Old MTH UP dome cars, Part of old set

Or take the dome section off?

Have you checked for small screws underneath on the frame area of the car? You may have to swing the truck assembly to the right or left to access some screws. Not sure if the dome can come off or not, I would have to see the cars in question.

Lee Fritz

I don't recall MTH having any products made for them. I always thought it the other way around. Those cars might just be early production.

If you can, please post a picture or two of the cars and the under frame.

Sean

Sean,

1.  Sean007?  Bond fan, or fan of a Scotish actor of the same?

2.  Construction seems to indicate these cars for MTH came out of the same plant as the Williams ones.  Or at least some of the parts came out of the same

3.  I did see the two small screws.  Also, the truck assembly is connected to the body has a screw and slip in.  There is a light socket attached to this.

4.  I can get my phone to get pictures.

OK, let's try some pics:

Did UP ever have a "boat end" streamlined obs?  Or did they have just square ends?

Thanks!

From the Train of Tomorrow. 

I know nothing about these particular cars, but the construction appears to be just like Lionel postwar aluminum extruded cars, including the hidden tab couplers (in other words, GOOD!) . In my opinion, since you don't know squat about them, and you don't have boxes, you RUN THEM and enjoy them.

It has probably been 25 years since I have taken apart a PW extruded, but I don't remember it being very hard. My guess is you just unscrew the screws at the end and the base slides out of the extrusion. Be careful not to chip paint. I am going to guess that if you really want LED, you can get some sort of 12VDC golden white strip LED and search for gunrunnerjohn posts for a power supply. I found an 20Vac-to-variable DC board from a company called DROK on amazon at one time, you could connect it up to a LED strip designed to run on 12V, and of course adjust the variable to 12VDC. I also have some golden white strip LED I bought maybe 5 years ago that I am sure is no longer made but a better one can be found, most likely by a forum search or just asking.

Up to you if you want to connect the two rollers together, you either want a fuse or use heavier gauge current in case a short travels through the wire. Whatever you do, do NOT have that connection go thru the circuit board. If you do not understand this, read up on it until you do. Never said English composition was my strongest suit.

Sweet! Nice find.  Run & Enjoy!  Make your own history and maybe you'll find out more as time goes by.

My dome obs has the curved windows, vs the straight ones on the experimental train.

I am planning to use some LED lights which fit into the light bases in the car.  I have these now.

I am running this with a SD90MAC as an inspection train.  When I saw them, I was planning to run them, considering I got all three for $60.00.

Sometimes I take the obs off and run the K-Line SP SUNSET streamlines obs.  I just say it is a merger inspection train in the mid 1990's!

The boat end dome obs was fluted.  I think it went into the Seattle-Portland pool service.  But I am not going to worry about it.

From what I can see from examining the dome obs, the boat end has the same parts as the Williams car, except there is a COLA lighted drumhead.  My guess is these cars from the same plant Williams was making these cars in the mid 1990's.  I remember some Primer cars of that time in an MTH catalog looking like a 2500 AL car "on droids".  In this case, the car was smooth, not flutted.

Learned about the set.  See modified first post.