Lionel Trinity 30K Ethanol Tank Car - Converted to 2-Rail

Nice work, Mike. I have a few Weaver tank cars that I really like, but dread adding weight to them because you have to ever so carefully disassemble them to get the weights inside.

bumping this up for others to see

Nice cars when you convert them to a closer to prototype look. I really like Lionel Scale cars when we finish the job. 

I almost just posted that I never saw this? Ooops. Nice work again Mike!

They are a light weight so they can be pulled by even the smallest locomotives like the trackmobile. 

Andrew

Well Done

Converted & weighted 10 Weaver Tank cars over the course of this thread (4 Allied Chemical, 4 Sinclair Oil, 2 Dow Chemical). Once you get the hang of getting them apart, putting the weights in isn't that hard. Have a couple of Lionel Dow Chemical cars I picked up at York a couple of years ago that are next in line. Turns out that switching them over is kinda therapeutic.

AGHRMatt posted:

Converted & weighted 10 Weaver Tank cars over the course of this thread (4 Allied Chemical, 4 Sinclair Oil, 2 Dow Chemical). Once you get the hang of getting them apart, putting the weights in isn't that hard. Have a couple of Lionel Dow Chemical cars I picked up at York a couple of years ago that are next in line. Turns out that switching them over is kinda therapeutic.

Always liked those Weaver tankers.

Way to go Matt ! Roo.

Beautiful work, Mike! I have not yet any tank car, but......perhaps it's time to buy one or two.........

jpv in France

I really like the work you've done on these here Mike...I will follow suite and do the same.  Have you done a car with the railsounds unit in it? Do you envision any challenges? I've got one and need to 2 rail that as well.

Trinkle-Trains posted:

I really like the work you've done on these here Mike...I will follow suite and do the same.  Have you done a car with the railsounds unit in it? Do you envision any challenges? I've got one and need to 2 rail that as well.

The rotating disc magnet on the axle triggers the sounds. You must put that onto the new axle if using NWSL replacement wheelsets. I had to drill it out slightly larger to fit the thicker axle. The first one I did, I split the magnet into pieces. I didn't realize just how fragile that magnet is.

 I wish the wires were inside the car and not so visible. They have to go to the trucks for power pick-up and the magnet reader. If I do it again, I might do something else to make them less visible. I think some easy flex wire would help.

Trinkle-Trains posted:

I really like the work you've done on these here Mike...I will follow suite and do the same.  Have you done a car with the railsounds unit in it? Do you envision any challenges? I've got one and need to 2 rail that as well.

Rick, I don't have any of the vision line versions which are the ones I think have the sound, but would definitely follow Joe's thoughts.   

Something, also that comes to mind for me are the actual sounds produced, outside of the lionel tanker related sounds, I would prefer a Soundtraxx Tsunami Soundcar decoder for more realistic sounds.  The operation behaviors are similar if you're running straight DCC.  

Just my .02 cents  

I don't usually put in a plug for Lionel , but....

the sounds of this tank car are pretty cool .

They sense the speed of the train, if it's on a curve, and seem to cycle thru some random clanks and groans. Pretty advanced to me. There's just enough silence so they don't get on your nerves.

 I'm not sure if the Tsunami sound car does all the same?? I did see a video a few years back of it and it also sounded pretty cool to me.

Joe, I watched eric's review video and agree it's pretty cool.  Yes, the soundcar does a lot of the same braking behaviors but doesn't have the specific tank car sounds that lionel does.  That being said, I'm not as interested in those as the more realistic braking sounds, I don't need to hear a guy say fill'er up! 

I do agree that Lionel's work in the Vision line products is outstanding!    

I understand and can only add that my cars only make realistic sounds while on my 2 rail layout. I don't have the Legacy controller to trigger the extra sounds of the cars like filling, and emptying, etc. So they never talk!

Hey all, this evening I was playing around with these cars and the double shelf couplers that Jimmy from Glacier Park had made. After getting everything installed, I noticed how tight the couplers were in on the boxes and cars. With a quick test I confirmed that they won’t do 36” radius due to the grab irons hitting and will just barely do 40.5”. The issue seems to be that the couplers are not long enough and that they are not squared off at the rear of the slot. I’m thinking a file would help somewhat, but I am also looking for other ideas.

@bigboy25 posted:

I am also looking for other ideas.

Increase your radius. If you cars look SILLY going around your curves, they are too tight. It is NOT always about what your stuff can "get around". Sometimes things just look STUPID.

ECI

@bigboy25 posted:

The issue seems to be that the couplers are not long enough......

And there's one solution - extend the coupler shank.....or better yet, don't run really long cars through curves that they can't handle with those couplers installed.

I am not familiar with this coupler, but couldn't you 'simply' put the spring on the other [ coupler head ] side, thus extending it a bit ?

SZ

Put the spring in front of the center hole so the coupler is actually buffered. That should give you a little extra length. This is what I do when printing my own boxes and/or using Protocraft couplers.

@EastCoastIron, thanks for stating the obvious. Not very helpful.
@mwb, I didn’t end up having to extend the coupler shank, but I will keep that idea in the back of my mind going forward.
@Steinzeit & @CentralFan1976 thanks for the suggestion. This turned out to be the solution along with using the resin printed coupler boxes that were an option to order with the coupler.

Info about the couplers can be found here.

Perfect.

Bigboy, suggest your reread my original post. Just because we are able to do things, doesn't mean it's the wise thing to do so. Sometimes the obvious escapes us.

ECI