and then loosened the screw holding one of the side frames just a bit and inserted the Intermountain wheel sets.  I re-tightened the screws holding the side frames.

I attached the trucks to the car and checked the height of the bottom of the floor with my KD gauge and determined that one or two shims will be needed to bring the couplers to the correct height.

Hope this helps the next person faced with this challenge.

Ed

Ed Kelly posted:

Here's what I did.  

Wish you'd taken a few pictures while on your adventure....

Ed, the esteemed Joe G. published a story in OST in collaboration with Dick Bregler I think (Marty correct me) about 2 railing the Lionel milk cars. It became my go-to resource for the several milk cars I've converted.

it's worth a look and can be found online.

Chris,

Thanks,

Ed

OK, now for the hard part.  How do I get rid of the irritating Lionel patch on the bottom right of the car?

Regards,

Ed

Ed Kelly posted:

OK, now for the hard part.  How do I get rid of the irritating Lionel patch on the bottom right of the car?

Regards,

Ed

Rub it off with a Mr. Clean Eraser Stick, then weather over it.