Lionel RPO and B60 baggage cars.. cool, but bad couplers

Rider Sandman posted:

banelson posted:

Do the new Lionel passenger cars also have these couplers? I.e. the new heavyweight cars just released.... I think they are neat cars but wouldn’t want a string of cars with those couplers. 

Ben 

Hello Ben. Yes, sadly, all Lionel rolling stock - passenger and freight - now has the cheapo/plastic/non-sprung/thumbtack trucks. The whole lineup has been “upgraded.”

I had the same problem with mine. I got thus car for 160 bucks. This is the most money I have ever spent on a model train car and I at least want the couplers to hold more than 5 cars behind it. This has convinced me just to look for the old weaver ones because first of all they are cheaper and second the coupler actually work. A guy at my train club has a awesome Pennsylvania passenger train and he only uses weaver B60 and weaver RPO and he ran that train all day and we had more trouble getting my Lionel k4 to run with the train. 

As pointed out earlier, they are good looking cars... I am glad Lionel saved them when Weaver went out.... 

A less sightly "fix" than wire or tape are black dental rubber bands for braces. Some couplers even countinue to uncouple on uncoupling tracks as designed.

The bands just increase the spring pressure keeping the tack up harder.

   Comming back into the hobby I was really impressed by the sprung roller bearing cast trucks. " 'Bout time" I thought.... so of course Lionel dropped them ...quality only leads to greater expectations for things to work flawlessly; can't have that now can we? 

   I read this stuff sometimes and am glad it takes great effort for me to afford stuff now.  I'm less deeply disappointed with manufacturers this way

MrMuffin'sTrains posted:

As pointed out earlier, they are good looking cars... I am glad Lionel saved them when Weaver went out.... 

Has anyone else noticed that these two cars pictured are different than cataloged?

Hope that the ones I have on order do in-fact look like MrMuffin's photos.  A better match to my other two!

Ron

I am just discovering this thread. I received the PRSL B60 baggage car about 2 months ago+- and haven't opened until just now, was waiting on the heavyweight coaches, of which 2 had defects. I am looking at the B60 now, it looks fine, as do couplers, but the wheels have the most resistance to rolling I've ever felt. Will try Norton's suggestion. Is there anything to do about the couplers not holding? They look fine out of the box.

The Weaver RPOs are nicely-made models. One of my two New Haven Railroad versions has a weak coupler.

MELGAR

I notice that the clerestory roof versions of the RPO, whether Weaver or Lionel, have that roof mounted 'antenna'.  Does anyone have any information on the prototype for this ?  It seems like a strange mounting for space radio [ as opposed to inductive systems ], and I'm wondering if it was something else, like fire suppression or an alarm system.

I wonder if Weaver looked at an RPO that had been relegated to MOW or similar service....

SZ

PRRronbh posted:

MrMuffin'sTrains posted:

As pointed out earlier, they are good looking cars... I am glad Lionel saved them when Weaver went out.... 

Has anyone else noticed that these two cars pictured are different than cataloged?

Hope that the ones I have on order do in-fact look like MrMuffin's photos.  A better match to my other two!

Ron

Ron,

Thanks for pointing that out.  I did not order these cars because in the catalog they had the rectangular windows, which was not correct for my era (late 40s).  The only B60s I want need to have the round roof and round windows, so it looks like I have two more options I didn't know I had.

CAPPilot posted:

PRRronbh posted:

MrMuffin'sTrains posted:

As pointed out earlier, they are good looking cars... I am glad Lionel saved them when Weaver went out.... 

Has anyone else noticed that these two cars pictured are different than cataloged?

Hope that the ones I have on order do in-fact look like MrMuffin's photos.  A better match to my other two!

Ron

Ron,

Thanks for pointing that out.  I did not order these cars because in the catalog they had the rectangular windows, which was not correct for my era (late 40s).  The only B60s I want need to have the round roof and round windows, so it looks like I have two more options I didn't know I had.

Ron, just hope all the 6-84989's and 6-84990's are in fact porthole windows as manufactured.  I only ordered one of these thinking they be rectangular windows because as your research showed a few made it into the 50's.   Mine should be in soon and if a porthole for sure will order the other one.  These are nice because they will contrast the messenger cars and be in the era.

Ron

Steinzeit posted:

I notice that the clerestory roof versions of the RPO, whether Weaver or Lionel, have that roof mounted 'antenna'.  Does anyone have any information on the prototype for this ?  It seems like a strange mounting for space radio [ as opposed to inductive systems ], and I'm wondering if it was something else, like fire suppression or an alarm system. SZ

It is a conduit for the lighting system, the round objects are the light fixtures.

Paul Kallus posted:

I am just discovering this thread. I received the PRSL B60 baggage car about 2 months ago+- and haven't opened until just now, was waiting on the heavyweight coaches, of which 2 had defects. I am looking at the B60 now, it looks fine, as do couplers, but the wheels have the most resistance to rolling I've ever felt. Will try Norton's suggestion. Is there anything to do about the couplers not holding? They look fine out of the box.

Paul:

I took someone’s suggestion to wrap the shank with black electrical tape and they have held fine since. 

Ben 

PRRMP54 posted:

Steinzeit posted:

I notice that the clerestory roof versions of the RPO, whether Weaver or Lionel, have that roof mounted 'antenna'.  ......

It is a conduit for the lighting system, the round objects are the light fixtures.

Thank you.  Do you have any further information about the prototype ?

To me that suggests a car built with gas lighting converted to electric lighting.  I note that as early as 1906 the UP was converting gas lit RPO's to electric at the request of the PO, which had lost too many letters due to fires with the gas lit cars [ per Utah Rails ].

Best, SZ

Has anyone here installed Kadee couplers on these RPO cars?

I have the original Weaver model and the trucks don’t allow space for the draft gear box. The inside of frame and gearbox severely restricts truck swing on turns. The original o gauge coupler mount on the trucks also gets in the way.

Some pictures of the solution would be very helpful

thanks!!