A small project based on an old project.

Pictures are not working.

 

No photos here either Matt.

Photos fixed. That's what I get for trying copy/paste.

Looking great Matt!  I've got one of the MTH centerbeams which I need to correct as well.  Appreciate the photos!

We see a lot of the first and second loading styles here in the East. 

 

Nice new photo of you too!

Very nice job! 

Looks real nice.

Well, I got the wheels on it and it rides about where I wanted it to.

 

Notching out the end sills for the Kadees is going to be fun. Made the side cuts with a razor saw (no problem. Now cutting across is going to take a ton of passes with an X-Acto knife. Hopefully I'll get it done by tomorrow. I like this project so much I'm going to do another C-B flat that I found in my store room.

 

Got the end sill cutouts done and Kadees mounted. Next I have to work on the loads and how to strap them down.

 

 

Matt, great adaptation.  And the new Avatar is excellent.

Matt,

 

Nice work! I think the source of your inspiration, Daveb posts here on the forum. I agree about the new avatar, looking sharp....really "swavy and deboner"!

 

Simon

Will follow this with interest, as I have one as well. I just replaced the trucks with MTH 2-rail ones; Kadees are then at the right height as it comes, but it does look a bit too high, & the underframe is wildly inaccurate. Lowering will help.
Any thoughts on the width of this car? To me it looks a bit narrow - apparently true of many 3-rail cars. Not that I could correct it - that would seem to require so much surgery you might as well scratchbuild an accurate one instead!!
Any underside views of the new kadee fittings?

The couplers are mounted straight to the floor (with shims) on this one as it wasn't set up for scale couplers. I drilled 1/16" holes and used 1-72 machine screws to hold them in place. The end beams were also solid so I had to notch them for Kadees. Cuts were made with a razor saw up to the bottom of the floor, then a few dozen passes with an X-Acto knife until I could snap out the section. As you can see from photo, I sectioned out the under-frame (see first photo above) so I could install fabricated bolsters (3/8" thick) for Weaver couplers. They only need to be about 1/4" or so for Atlas trucks (which I'm going to use on the Auto Racks.

 

The width on the car seems about right as 4-foot wide lumber stacks fit perfectly, leaving space to install strapping (which I plan to put in on this car). The height of the original car was way off and this one is slightly high to allow the trucks to swing on model railroad curves. I suspect the newer cars (with the right truck location) ride high for that reason also. (Oh, if only we had the space for prototypical curves). I don't have one of the newer Center Beam cars, but my newer MTH Auto Racks (with the trucks in the right place) still had solid end beams so my suspicion is that even with scale MTH trucks, they'll ride about 1/8" too high.

 

I tested the car last night at the club and it cleared a 36" radius (O-72) curve without incident while coupled to a 50-foot car with shock-control couplers. Some prototype photos I've been studying show the cars with long-shank couplers which I think I'll eventually install to allow coupling to shorter cars.

Thanks Matt, that's all very helpful info! I would add straps to mine, except I like to depict my car as both loaded inbound, & empty for return to the Interchange.

Well, I got the loads glued to each other and glued into the car. It weighs in at 30 ounces -- five ounces overweight per NMRA, but there's really no clean way to model the loaded car. Dropped by a fabric store and picked up some moderately heavy black thread to represent cabling and will hopefully get the pinholes drilled in so I can finish it off. I decided not to weather the car at this time, but it won't be difficult to remove the load if I decide to weather it later.

 

I'd like to give a shout-out to Dave B for the inspiration for this conversion. He gave me some additional info and photos of the mods he did on his car.

 

 

excellent....

Very well done Matt!

 

Alan

Great Job Matt   Now I'm gong to want to follow your lead and do one of these too.

 

Scott Kay

Austin, TX 

Nice work, Matt. 

Matt,

That looks great! Good job. Malcolm

Missed this thread somehow until just now.  Nice project and excellent work, Matt.  Thanks for sharing!

Took the car down to the club for a tracking test. With the added weight of the load, it tracks beautifully -- no "bouncing" anywhere, even on three-rail turnout frogs. Should be better once I get the Intermountain metal wheels installed. Hopefully I'll get the tie-downs strung this week.