MTH Premier center I beam car... redesign?

If nobody posts pics I can this weekend. I'd like to see them done with the diagonal braces instead of "opera windows".

This is an older style car:

Newer car:

Will Ebbert posted:

If nobody posts pics I can this weekend. I'd like to see them done with the diagonal braces instead of "opera windows".

I would love a car like that... too bad that it probably wouldn't be made in plastic.

Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

Will Ebbert posted:

If nobody posts pics I can this weekend. I'd like to see them done with the diagonal braces instead of "opera windows".

I would love a car like that... too bad that it probably wouldn't be made in plastic.

Atlas has the tooling in HO and N. I've emailed them about doing it in O and think you should do the same. If they get enough requests for it, it might happen. 

I believe Matt Jackson posted something about these changes a while back.

I've had the MTH TTX  car with the newer version trucks moved in more for at least four years now. Also, I've seen BN and Tobacco Valley cars with the same truck set up. Prototypically both types of cars, trucks in or out more, are correct. 

The older cars are easy enough to convert if you're 2-railing them or setting them up with Kadees. I've done three (2-railed) and it's a pretty simple process. This is the first one I did, making my own bolsters and using Weaver plastic trucks. You remove the chassis detail from the car and shorten it by cutting out a section from each side. Making the bolsters takes time and you need to play with it to get the height right and prevent the car from leaning. If you're using the car empty, you definitely want to retain the steel weight plate under the car body.

The later conversions (2 cars). I cut out the original bolster from the chassis, inserted a 3/16 section of wood dowel and glued in washers as spacers to better support the trucks (you can't see them when the car's on the tracks, anyway). If you wanted to keep the car 3-rail, you can mount the trucks and secure the bolster with small screws rather than gluing them in place. You'd need to install Kadees or mount coupler bar extensions. I picked up the loads on eBay. 

The empty car has two of the steel car weights underneath so it's pretty close to the weight of the loaded cars. They'll go through 36" radius (O-72) curves just fine.

The same procedure also works for the old auto carriers as well.

Thanks for the pictures.

I had a UP with the pulpwood that I sold years ago... have been interested in the newer style, only saw the one I listed so far. I need to get out from under my rock more often.

Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

I've noticed on the older style cars, the trucks are mounted to the very end of the body, giving them an odd, unprototypical look.

 

The most recent I see shows a truck mounted much further inboard.

 

When did the change happen? Any one have any better pictures of the newer cars?

Well, get some longer-shank trucks (or longer couplers and use the original trucks) from MTH or Lionel, or the like, and change the truck position. A little model RR'ing never hurt anybody.

Lehigh Valley Railroad posted:

Will Ebbert posted:

If nobody posts pics I can this weekend. I'd like to see them done with the diagonal braces instead of "opera windows".

I would love a car like that... too bad that it probably wouldn't be made in plastic.

Again, styrene, glue, sharp knives, plans/photos, modify existing cars, model RR'ing. It's why you're here.