Lionel Coaling Ramp Questions New Vs. Old

I like the old ones best, but here's what I had to do with the new ones,,,,I took the new operating hopper car and changed one ends truck to make it line up with the magnets, then alls well ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but I still like the old ones best,remember LIONEL had brought out about 3 operating hoppers who wouldn't work on the old ramp unless you changed one truck, then they bought out the new ramp.  Matter of choice here.

Rod

The only change I made to my Modern Era Erie operating hopper was to replace both sprung trucks with metal postwar coupler trucks.

As I recall, the issue was uncoupling the hopper from the train (on the ramp).

As NROD wrote, one could get away with only swapping one, but I wanted my hopper to have matching trucks.

I am not aware of any problems with the coupler that is built into the ramp.

There was a discussion about the ramp's built in coupler a while back. It focused around the fact that that coupler uses a special knuckle, #456-25. According to the Lionel service manual, it is

quote:

a special knuckle, designed for easy locking, which should not be replaced by an ordinary knuckle.

OK thanks for the tips, I'll have to see if I decide to re-truck.

I have an old one I used for years three layouts back. Ended up buying a few extra hoppers cars. It always worked. Liked it as much as the operating crane. I think those were the items I wanted the most as a kid. Don

Do you mean that you bought some extra original N&W hoppers? Yes, I think the coal ramp was one of my favorites and very much so, along with the crane. Played with the crane for hours. By the way, for all to hear, I ganged up my #97 coal elevator with the coal ramp. My Dad and I just made a sloped piece to allow the coal dumping from the hopper to chute down and fall into the hopper of the #97, when the 97 was in operation, so that the tray would rise up to meet the slope sheet we made from cardboard. I am planning on pairing them up again as I build my new layout. It worked fine.  Jeff

Jeff,

Do you mean the 397?  The 97 was the coal elevator or tower.

Paul Edgar

No, I do mean the #97 coal elevator! The black receiving tray fit nicely between the piers of the ramp and like I mentioned, when you energized the #97, the tray flips upward. We had it set so that when the tray flipped up, it met the sloped sheet
and when you dumped the coal, it would slide down the sheet and into the black tray. Worked great. Every time.

Jeff

Far Out!

Paul Edgar

Jeff, yes I bought a few of the originals, maybe four more. This was in the 70's and they didn't cost all that much then. I still have them in boxes somewhere. Don

Thanks for that. I have a brand-new coal ramp that I plan to use on my layout, which is under construction. If I run into that problem, i'll know what to do.