Lionel Northeastern and N5B Caboose conversion help

@crabster posted:

Hello,

Might anyone have a tutorial on converting Lionel Northeastern and/or N5B cabin cars to 2 rail and Kadee 805's? Thank you! Andy

I can say do not purchase the Lionel 2 rail conversion wheels.  I replaced my 3 rail wheels with the Lionel 2 rail wheels and they do not fit in the truck properly.  The sad part is they got the side frames correct for this Cabin so I'd like to use them, however if I can't get the right wheels, I'll simply put brass trucks on them.

I have not gotten to the Kadee coupler part yet.  I have the same issue with my Williams N5b brass cabin. 

When Lionel released the GLa hopper a few years ago. They had Kadee-ready pads on them. Do the cabeese?

Also when 2 railing the trucks. Inter mountain wheelsets were a drop in fit. Try checking with those.

@GG1 4877 posted:

I can say do not purchase the Lionel 2 rail conversion wheels.  I replaced my 3 rail wheels with the Lionel 2 rail wheels and they do not fit in the truck properly.  The sad part is they got the side frames correct for this Cabin so I'd like to use them, however if I can't get the right wheels, I'll simply put brass trucks on them.

I have not gotten to the Kadee coupler part yet.  I have the same issue with my Williams N5b brass cabin.

I had good luck with Northwest Short Line when two-railing a Lionel Continental ACF 3-Bay Covered Hopper. From the Lionel website: "Easy conversion to scale couplers and two rail wheelsets (available separately)". They were not kidding! When the right wheelsets arrived from NSL, I gathered all that I needed and set to work. It took longer to gather everything together than it did to do the actual conversion! I used NSL instead of Lionel wheelsets as the L sets are 33" and the NSL sets are 36". There are KD pads on the hopper, btw; otherwise I would not have gotten it.

My next conversion project is a Lionel B&O I-12 'wagontop' cabin car; unfortunately no KD pads on this one. I do have a set of someone's cabin car conversion trucks with power pickups but have not braved the task of removing the lid from the I-12. The instructions that came with the car do show how to do it, I just have to get myself mentally prepared to dissect it.

I have used Intermountain sets before as they do fit a lot of different trucks; the only drawback is the lack of 36" pointed axle sets. I have used K-Line wheelsets before but that meant disassembling some of their conversion three-axle passenger trucks, two sets supply enough axles to do three freight cars.

I have used both Intermountain, and Athearn wheelsets in Lionel trucks.     They are a little bit of a loose fit but seem to behave fine on the RR.    You need to cut the coupler tang off the truck to make room for the Kadee Box.

If you decide to go with different trucks you will probably need to scratchbuild a new body bolster.    The bolsters on the lionel trucks are arched higher than NMRA standard trucks, and the body bolsters are thinner, to allow room for the lionel coupler.  

Just reinstalling the trucks with 3 rail wheels may or may set the car a close to good height from rails.   I have converted L hoppers, flats, and boxes and they have been close enough.    However, I also converted some R50Bs from another mfg and they say way too high  unless the trucks were modified.

@PRRMP54 posted:

...I have used Intermountain sets before as they do fit a lot of different trucks; the only drawback is the lack of 36" pointed axle sets. I have used K-Line wheelsets before but that meant disassembling some of their conversion three-axle passenger trucks, two sets supply enough axles to do three freight cars.

I agree. It seems harder than it should to find 36" wheel sets; sure wish Intermountain had offered those too, as their 33"s are so nice...

Mark in Oregon

Thanks guys! Has anyone used the Atlas 2 rail trucks in a conversion?

Here's an excellent thread from 2016 on converting the Lionel N5b.

https://ogrforum.com/...5b-cabin-car-caboose

@Bob posted:

Here's an excellent thread from 2016 on converting the Lionel N5b.

https://ogrforum.com/...5b-cabin-car-caboose

Thank you Bob!