Replacement Bolsters???

I fabricate custom bolsters using Evergreen Scale Models styrene: strips and tubing

Hmmmm...a 5/16" coupler shim???  Bet that looks sharp. 

My impression has been, just by changing out the Hi-Rail "large flange" trucks and replacing them with either Athern or MTH 2-Rail Scale trucks tends to lower the car quite a lot.

Matt, yeah, had to think of something slick to hide them.  Painting them black helped, but it can only do so much.

Jack, I bet those Athearn trucks are getting scarce, is the P/N for the MTH trucks 20-89002 (roller bearing) and 20-89001 (Bettendorf)?

The problem now is if I replace them I'll have to undo all those shims (not sure how many 5/16" shims I have on the layout )

Bob,

According to the latest MTH catalog, yes those are the correct 2-Rail Scale truck part numbers, however I only purchase the 20-89001 "Bettendorf" plain bearing trucks.

The Athearn trucks, either assembled or kit form, are not all that difficult to find. I think they are always on eBay, plus Des Plaines Hobbies always seems to have them when ever I visit there.

Thank you sir!  I think I'll try a pair first before I go all out and redo all my rolling stock.  I'll try to pick one of those 5/16" shimmed cars so Matt doesn't have a fit

When I was repainting my 5 PS1 boxcars I noticed the differences in the way the underframe/floor is made.  2 Weaver cars I have are slightly different in the way they're mounted, 1 has a screw at each end diagonal from the other, the other car has a floor that slips in between some small tabs that hold it in place.

You can get Athearn trucks from Horizon Hobby (http://www.horizonhobbytrains.com). They own Athearn, by the way. They also stock the MTH scale-wheeled replacement trucks.

If I had your dilemma I would go the other way - buy 2- rail scale cars and replace the wheelsets.  All Nation used to supply alternate wheelsets and couplers for their 2- rail scale cars, and their steam kits as well.

Buy?

Make one, make an RTV mold, and cast as many as you need!

I have at least 4 differnt styles of bolsters available in resin (3 pictured here). Drill and tap for 4/40 or 6/32.  Mount Athearn trucks and you're good to go.

Thanks for the link Matt

Bob, Are you saying to buy 2-rail cars because the body bolsters are thinner, thereby making the car sit lower?

Does that apply to Atlas and other cars?  From what I've seen, no.  I know I've purchased some cars from Beth at PDT and she indicated they simply swap trucks if necessary.  She had a car I wanted, but it was in 2-rail and she swapped out the trucks to make it 3-rail.

The right answer (we may have discussed this before) should be to make the cars with separate bolsters so the buyer can swap them to run on 2 or 3 rails, but who listens to a bunch of 3RS whiners?

I have some scale (or near scale, less hi-angle tread) wheels in my parts box and will try them out.

I solved my dilemma by buying 2-rail cars...and NOT changing the wheelsets since the cars work on the track I operate on.

Bob

If you only need a few and don't want to cast your own, bolsters similar to Martin's are available from PSC, and Keil Line.  they mate well with Athearn and Weaver trucks as they follow NMRA spec height for truck bolster.   At times I face a related problem in converting Lionel scale cars to 2 rail, or if replacing over width AtlasO 2 rail trucks.  It sure would have made scale oriented modeler's life easier if the manufacturers had decided to follow the NMRA bolster spec - but that water is over the dam.

Ed Rappe

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I probably have some of the PSC bolsters in my PSC parts drawer.  Only minor drawback to those is that the brass insert in them is tapped for some thread that I don't have the screws for (PSC does....) so I've not bothered to use them for several years now.

Or, you could shoot me an e-mail, Bob,          

Ed, Martin...thanks!

For now I'm going to take one of my "High Water" cars and play around with what I have.  Swapping wheel sets may be enough to lower the car I've got in mind.

I want to look at all the cars I have (Atlas, Weaver, MTH, Lionel, and a few other makers) to see if it would make most sense using a common bolster design, or if the design(s) of the underframe mounting used by all makers would even allow a common bolster.

I'm not a strict 3RS guy but I have done a lot of truck swapping.

I can tell you there is no common bolster design for any rolling stock.

To make trucks ride correctly I have removed bolsters, added bolsters, added shims, even cut large holes in the floors of boxcars to get them to work.

I found (at least part of) the problem!!!

I looked at all my rolling stock (pays to have only 50 pieces) and the worst of the bunch are the cars with the sheet metal underframe with the "dimple" bolster.

I have 4-5 MTH cars and a single K-Line car using this method of bolster.  I had previously fixed the MTH cars by flipping the underframe over so the dimple was inside and laying a piece of aluminum sheet over the now concave dimple.  I drilled holes in the aluminum so I could insert the screws holding the undeframe to the body and ended up using a 1/16" shim for the coupler box to sit on.

I had not done this to the K-line care, this was the one car with 5/16" shims on the couplers.

I'm going to replace the original K-Line underframe with a piece of 1/8" or 1/4" of plastic.  I should be able to add bolsters easily to this to bring things up to specs.

I rummaged thru my parts box and found I have 3-4 different scale-like wheel sets, some metal, some plastic, some 33", some 36" wheels.  Just enough to know there's things out there and not enough to do anything with except a car or 2.

Once I fix the K-line car I'll take another look at the rest.  The other MTH cars i have use flat underframes with separate plastic detail parts.  The Weaver and Atlas cars don't appear to need any "fixing" other than what I already have.

What I meant by scale cars is:

For 2- railers, the underbody is a model too.  Most 2- rail freight cars in the past more or less duplicated the prototype, with center sill extending at least to the bolster, and often  completely to the end sill.  Then the trucks, probably best represented by the Athearn Bettendorf, had a mating bolster that more or less duplicated the real thing.  Car height was never an issue until very recently.

I do not do plastic as a rule, but I have several plastic cars, including a Lionel PS-1 box. It came as a gift, with washers holding the Athearn trucks at the proper height.  I used strip wood to sort of extend the very well done but truncated center sill out to the coupler pocket, and glued as many of the rest of the missing crossmembers as I could onto the floor.

If 3-rail Scale is to live up to its stated goals, I submit that scale underframe and truck detail is the next step.  Your flanges will get in the way, but if you go to a slightly more realistic wheel profile, it should work.

Of course, opinion.

Lionel:

Got it, thanks Bob!

My rolling stock varies from no underframe detail to some pretty nice stuff on the Atlas cars.

This K-Line car amazes me.  It's a K760 Series boxcar (lettered for the old Norfolk Southern), with metal ladders, handgrabs, roofwalk, brake wheel, and to top it off, the door latch is metal and actually works   The metal latch on the door swings up/down and rests inside what almost looks like a metal rail spike, with the rest of the locking hardware molded onto the plastic body.  Wish all my cars were like this.

The underframe is truncated like you said, but decent detail.

I'm replacing the K-Line trucks with some MTH trucks and need to cut off the old "Claw" coupler pocket.

I've got the new underframe cut and drilled already (hey, it's only 20 degrees down here in VA., I'm not going outside today) and mounted some bolsters that'll do until I can find/make some that are more prototypical.  I still need to add a shim for the Kadees, but it's only about 3/32", that's to get the cover plate over the edge of the car body.  I could lower (shim) the underframe/floor to eliminate the coupler shims, but the trucks would being showing more.  As it is now there's just a slight gap between the tops of the truck sideframes and the carbody sides.