Converting 2-Rail Freight Car to 3-Rail

I'm curious to see pictures of what you're working with. The 2 rail trucks will work, but you probably need to replace the wheels with ones that have larger flanges.

Assuming these are the old style of dummy couplers, there are couplers that can be used to replace the 2-rail couplers. Thomas Industries made Lionel-compatible couplers that use the same sort of shank as a lot of those early 2-rail couplers had, but they're pretty rare. I actually have a bunch of mystery couplers (like 30 of them) that would work with a lot of filing to reshape them, no idea who made them. Here's a picture - they're pretty rough, but they work. I've installed one in an old 2-rail boxcar before to act as a conversion car between coupler types, I ended up doing a lot of filing to reshape the shank.

Post a photo of the underside of the car and we can give you an idea how to proceed.

@Johnbeere posted:

I'm curious to see pictures of what you're working with. The 2 rail trucks will work, but you probably need to replace the wheels with ones that have larger flanges.

I actually have a bunch of mystery couplers (like 30 of them) that would work with a lot of filing to reshape them, no idea who made them. Here's a picture - they're pretty rough, but they work. I've installed one in an old 2-rail boxcar before to act as a conversion car between coupler types, I ended up doing a lot of filing to reshape the shank.

If I didn't know better ( and I probably don't) I would guess those are the couplers Walthers offered for "hi-rail" users....(?)

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

If I didn't know better ( and I probably don't) I would guess those are the couplers Walthers offered for "hi-rail" users....(?)

Mark in Oregon

Good guess, but the Walthers couplers look pretty different. I think these couplers here follow the Walthers design.

Here are some photos. Thanks!

That's a good looking car - unfortunately, the couplers I have won't work for you because the shanks are too short, although you probably could move the coupler mounting point towards the ends if needed.

It is a nice car! Also, I went to college in Cleveland, so finding a freight car from a road in that area was nice!

@Johnbeere posted:

Good guess, but the Walthers couplers look pretty different. I think these couplers here follow the Walthers design.

I don't know why I didn't suggest this yesterday - those couplers I linked in this reply yesterday should work well for what you need.

Lionel makes a number of dummy couplers that would fit. The problem is the shorter the shank the greater the track diameter required. A coupler that short won't work on 036. This one on the left is one I made from the one on the right but Lionel makes them already drilled plus a number of longer ones.

I would first try some Weaver three rail trucks with their add on coupler. It will raise the car some but also give more clearance for the flanges to clear the underbody details.

Pete

@Dan Parks posted:

2.) Does anybody manufacture 3-rail-style couplers that can be used to replace 2-rail couplers at the same mounting point?

Thanks!

Dan

Scale City Designs should have the long shank dummy 3 rail couplers you could use

The trucks on that car appear to be Athearn to me from the look of the bolster.    They do have "scale" size flanges.    The smaller flanges may cause you problems on switches, but should run just fine on any flat top rail.    I don't know abour your rail.    Atlas, Gargraves, and Ross are flat top vs the rounded tubular type.

If you have problems and still want to keep the trucks, Weaver trucks when weaver owned the company used the same size axle as Athearn.    The wheels sets are totally interchangable.     I don't know if Lionels verson of Weaver is that way or not.    You could find a set of Weaver 3 rail trucks and swap out the wheelsets thus keeping the Archbar trucks.

You might want to look at the dummy coupler that Lionel is using on its Thomas line.  The attachment point is raised above the shank and could be trimmed.

Jan

Switches and crossing tracks can be your enemy when running 2 rail wheel sets on 3 rail track.  Would it be possible to swap out the wheel sets and keep the truck?  You might need to add a washer to make certain you had adequate underbody clearance.

It looks like the car is designed so that a long shank body mounted coupler would work.  The Scale City ones look to be inexpensive enough if you cannot locate that Lionel coupler.  Another possibility since you are using O-72 is to keep the coupler and mate the car with two transition cars with Kadees on one end and 3 rail couplers on the other.

Weaver Wheelsets have axles the same as Athearn.

Thank you everybody for the helpful suggestions. I've ordered a pair of Weaver trucks and couplers.

Thanks!

Dan