I know you've all been eagerly waiting for me to scalify my UP cylindrical hoppers, so you can wait no more...
I finally located the high-water trucks from the two first run hoppers I have, the wheels were regauged to NASG standards some time ago. Coupler height is right on the money according to the Kadee coupler height gauge. The wheels were painted using my last surviving bottle of Floquil Grimy Black.
Replacing the high-rail wheels was pretty straight forward, but something with the axle tolerances changed between now and five years ago. When I placed the scale wheels into the new trucks, they did not roll freely. Transferring the Delrin bearings from the old trucks into the new ones solved the rollablilty problem. Reaming out the Delrin bearing would be another solution, but I didn't have a drill bit the right size.
As Lionel doesn't sell the old scale wheels separately, this is pretty much a one-off conversion. Any future cars will have to use MTH or AM trucks.
Rusty
