lionel ps-1 truck gap

They pretty much have to be that way in order for that huge 3-Rail coupler assembly to clear the bottom of the car end sills.

Lionel trucks have raised bolsters to clear the couplers on tight curves, as Hot Water posted.

 

Some 3-rail trucks have flat or nearly flat bolsters, like prototype trucks. You can give them a try but be prepared for clearance issues.

 

 

For what it's worth, the Atlas O trucks are a virtual drop-in replacement for the Lionel trucks, in my experience they do make the Lionel cars ride a bit lower.  They use the same screw size, although I think the Lionel ones are a bit longer (or it may be vice-versa, I don't recall as it's been awhile since I did a conversion).

Thanks for the quick response! Would atlas trucks and scale couplers fix this problem? As long as I would run on 2 rail? I have a set of scale f units that it's can be run on either 3 rail or 2 rail

You might want to check out the r-Rail SCALE (3RS) Forum, and you will see "sticky threads" on the top of the first page, covering how to up-grade to 2-Rail SCALE couplers (Kadee). I have all my locomotives and freight cars, plus many passenger cars up-graded to Kadee couplers, as well as even operating some 2-Rail SCALE cars on our 3-Rail layout.

Oh boy, I posted to the wrong forum. Sorry about that guys. Ok anyways, thanks for your help. Maybe I'll try the atlas trucks. I have an extra set. I'll see if they work better. Thanks again

 

 

If you have t-shaped profile track like Atlas O or MTH ScaleTrax, then running them with scale wheels won't really be a problem, most of my existing scale equipment that were 3-rail out of the box were converted to 2-rail or were bought 2-rail already; the operational limitation factors would mostly be determined by the diameter of your curves as well as switches on your layout.

I have one from the 1990s.  One of my 2-rail buddies sent it as a gift, already converted with Kadees.  I took the time to add some plastic to simulate the center sill and those diagonals that hold the ends square, and except for being plastic, it ranks as being one of the most accurate box cars in my fleet.  

Here it is:  Walthers decals.

 

 

That's perfect! Nice decaling. So atlas 2 rail trucks and 33' wheels then? And kaddee couplers?  And you've had no problem?

No- those are Athearn trucks.  The bolster requires a scale body bolster as well, meaning the car underbody gets rebuilt from about an inch and a half from each end.

You're somewhat limited as far as how low you can lower these cars with 3 rail wheels. The flanges will hit the floor, or the details on the floor like the raised ribs. You can go quite a bit lower with 2 rail wheels but that's another topic all together.

 

3 rail wheels and 3 rail couplers definitely have their limitations  

The Atlas box cars really look nice low on the trucks, our Lionel cars visually seem about an 1/8" high. Maybe a Lionel truck design with removable spacer for the over 072 crowd would have been better.