Anyone converted the Lionel BethGon's to Kadee Couplers? One end looks like it has enough material to attach a Kadee box... Curious if others are filling in the other end with some styrene to attach the Kadee gearbox or is everyone leaving the rotary couplers on the cars and just replacing the wheelsets?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Mike,
I've converted some of these to Kadees. I did just as you suggest and installed styrene to mount the draft gear box on the "A" end. There is just enough material on the "B" end to mount the Kadee. It's a pretty straight-forward job. I've similarly converted a few of the older MTH cars.
On the Lionels, I replaced those absurd factory trucks with proper roller bearing trucks. Though I often install two-rail trucks in my conversions (if I ever build a two-rail layout, I'll have a lot of rolling stock ready to go) for these cars I just used three-rail trucks I had on hand. I ought to try to sell the Lionel trucks, I suppose.
I'm a Santa Fe guy, and I only run these coal porters occasionally, when the mood strikes me to represent the BNSF era for a little. Somewhere I have a video of a short coal train of these.
RM
Thanks Rich, If you locate the video that would be great! I'd love to see it. I know the Atlas Coalveyor is a nice car, but IMO we really need some upgraded modern coal hoppers. I feel like the MTH and Lionel Bethgons are still a little rough in terms of details.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
