Has anyone changed a MTH Coalporter Hoppers to 2-Rail?

Swafford,

These are some good looking cars & I had converted a single MTH Premier Coalporter car to 2-rail using Atlas-O 100-ton roller bearing trucks to get the rotating end-cap look. That conversion required some extra readily-available fasteners, nylon sleeves & washers to get a reasonably lower height while maintaining some good pivoting capability in the trucks to clear the body-mounted couplers & car sides. It took some calculations & 2-D CAD sketches to achieve this but I sold this car last year & I do not have the list of the parts I used, right now but here are some pictures.

I have learnt on this forum in the last year that there were differences between the earlier & later versions of this car related to accessing the screws that held the 3-rail trucks to the body. Someone also commented that the earlier versions didn’t have pads to mount Kadee couplers.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Good Day Naveen,

Thank you for the information and pictures. After reading you post.............WOW, I realize now this is not an easy modification! Getting the trucks off must be a challenge. 

Best Regards, 

Frank

Swaford

I have never converted a Coal Porter these, but on every MTH car I have converted, if you use the MTH 2 rail trucks they bolt right in, and they lower the ride height correctly as well.  I have done over a dozen.  

MTH part number is:  20-89002

You might want to check that out

Thanks John, I'll check it out.

Regards, 

Swafford

That is definitely the way to go. MTH cars don't have bolsters for trucks like Weaver and Atlas. You'd have to fabricate your own. The MTH trucks fit right in. On some of the older long cars (autoracks and center beam flats) you'll have to fabricate bolsters anyway because the trucks aren't properly located and you'll be making mods to support Kadees. I have 10 autoracks and two center beam flats I have to convert -- I have my work cut out for me.

The new cars are easy to convert if using MTH trucks. The previous poster used the Atlas trucks for the rotating bearing caps. I have used these same trucks on MTH cars and while it can be done, it is much more work. Converting older cars is not something you want to do. There are no mounting pads for Kadees and IIRC there is nothing to mount the Kadee to on one end of the car. I had to make my own mount there. Make sure you get newer cars when purchasing. It will make your life easier. To get to the screw that holds the trucks on, remove the two screws on the bottom of the cars. You can then remove the slanted interior ends of the car, which gives you access to the truck screws. If using MTH trucks, a whole car should take no more than 10 minutes to convert and that includes mounting the Kadees. 

I'll be bringing at least 3 different styles of resin cast bolsters to the Strasburg show on Sat.

Matt the center beams are pretty straight forward....here are some shots showing positioning and bolster made from some scrap styrene....pretty easy and runs great. 

Good Day Gentlemen, 

Thank you for the information on the Coalporter Hoppers!

Regards, 

Swafford

Swafford

The Coalporters cataloged from 2010 on list Kadee mounting pads among their features.  If you find any produced earlier with pads for Kadees let us know on the O Scale Guide to gondolas.

On all the MTH cars I have converted with MTH factory 2 rail trucks the coupler height with Kadees comes out correct without shimming.

Oh, one other thing.

Despite the fact that MTH refers to Coalporters as hoppers, they are gondolas.

Thanks Don. That's pretty much what I was looking at doing. I'm thinking about making up a master and casting some from resin.

I think I did one or two already last year?

Mine were older models without KD mounts. I drilled and tapped the plastic. I think I added a piece of plastic on one end?? (for the coupler)

 I was going crazy trying to pry an end off until I noticed the screws underneath.

I also used MTH 2 rail trucks underneath.