Lets see some ideas for kit bashing railcars! I don't know how many of us do this but I had an idea to alter the LARGE MTH auto carrier so that I could run it on my layout. I saw in another post, now since closed to comment, about people wishing for a more small layout friendly version of those super long and large modern auto racks. So here is mine! Sorry I do not have a "Before" picture as I jumped right into it right when the box was opened.
We'll start with this one already showing the car has been shortened in length. I was debating taking out two corrugated sections but started with only one and that seems to fit my 0-48 curves well enough! You can also see that I bought (since it was cheaper) one of the older MTH cars with the wheelsets on the very ends of the cars. But the truck on the left end has been taken in a half inch, and the car dropped about a quarter inch. This made a very nice difference! The truck on the right end is still stock.
And here is the finished product! Length down by 2.5 and the truck in and dropped! It looks a TON better with my other cars now. Still has a good bit of overhang but clears everything!
Another view. You can see the lines if you really look where I cut and spliced the car on the roof and under carriage, but elsewhere its invisible! I really wish I had another stock one to show the difference. I could have saved myself a lot of time by purchasing one of the cars with the trucks already mounted inboard of the ends but this one was cheap and since I was possibly going to ruin a perfectly good car I might as well buy cheap to test with!
Scott Smith
