Atlas 89' flat car lowered

Yes, they are a little too high, though probably not as much as some MTH and Atlas cars. My guess is they are about six scale inches too high. I suspect that if you lowered them just enough to match the car body up against the Kadee height gauge, you'd be close to the prototype height. And that's probably where you want to be as a practical matter in any event; any lower and your couplers will be off.

These TOFC cars don't ride as low as, for example, 89-foot tri-level autoracks. I think a partial reason for the extra ride height is to allow for the way Atlas mounts scale couplers on the two-rail versions (For those not familiar, the Atlas mounting plate is retained in the photo below). Remember also that the Atlas draft gear box top panel is a lot thicker than the Kadee draft gear box lid.

If you lower the body in accordance with the Kadee gauge, then you will have the problem of mounting couplers. If you keep Atlas two-rail mounting plate, your couplers would be too low (or at least out of the widely accepted scale standard). If you ditch that you'll have to drill into the body to mount scale couplers, and there's not much material in the deck to do that. I haven't tried it, but it seems to me that if I ever do lower these cars to that extent I likely would mark and drill and tap screw holes right through the body and the top deck (I would use 2mm screws). Then mount the couplers and cut the screws off flush with the deck. I doubt the fifth-wheel assembly will cover both scars in the deck, but a little putty, paint and weathering should do the job.

RM

Rick....do you have any idea where i can find the dimensions of the real ones? I can lower them quite a bit and use the new Kadee offset coupler for the right height. No sense in lowering to much.

Clem,

See if anything on this link will help:

http://research.nprha.org/NP%2.../Forms/AllItems.aspx

If you click on a particular car, it'll show a drawing.  If you click on the drawing, it'll enlarge.

Thank you Bob........ just what i needed. They are 2' 10" from top of rail to deck height. I have mine down to 3' and can't go lower unless I use scale wheels. Out of the box there 4'

Clem

Clem,

That you got it within 3/64" is pretty good

I've wondered about the height on some of my cars.  I'll park them next to a loading dock and wonder if the car is too high or the dock is too low

The car is lowered  where I like it. Believe it or not but the lowest car also has three rail wheels and I didn't cut or grind anything just new Athearn trucks and nylon washers. With the new Kadee#747 couplers I should be good to go. The SP oxide red car is the two rail version.

Again, great job Clem

I think the thing that most limits the height of cars is the diameter of the 3-rail wheel flange.  The car has to clear that so there's no rubbing.

Next would be underframe detail.

It would be nice if they all used a standard bolster/mounting system for the trucks.

Does Athearn still make those trucks or are they leftover stock?

Bob the Athearn trucks are still made I just bought mine this week. They came with scale wheel sets, however weaver wheel sets are a drop in replacement. I use the weaver delrin         three rail wheels. 

The Weaver plastic roller bearing trucks work well for this conversion also. I use the non-sprung trucks but they seem to work as good as the sprung Athearn and Weaver trucks. Here are a few pics of an 89' flat with the Weaver plastic roller bearing trucks.

The Weaver trucks have the same height at the truck bolster as the Athearns and the Weaver 3 rail wheelsets fit into them very easily.

 Weaver plastic non-sprung roller bearing truck

Car lowered about 3/16 of an inch with Atlas truck bolster spaced between truck bolster and car bottom.

Connected to diesel with correct coupler height.

Travis

The weaver trucks where my first choice, LHS informed me the plastic(delrin)trucks no longer available.   90% of my equipment rolls on weaver plastic. Guess I better call weaver and see if I can still get em.  

The reason that Weaver stopped offering those "plastic" trucks was due to all the complaints about the wheel sets in those trucks. The wheels are much thicker than the wheel sets in their die cast truck assemblies. The thicker wheel sets in the "plastic" trucks tend to short on some manufacturer switches, plus the gauging of the wheel sets was NOT always uniform.

Can't tell you how many Weaver "plastic" trucks I have thrown in the trash and replaced with their die cast trucks!

Hot water I didn't like the metal wheels in the plastic trucks either but the delrin wheel sets in plastic trucks work great for me. They roll way better than anything else and a whole lot quieter. Now the noisiest thing that rolls is the third rail rollers.

In looking at many of those NP Flatcar prints, the height varied from model to model. It varied at least as much as 3'-8.5"  to 4'-1.625", which is 5". What does the unmodified car scale out to? 

Trainman2001 The unmodified scale atlas car is a scale 4' from top of rail to deck height.

See my model of a Greenbrier 89 foot flatcar with "MTH" body mounted couplers. This model was scratchbuilt. The body mounted couplers place the deck height as low as possible.

Pro Hobby Designs

Matt………...  this thread from June 2012