Can you convert atlas 2 rail cars to 3 rail? I was going to purchase a while ago some atlas NJT cars but they were 2 rail. If it can be done how involved is it?
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The truck sides are exactly the same Just have to swap the wheelsets. The scale coupler is body mounted and would need to be removed The three rail coupler screws into the top of the truck
So is it a matter of buying an atlas 3 rail truck with coupler from there website and swapping them out?
yes
Originally Posted by Bano7384:
So is it a matter of buying an atlas 3 rail truck with coupler from there website and swapping them out?
You really dont haveto purchase the whole truck Just the coupler and wheels I have a ton of the couplers if you want some
Let me see if the guy I spoke to has the Rollingstock still available.
For passenger cars, you also need the pickup rollers if you want lights. With the horizon/comet cars, It looks to me like you'd need the entire 3 rail truck assembly. They may come apart, but it doesnt look like it would be a terribly easy job to do, because the bearings are inboard of the wheels (i.e. in the truck block itself, not the sideframes). The horizon/comet cars also do not take standard atlas couplers.
Depending on how atlas has wired the cars (I havent opened up my horizons to look), you either have to connect one lead to the pickup roller and leave the other grounded to the truck frame, or if they wired it with one wire per truck (the positive to one truck and the negative to the other, for insulated 2 rail operation), then you have to split each lead in the car, and run a positive and negative wire to each truck, connecting one wire to each roller and the other to each truck frame.
For these particular cars, I would find 3 rail cars.
Ahhhh Didn't see that NJT in there The Comet cars are a bear to take apart The trucks are completely different than freight car trucks and there is more to it than I stated. I don't believe they sell the Comet car trucks seperately
