Atlas Trainman Passenger Cars

Hello!

I did, but require some machinist skill, not a big deal btw.

So, you can remove the 3 rail wheels and put IM wheels if you want, but the result is not good enough because the Atlas truck is too wide, therefore I decide to make it narrow.

cutting the bolster and inserting a brass plate (1/16) drilling some holes, tapping and voila. Now is narrow enough to hold the wheels and look a lot more real than before.

Here some pictures:

my 2 cents

Andre.

IF anyone wants to sell off their 3-rail trucks/wheelsets, feel free to contact me!

Mark[dot]Massa86[at]gmail[dot]com

Andre, interesting solution.

Mister Lee, I'll keep you in mind.

Thanks

If these cars are like the Atlas O freight cars, they use the same side frames and bolsters in both 2 and 3 rail.   At least on all the 50 or so I have handled.    The trucks are too wide on all.   I have converted quite a few from 3 to 2 rail.

So that being the case, you can just change out the wheelsets and get the same look and performance as a 2-rail Atlas car.

I recommend Atlas wheelsets because Atlas uses a much smaller axle diameter than any other I have seen, and the axle is longer.   Other brand axles do not fit into the journals without reworking/boring out the journals.

I used K-Line 36" 2 RL wheel sets to convert my Trainman passenger cars.  I reused the T'man truck frames.  Don't remember if these wheelsets dropped right in or if I had to some fitting -- as it's been a while.  But, it wasn't difficult and it worked out great.  Put Kadees on too.

A while back I was able to find a large quantity of K-Line passenger trucks in blister packs on Ebay and bought them up.  Both versions; 3 axle heavyweight passenger trucks and 2 axle lightweight passenger trucks.  Got 'em to primarliy convert K-Line 21" pax cars.  But, have used them on lots of other cars, too.  Like GGD passenger cars.

Off topic, But, Atlas O now has a line of narrower, more prototypical 2 RL trucks and wheel sets with product numbers #7064 thru #7069.  I was able to get about a dozen sets each of #7064 2RL 50 Ton Barber Bettendorf and#7066 2 RL Andrews trucks.  Atlas O introduced them a while back and produced some.  I see them on Ebay in small quantities from time to time.  I'm suspect they are caught up in Atlas O's production problems?

And the previously offered wider Atlas O 2 RL trucks and wheel sets are still out there too for our use.  So we have the choice of older wider trucks/wheels or the newer more prototypical ones when we can find either versions.  

AG. great method of narrowing the older style Atlas O truck frames.  I have a bunch of Intermountain 2 RL wheel sets that are of course too narrow for the olderAtlas O truck frames.  If I run out of options with Atlas products I will give it a try.