Vintage(?) Coach...

How was the window glass installed - individual panes, or strips the length of the car? I assume it is clear plastic of some sort. Although your pictures are not absolutely clear, the glazing looks good, outside and in.

Nice car.

Jim

Hello Jim

Individual pieces of plastic. Quite a few missing, so that'll be a project I get to work on. 

I messed with it a little this morning and got the (4) long, narrow white lights all working. This is set up for 3 rail (so I suppose I should have posted this in that forum), so it'll look good behind my Pennsy E6 until I can swap it over to 2 rail...

Question: as it stands now, the roof simply lays on the car sides; not attached in any way. How are the roofs on these old O scale Walthers cars normally attached?  Thanks!

Mark in Oregon

Might as well keep this thread going...

The lights get their track power through wires that run from the trucks up to a brass "finger": this brass piece (in theory) contacts another piece of brass that's attached to the inside of the roof. This second piece has wires that run to the lights.

I wanted to make sure there was a good electrical connection between those brass pieces, and wanted to come up with something that wouldn't put undue upwards pressure on the roof as I want the roof to sit flush on the walls of the car.

I soldered a centering spring from a Kadee coupler on each end, as shown here:

They work great. 

Now, a question: I want to convert this to 2-rail and have had these trucks for as long as I can remember:

I know they are insulated for 2-rail (I tested them). Can anyone identify these? They're pretty nice...

Thank you.

Mark in Oregon

@Strummer posted:

Question: as it stands now, the roof simply lays on the car sides; not attached in any way. How are the roofs on these old O scale Walthers cars normally attached?  Thanks!

Mark in Oregon

Usually the roof drops down inside a bit between the sides and ends, with the roof side overhanging the car side a fraction, and does not rest on top of the sides.  Done right, that can be a pretty snug fit.  Walthers used to sell a removable roof kit that screwed the roof down tight through the floor.  Not sure if Scale City sells that or not now.

Thank Martin

Yeah, that's how it sits; not perfect, but pretty tight. I may have had some Walthers HO cars back in the day that had the "screw" thing as well...

Mark in Oregon

Trucks are Abel, re-released by Kemtron.they are 17/64, and as well detailed as any.

yeah, an anchor plate on the roof and a long 4-40 or 6-32 coming up through the floor is the usual way.  File a point on the screw to make it easier to find the plate.

God, I hate spell check.  Or maybe God has never heard of Auel?

@bob2 posted:

1. Trucks are Abel, re-released by Kemtron.they are 17/64, and as well detailed as any.

2. yeah, an anchor plate on the roof and a long 4-40 or 6-32 coming up through the floor is the usual way.  File a point on the screw to make it easier to find the plate.

1.  ... Thanks for the identification.

2. Thanks again.

Mark in Oregon

Another way the roofs were secured is with small #2 screws at the tops of the ends, which get hidden by the diaphragms.  These go into little blocks of wood at the ends of the underside of the roof.  Together with the snug fit on the sides, these two screws are enough.

Some Walthers ends came with the hole.  If not, it's easy enough to drill a 5/64" hole and then form a countersick with a larger diameter drill so the screw fits flush.

You always have to spell check Spelchek...it's clueless.  Caint spel katt.