While my proposed layout is firmly set in Texas in the late 40’s and early 50’s, I do like some of the more unusual and iconic boxcars and other rolling stock which were specific to other railroads in other areas (for example, the B&O wagon-top boxcars, and the Milwaukee’s rib-side boxcars). One of the cars I find interesting were the round-roof (or “turtle roof”?) boxcars that ran on various eastern and southeastern lines; I gather from what little I’ve seen that there may have been several slightly different versions of these.
It appears that the only versions of these are from Lionel and MTH Railking; from what I can tell, perhaps the Lionel version is more prototypical in dimensions and detail level than the MTH version. If so, I’m thinking about purchasing one and converting to 2 rail. To do so, I was curious about a couple of points:
1) Would the Lionel 2 rail conversion kit suffice to convert the wheels, or are there better choices for wheels and/or trucks to do so?
2) Which couplers would be the best choice, i.e., Kadees or another brand, and any particular stock number which is better suited to achieve this?
3) Also curious as to how difficult the conversion would be?
I know that these cars didn’t typically (maybe never) appear in freight consists this far south and west, but I know the B&O wagon top boxcars occasionally appeared in Texas: I have a book on the SP lines in Texas which clearly shows one in a mixed consist on the SP branch line between Harwood and Gonzales, Texas back in the late 40’s so I suppose anything is possible.
I believe Smoky Mountain Model Works or somebody else may offered a kit version some years ago but apparently it’s no longer available and I haven’t seen any offered on eBay, so not much out there in the way of choice, although I’m happy to be proven wrong.
Any thoughts or feedback would be very helpful, and much appreciated.
Kyle
