Converting a Lionel roller bearing truck to 2-rail.

http://www.nwsl.com/uploads/ca...ap3_for_web_9-20.pdf

If you look on page 3-11 for Lionel "Spinners", you'll find replacement wheels for modern Lionel trucks with spinning roller caps (if that's what you have).

 Taking them apart is dependant on what car you're 2 railing. Some cars allow for just turning the trucks around. Some cars need the tab section cut out with a dremel. Both need the 3 rail coupler tab taken out of the way, if I remember right?

Hi Enginear Joe,

Thanks for the tip. I had originally thought I could just swap out the trucks for the ones made by Atlas or Weaver, but since Lionel uses a different truck bolster, that idea didn't turned out to be as easy as I had hoped.

The car that I'm trying to convert over to 2-Rail is the PS-2CD 3-bay. Even if I do get the trucks swapped, I still would have to move the air brake line over so that I can mount a Kadee #805 on the pad.

I know that model railroading is suppose to be fun, but sometimes converting equipment over to scale can be a pain in the .....

Robyn (CarolinaRail)

tell me about it lol

 I wanted to lobby Lionel to make two railing just a tad easier by allowing use of KDs on their cars. I guess this has been tried before and I now don't expect them to change. I still can't resist many of their cars, like the large tank cars. I haven't tried the ps2 car so I don't know what you're up against.

While I've converted many of the Lionel 3 Bay PS-2 CD Covered Hoppers to 2R.  I haven't found a problem to use Atlas trucks. I have also used NWSL wheelsets (when you can find them) to convert the Lionel truck with rotating bearing caps. The Lionel truck is smaller and has narrow sideframes then does the Atlas truck, soon to be changing with Atlas's release of a smaller, narrower scale truck!

If needed, I have tapped the truck bolster screw hole for a 4-40 screw as a round head 4-40 screw goes right in the Atlas mounting hole perfectly.

As you say you'll have to relocate the air line, but that comes right out with a small slotted screwdriver.  I then drill/tap for a 2-56 screw to mount the Kadee draft gearbox.   If you use the new Kadee plastic gearbox, it's very easy to drill a small hole for the air line and attach with a small dab of glue or even friction fit is often enough.