Powered passenger cars

[jbonkowski]

I'm interested in finding a way to pull a full passenger train without double heading with steam engines.

I was wondering if it would be possible, perhaps even easy, to take a Kato RDC and to replace the shell with one from another passenger car?

I would be adding a decoder to get the speeds matched well. Can anyone think of any potential problems with this approach?

I imagine the underside of the RDC will not look anything like the passenger car. Is it possible to separate the RDC drive train and trucks from the floor of the RDC?

Jim

[Steveruger45]

You might be able to modify a Kato or tomytec power chassis to convert an actual passenger car.  I know someone on TRW did something like this for a doodlebug.

I found the thread here https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=45919.msg596522#msg596522

I believe this approach is worth considering

[SkipGear]

What train, engines? Most of my steam will pull more passenger cars than they could in real life. 

As an example near and dear to my heart, the B&O Cincinnatian was limited to 5 cars on it's original route. The P7 Heavy Pacific's assigned to the train couldn't handle any more because grades on the route would limit the speed they needed to keep up to maintain schedules.

If you can justify it, quite a few people have built express boxcars with an F-unit mechanism buried inside them for extra power.

[ncbqguy]

Steveruger45 answered as I was typing and I agree you might be better off looking at the drives intended for powering the Tomytech traction cars.  They come with different truck wheelbases and truck centers and are set up to accept different truck side frames.   They have plastic frames that can be cut and extended if necessary.
Maybe other Railwirers have looked into these and have thoughts...
Charlie Vlk

[peteski]

I'm interested in finding a way to pull a full passenger train without double heading with steam engines.

I was wondering if it would be possible, perhaps even easy, to take a Kato RDC and to replace the shell with one from another passenger car?

I would be adding a decoder to get the speeds matched well. Can anyone think of any potential problems with this approach?

I imagine the underside of the RDC will not look anything like the passenger car. Is it possible to separate the RDC drive train and trucks from the floor of the RDC?

Jim

Yes, it is possible. The chassis parts in which the trucks are mounted are actually separate pieces that can be pulled off the metal chassis.  But that mechanism is also designed to have a very low profile, so the driveshafts and the motor are actually below the model's "floor"  I don't think it would give you that empty look between the trucks that passengers cars have.

You will need a mechanism that is designed for the mechanical bits to sit higher in the model.

My question is: what steam engine are you running and which and how many passenger cars is it pulling?  What is the maximum grade?

[CBQ Fan]

Doesn’t the RDC lack a flywheel?  I know my two run like banshees and stop on a dime

[davefoxx]

I'm interested in finding a way to pull a full passenger train without double heading with steam engines.

I was wondering if it would be possible, perhaps even easy, to take a Kato RDC and to replace the shell with one from another passenger car?

I would be adding a decoder to get the speeds matched well. Can anyone think of any potential problems with this approach?

I imagine the underside of the RDC will not look anything like the passenger car. Is it possible to separate the RDC drive train and trucks from the floor of the RDC?

Jim

What’s your prototype?  What do you consider a full-length passenger train?  I think the RDC isn’t going to work well, by the time you swap the power train to a passenger car, not to mention the trucks are probably wrong.  A lot of steamers have traction tires and can pull well.

DFF

[dem34]

Well, if its steam, maybe you could get away with a Cheater REA or Merchandise boxcar. Then you wouldn't need to worry about the mechanism's appearance. But that also said I'm not sure if there's an off the shelf Mech that would look okay in that role.

[jbonkowski]

What’s your prototype?  What do you consider a full-length passenger train?  I think the RDC isn’t going to work well, by the time you swap the power train to a passenger car, not to mention the trucks are probably wrong.  A lot of steamers have traction tires and can pull well.

DFF

I'm using one of the new Bachmann 4-6-4, which does not come with traction tires. It only pulls 5 passenger cars up the helix on my club layout. I was aiming for 9 cars or so.

I wasn't too concerned about how the trucks look. The underside of the car being filled is a bigger deal.

Jim

[propmeup1]

That's what makes this hobby so great. I on the other hand love doubleheading passenger trains, K4s and T1s. I triplehead M1Bs with 60 loaded hoppers. We can do what ever we want.

[thomasjmdavis]

I'm using one of the new Bachmann 4-6-4, which does not come with traction tires. It only pulls 5 passenger cars up the helix on my club layout. I was aiming for 9 cars or so.

I wasn't too concerned about how the trucks look. The underside of the car being filled is a bigger deal.

Jim

If you are convinced that the RDC is the way to go, a streamlined shell with skirts might adequately hide the underframe of the RDC to be presentable.  I think the Kato model has more "tank" than the prototype RDC to accommodate motor and drive train.  (If you aren't going with streamlined cars, the RDC is longer than a heavyweight, so more alteration will be necessary). 

My inclination would be the idea suggested by @ncbqguy and use a shell (baggage car or express box) on a chassis.  I may be doing something along that line for a couple of my own trains- if I ever figure out how to bash together a couple GTW steamers.

Looking at my RDC, the other potential issue is that the RDC has pilots on both ends- and in the case of the Kato, this is where the couplers mount.  I haven't taken mine apart enough to look at how difficult it would be to replace the pilot-coupler arrangement with a conventionally mounted coupler- I assume it can be done, but don't know how much hassle it will be.

[cjm413]

http://www.randgust.com/prod04.htm

[thomasjmdavis]

http://www.randgust.com/prod04.htm

+1

@randgust  needs to post something here so we can all give him an upvote, too.  Plus, he may get a rush of orders.

[randgust]

Yeah, hello, just got one, came on here, and, uh-huh.

The 'powered express reefer' frame is what I came up with to merge the Tomytec mechanism parts with two different stock reefer bodies; the Athearn wood express one and the Micro-trains steel one, they have exactly the same size body shell to fit over my frame.   This puts an express reefer either in a freight train or a passenger train, right behind the power, as a booster.

There's enough room in there to fit either the stock Tomytec motor with two flywheels, or the Atlas slow-speed motor with two flywheels.   

There's enough room to load it up with lead, decoders, resistors, voltage dropping diodes for DC speed match, or whatever.   I have a video out on YouTube of one pulling about 30 cars by itself, as the chassis has two traction tires.   I invented it because my first-run LL 2-8-4 was so anemic it was embarassing....

Instructions are free in advance, all I'm supplying is the frame casting on this one that fits in the stock reefer body..

Now, the catch is, since I invented this thing, is that Tomytec "improved" their chassis by "Revising" them, and the standard trucks now have the gear tower in the CENTER of the truck instead of the END of the truck.   Where before, the universal joint was directly above the truck center, now it's inboard and it swings around with the truck.   That also makes the driveshafts a lot shorter, and it was a challenge to shorten the driveshafts before they improved it.   My frame will not fit the "R" trucks, and it also makes it short enough to not clear flywheels, either.   So you want to search as hard as you can to find Tomytec chassis with the end gear towers rather than the centered ones.   Frame length isn't that important as you're not keeping that, the only thing that comes out is the trucks, motor, driveshafts, and pickup wipers.    Plaza Japan usually has good diagrams online of the chassis so you can tell the difference.

The 'stock' Tomytec motor is speedy enough you'll want to either drop it with diodes for DC, or speed match it with a decoder.   If you're trying to match something with a slow-speed motor already, use that option, works fine.   I have one of each - the Tomytec motor one works nicely with my original Atlas 2-6-0, the 2-8-4 works nicely with the Atlas slow-speed motor version.