Thanks, LOS and Jonathan. Yes, it's the powered trucks that make this so much more a hassle. I resorted to short box Kadees. Had to. Spacers were no real problem although I'm sure Mario's would have been great. I used a sandwich of four fibre spacers . . . also cut to shorter length for the short boxes. The mangling of the trucks was frightful and, yes, a Dremel was used. The first car took four hours! After all the brutality, I was fearful the sounds would even still work! I hope I have it down so that maybe the next will take about half that time? I have another two to do.
The next trick is changing car bodies. I want the sounds coming from my CP PS1s and Lionel did not see fit to offer sound cars in CP livery. My sound cars are BAR. They're beautiful and I love the BAR heraldic Red, White and Blue, . . . . but they're not CP.
Jonathan: "leave the lobsters on these cars? "
WHAT? HERESY!
I hope you were kidding!