MTH has done a great job with their 70' streamlined passenger cars and the Illinois Central (IC) version is spectacular. I bought several in my quest to recreate the Illinois Central's Hawkeye but needed to replace the 4 wheel trucks with a 6 wheel version in order to get slightly closer to reality.
Having bought MTH 6 wheel trucks (only available in 2R scale, darn it) and jumped the insulated pickups to allow the cars to shunt track circuits, I made the switch without any difficulty. Then came the real test, the track test. I found that the drawbars are a bit shorter than the originals and the couplings are now prototypical, the diaphragms "kiss" but don't bind!
To be truly prototype, the journals should be roller bearing instead of friction bearing but this is, after all, only O Gauge. Regardless, the look is great - now all I have to do is figure out how to install 3rd rail pickup rollers... Oh well, the Hawkeye was a night train and they turned off the lights after 10 PM.
