A short while ago I posted videos here of "Shorty" freight sets I made from Lionel 10 series and Lionel 100 series freight cars - shortening the cars to about 6 inches and putting just one (fixed) truck under each car.
I wanted to do a passenger set as well. I'd never seen a passenger set done this way. Well, I found out why. The early freight cars turn out to be relatively easy to shorten: there are logical points at which you can cut the pieces without it being obvious, the square ends of the car can be soldered back on, and the roof is just a matter of cutting to length.
The passenger cars are an entirely different matter, with their shaped roofs, rounded ends, and complex window and door placements. Not to mention the window inserts, doors, and lighting, none of which had to be dealt with in the freight cars. I am no where near as happy with the outcome: it was nearly impossible for me to make the multiple soldered joints in the car sides and roofs without them being visible in the end product.
I used Lionel 332 baggage, 337 coach, 338 observation, and 339 coach cars for this project. The 337 has the single small windows, and the 339 has the longer windows for the dining car. The Freight car sets each have 6 cars, so I did 6 for the passenger as well: the 4-door baggage, the baggage/saloon combination, the diner, two coaches, and observation. Each of the cars are about 6 to 6-1/2" long. Other than the number boards, I haven't done any other lettering on the cars, at least not yet. There isn't much available space.
The 6-wheel passenger car trucks idea comes from Arno: it's really a "poor man's" 6-wheel truck, made by combining (overlapping) the two 4-wheel trucks on each car into one truck with 3 axles. They track along pretty well.
Shortening the #8 locomotive came out better, in my opinion. Like the #10 I did earlier for the freight set, the frame shortened to about 7" and the cab to 6", which is as short as you can get and still get the motor in there.
Winters are long up in Vermont, you can get some crazy ideas for things to do indoors.
enjoy!
