Lighting McCoy Coaches

Originally, McCoy coaches had trucks attached with solid steel rivets like on the freight cars. But when McCoy introduced a lighting kit for the coaches, they changed the truck fastening system. Passenger cars were then shipped with trucks held on by a pin with an E-clip, so that these trucks could be easily removed and replaced with the truck that came in the lighting kit. The lighting kit truck had a hollow bolt to hold it on the car; the wire from the pickup ran up through the hollow bolt into the interior, and the truck was equiped with a roller pickup assembly. This kit could also be used on a caboose.

None of those parts are readily available.  I have converted McCoy trucks by using a wooden block mounted inside the truck, and a roller pickup assembly mounted on the bottom of the wooden block; the wood provides insulation between the truck and the pickup.

david

David,

Thanks for the reply.  That sounds like a neat solution.

Next time you have a car out that you converted, if it is not too much trouble could you please post a photo of the pick-up roller conversion and how you mounted the light inside the coach?

Thanks.

well, for what it's worth, here's the wood block I made for that. Kind of quick and dirty, it worked at the time. Forget what I used it in, it's just the truck now.

david

This picture is very helpful.  Thanks.