Close Coupling of S Gauge High Rail Freight Cars

Nice!

Here are the specifics of the truck/coupler swap on Lionel AF freight cars. These trucks do not have power pickups so they cannot be used on illuminated or action cars.

Removing the existing trucks requires good needle nose or flat nose pliers to crimp the eyelet allowing the old truck and the eyelet to be removed. Mounting the new 6-49801 trucks requires a #10-32x1/2” socket head screw, #10-32 nylon insert nut and two #8 flat washers. Black anodized works best but my local store only has stainless steel so I painted the exposed metal with a felt tip paint marker. On sheet metal floors and tank cars the socket head is under the truck, on flat cars, gondolas and hoppers the nut is under the truck.

This modification removes 5/16” from the gap between any pair of Lionel AF freight cars.

Here are a couple of pictures to show the improved appearance, including some before and after.

Looks really good Tom!

Thanks guys. I feel it was more than worth the time and cost to get these Lionel AF cars right. Wait until you see the other brands, coming soon.

The American Models freight cars are interesting. I have only two types, 40’ boxcars and long gondola’s. As mine were delivered new in the OB, the coupled gap is 7/8”. Way too big to look right on a layout. Turns out that most AM cars are delivered with the CPL601 couplers, these have two mounting holes, one short and one long. All that is required is to unscrew the truck, move the coupler to the short position hole and reinstall the truck. The gap is now only 7/16”, half of what it was and great looking. Even the long gondola’s will still run on 20”R curves.

Cuts the coupled gap in half for free, I like the cost/benefit ratio. Here are some pictures, the improvement is apparent.

K-Line also made freight cars for S gauge. They are undersized O gauge cars with S gauge trucks and couplers. They are not a specific scale, The length, width and height vary between 1/58 to 1/60. About the same scale as the 4014 Big Boy which is why I bought some. They look good behind the Big Boy and some larger diesels like the ES44Ac and the SD70ACe.

As delivered, the gap between the cars is a wide 7/8”. Also the trucks are positioned too close to the car ends. Looking at the chassis shows why and suggests the fix. The chassis has the O gauge truck mount holes in the stamping. The factory drilled new holes for the S gauge trucks and put automotive thread locker on the screw threads.

The improvement is free, just remount the trucks in the original O gauge mounting holes. The trucks are now properly positioned under the cars and the gap between cars is reduced to 3/8”, less than half of the original gap. A great appearance improvement for no cost.

The final task I took on was close coupling the SHS/MTH cars. First looking at them I thought installing Kadees on the body mounting pads might be the only way. After removing a truck and coupler assembly A crazy idea hit me. I took an AM 601 coupler and installed it under the truck on an SHS box car. It fit perfectly. The small pins were in the right locations to lock the truck to the coupler and the height of the coupler was correct. All that is needed is to drill out the inner mounting hole on the AM 601 coupler with a 5/16” drill bit. The cost per car is $7.95 for a pair of AM 601 couplers.

The steel rebuilt cars are 1” apart from the factory, with the AM 601 coupler they are 7/16” apart. The fishbelly hoppers have a 1-1/4” factory gap, with the AM couplers it is narrowed by 9/16”. The covered hoppers work as well.

The problem is with the wood sided reefers. The couplers hit the sloped floor support and the coupler pins hit the bottom end detail preventing them from opening. Cutting the coupler arm shorter solves the first issue. I elected to use the cars with non opening couplers rather than grind off the car bottom detail. I will see how this works but in 5 years I have never remotely uncoupled these two cars.

All my cars are now close coupled and almost all the plastic wheels are gone. A major appearance improvement, and in the case of the Lionel AF cars a much better rolling and coupling car.

Pictures below.

Great tutorial Tom. It should be pinned above for permanent reference.

A friend gave me an S Helper covered hopper with no trucks.  My question is should I try to get S helper trucks (which are difficult to find) or use new Lionel trucks with couplers?  I would have to remove the mounting column and drill out the remainder to take screws to mount the Lionel trucks.

Opinions?

Francine, I do not think the Lionel trucks will work. The AM trucks may work. I have some spare AM trucks, as well as a lot of Lionel AF trucks. Give me until tomorrow morning, I will see if the AM trucks do work on the SHS covered hoppers. The AM trucks are available in quantity and in several variations on their website.

Francine, the standard American Models Bettendorf trucks, picture below, will work on the SHS/MTH hoppers. The SHS center mounting post is a larger diameter than the AM so the hole in the AM trucks will need to be drilled out with a 1/8” drill bit.

Later I will drill out one of my spare AM trucks and do a test fit. I want to make sure the wheels do not rub on the body and that the SHS screw is long enough. I will post the results. Assuming all is well this solution requires no mods to the SHS car body and the trucks are available in quantity at a reasonable price.

Ok, we have a winner! Francine, the standard AM Bettendorf trucks, #820HR, are a perfect fit on the SHS/MTH covered hoppers. I had to drill the center hole in the AM truck with a 9/64” bit to get it to fit on the SHS/MTH mount and rotate freely.

Pictures below. The AM truck is coupled to the red fishbelly hopper. The last picture is the original SHS truck, the second to the last is the AM truck.

Hey Tom, Thanks!

I'll save the Lionel trucks for a New Haven box car that has bad trucks (original Flyer).

I also posted this question today on another post, as I couldn't find the original.  But the answer is here.