Converting Lionel 3r to 2rail Flat Car

1st. Why not just buy 2 rail flat cars? 

2nd. Can you post a pic?

 

Rick

If you are talking about the Standard O with laser cut wood deck.  She is a nice model, NYSME has a few modelers who converted a couple.  

Idle curiosity, but just how do you determine the gender of a flat car, if that information can indeed be posted on this forum w/o offending any ofthe children?

Lionel makes "2-Rail" flat cars????

What...Lionel make something 2R...not on your life. "They make 3R trains for 3R operators and have no interest in 2R" they told me so twice at different train shows.

 

I always thought it was pretty short sighted especially since MTH at least put Kadee pads on most (maybe all) of their premium 3R cars....but hey it's not my company.

 

Male or female this is a nice looking car. I think John Sethian just had an article in OST about modifying this car and adding Kadees.

 

Butch

NOOOOOOO, NOT LIONEL FLAT CARS.  Any other flat cars that are 2 rail.  Example: Atlas, Weaver, MTH (replace 3 rail trucks with MTH 2 rail trucks).  C'mon now!!!!

 

All you really need are 2 pair of scale wheels.

 

I think I might have that flat car that Pitogo is talking about.  I will check and let you know what I think.

 

Rick

Well the title of this whole thread is: "Converting Lionel 3r to 2rail Flat Car"!

Is this your flat car?

 

 

If this is your car, it's very easy to swap. 

 

1).  Turn car over and remove truck by unscrewing the screw holding truck in place.

 

2).  Turn truck over and pry off retaining clip to remove coupler.

 

3).  Turn truck back over and remove 1 screw holding side frame to bolster.  Just remove 1 side.  Do NOT totally remove the side frame.  Only hold it away from the bolster enough to remove the wheels on 1 side then put on new wheel on 1 side.  Then do the other side.  Be careful not to let the tiny springs pop out .

 

4).  You will have to mount Kadee couplers to the car.  You will need a shim.  Or you can cut the car end very carefully.

 

5).  Replace truck.  VOILA!!!!!   Simple, EH????

 

Rick

4).  You will have to mount Kadee couplers to the car.  You will need a shim.  Or you can cut the car end very carefully.

 

IIRC this has been the problem with installing Kadee's on these cars. There is no mounting pad for the couplers only the thin wooden deck. I'm at work so I can't access a car right now but I think you have to build up (add) structure to mount the coupler. Not brain surgery but not an instant mount either.

 

As I said, there was an article in a recent issue of OST detailing this conversion.

 

Butch

up148 is indeed correct about there being absolutely NO MOUNTING PAD for Kadee couplers on these Lionel 50 foot flat cars. I have some of these and, although I am a 3RS modeler and retained the 3-Rail wheel sets, I had a heck of a time "destroying" the Lionel die cast truck in-order to remove those ****ed lobster claw couplers. Rather than drill holes up through the nice wood flooring, I elected to mount the Kadee coupler box assembly and appropriate shim, with J-B Quick (made by J-B Weld, but sets within 15 minutes). Naturally I run these cars towards the rear of any train.

UP148, in O Scale Trains magazine, issue #63, July/Aug 2012 on page 32 is the article you referred to.  It is the Lionel PS-4 flat car with 2 20' trailers conversion by John Sethian.  He used styrene pads for filler to mount the Kadee couplers to.  He glued the styrene to the car body then screwed the couplers to the styrene.

 

If you go to Oscalemag.com I think you can look up previous issues of the mag.

 

NCNG, make sure you post some pics of your cars before and after.

 

Good luck and have fun,  Rick

Probably true of the current company but the previous iteration of Lionel has produced 2 rail models out of the factory.  I know of 3 examples.  Today however, they could care less.

 

This Lionel car was very easy to convert,

 

1) I removed the Lionel trucks/coupler and discarded them.

2) I glued some white styrene to the underside of car where Kadee couplers are to be mounted.

3) I drilled holes with my pin vise and mounted both couplers.

4) I mounted 50 ton Atlas O Bettendorf trucks, this took 3 tries to get coupler height correct. (still a 1/32 low or so, but I will live with it) I did end up using the screws that came with the Atlas trucks, and a washer between body and truck. I did re-tap mounting holes, I also dropped a bit of super glue in the mount hole because I was concerned the screws where a bit short.

5) Weight is good, car runs and looks like a dream!

 

ncng

ncng,

 

Save the Lionel trucks and couplers... a 3-rail modeler will be glad to buy them from you, either at a show or on eBay.

 

Michael Rahilly

Eastampton, NJ

I have converted about twenty of these Lionel PS4 flats to 2 rail. I regularly run 10 of them in my TrucTrain. I run the other flats in any position in other trains.  The Lionel cars are far better, in my opinion, than the ones from MTH, Atlas, and Weaver.  They have real wood decks, a die cast frame for weight, and properly sized details. 

 

As RickC said, I wrote an article in OST on how to mount the kadees (sytrene pads glued between the stringers-as ncng found out), and how to mount Intermountain trucks (use a nylon tube as a spacer).  You can also convert the Lionel trucks to 2 rail as RickC suggested. That makes truck mounting easier, but the Lionel trucks don't look as good.

 

One detail you might want to take care of is to fill the cut-out at the ends of the car that is there to accomodate the swing of the Lionel coupler. After you install the kadee, cut styrene shims to fit between the coupler box and the end of the cut out:

 

 

What make are the tractors?????

BradA:

 

made by Universal Hobbies, available from Diecast Direct

http://www.diecastdirect.com/a...p?ProductCode=UH6077

1:64 or 1:48 scale???

1:43

AG.

Hot Water, I like your method. Question: Do you run these cars at the rear of the train because A) it is more prototypical or B) because the method you use might not hold together in a long trains C) the weight of the cars might make them (I forget the phrase) derail or D) some combination of the above?

And what makes their line of thinking even stranger in my opinion is that 2 Rail and 3 Rail Scale have grown in popularity over the years. Maybe not a lot but I would venture their ranks have increased.

I keep them towards the rear of the train mainly to protect the coupler mounting system from undo stresses, and also that load, or TOFC, tends to look more prototypical towards the rear anyway.

 1:64 or 1:48 scale???

 

BradA

 

The reason  I chose these is they are the correct "size" for 1/48 scale.  The actual McCormick International Farmall Club Tractor is a small tractor.  The Universal Hobbies is indeed 1/43 scale, as Andre notes, but because the prototype is small, it looks like a full size 1/48 scale tractor.

 

Here is another view:

  

 

 

My inspiration was a photo at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.  The tractors were mounted similarly to as I modeled them here

 

 

I have purchased athearns John Deere. They are 1:48 I believe, I will seek some of your suggested models too Thx

Yup, they are on the small side. http://www.farmallcub.com/dcms/

 

As John knows, I 've got a '54 Model F Cub that's in transition to its 4th generation of ownership.

Here is another way to put them on.

Andre.

Yes.  If you'll notice however that the front wheels that model tractor (narrow) were not like those of the Cub tractors (wide) and that impacts how closely they can be packed together.

 

Nice picture, too!

Here is the photo I worked from. I could not get the tractors oriented perpendicular to the flat deck, as the wheels did not intermesh as shown here. So I settled for the angled placement.