Gold Medal Models steps installation

[mecgp7]

Lowering the car may not be the best way to achieve that. It's already about the right height.   It's not super obvious, but the trucks that come with the Con-Cor / Rivarossi car are actually too small.   Lowering the car may help the looks, but using the right size trucks might actually look better.  Micro-trains makes trucks the right size - not the ones that have truck-mounted couplers (those are the same size as the Con-Cor/Rivarossi trucks), but the new ones that come with the Micro-trains heavyweight cars.   You will need to drill a new pivot point on the truck bolster - and body-mount couplers.

I have found that the Con Cor, Lima, Rivarossi, and Model Power heavyweights all sit much higher than the MTL heavyweights when you mount them on MTL trucks with couplers. They also seem to have a large gap between the top of the truck and the bottom of the car.
I hadn't thought of using the newer MTL trucks with the offset bolster hole. Is there room for another hole in the truck or will the hole need to go in the car?

[Loren Perry]

I installed a bunch of these on my own fleet of Rivarossi/Con-Cor heavyweights over the years. Yes, I had to convert to body mounted couplers to use them. I originally used the couplers and draft gear from the original Micro-Trains 6-wheel passenger trucks which worked fine on my layout except for one area: the Peco Code 55 double crossovers which I use in my passenger yards. When the crossovers are set to "cross", it forms a fairly abrupt S-curve that the cars have trouble negotiating due to the limited coupler swing on these particular Micro-Trains couplers. It caused derailments, or made the cars lean slightly while lifting wheels off the rails. My solution was to substitute Micro-Trains 1015 couplers whose draft gear allows greater swing. This solved the problem and now my lengthy heavyweight Grand Canyon Limited can slip through the crossovers without a hitch. They also push well when the trains has to move in reverse.

[thomasjmdavis]

I have found that the Con Cor, Lima, Rivarossi, and Model Power heavyweights all sit much higher than the MTL heavyweights when you mount them on MTL trucks with couplers. They also seem to have a large gap between the top of the truck and the bottom of the car.
I hadn't thought of using the newer MTL trucks with the offset bolster hole. Is there room for another hole in the truck or will the hole need to go in the car?

I think that, like Bruce, I haven't really encountered the issue, but  the clearance is indeed minimal, and I haven't tried to lower the cars.  If I were starting from scratch (if I did not already have several sheets of the GMM steps), I would go with Lemosteam's solution, which is very elegant and I really wish that Rivarossi had come up with it 50 years ago in the original design.
The new MT truck is longer than the old one, both in terms of a slightly longer wheelbase and the more accurate detailing (brake hardware?) at both ends of the truck- making it longer overall.  The offset of the new MT truck is just enough so that you don't need to pull the axle to mount the truck (I've always assumed they did it to speed assembly).  But given that you are concerned about clearing the added GM steps, you might want to try just fitting the truck as is- the Rivarossi truck was too close to the end to begin with, so the offset might just give you a pretty good compromise, and swing clear of the steps.
If it fails, there is room to drill a new hole, if you want one directly over the center axle.

Tom D

And as a PS- I have had some of my Rivarossi cars for 40 years, and bought some of those used.  And I'll bet that every one of us who models ATSF anytime between WWI and Amtrak has at least one each of the baggage, rider, diner and obs. They may not be up to modern MT standards, but that was some very good tooling back in the day- and better than a lot that came in between then and now. Not many models last as long as the prototypes they are based on. All of mine have been rebuilt to some extent, but that was also true of the prototypes by the time they hit 40.

[OldEastRR]

Why not cut or grind away the side of the steps facing the inside of the car? Leave the sides where they form the panel between the steps but under each step there's the side part that doesn't show (at least on the side facing into the car). Maybe only need to cut away the side of the top one for the clearance.
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As shown -- except only on the opposite side of the steps. I came up with this design while making steps out of brass. I cut them out as one flat piece then folded them into steps. The idea was to have RiRo cars with steps and truck mounts.

[nickelplate759]

Since I recommended the new Micro-trains truck, I thought I'd show the result of an experiment I tried tonight.  Both cars have John "Lemosteam" LeMerise's
 Pullman steps and body-mounted couplers.  The car on the left has the old Micro-trains truck, with it's coupler removed - the one that matches the Rivarossi / Con-Cor truck in size. The right car has the new, more-to-scale Micro-trains truck.  I think it looks much better.

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You can see the difference in truck size.   You can also see that the car on the right now sits a tad too high - that can be fixed with a little filing.  I removed the funky loops at the end of the truck, as they're far more obvious than they were on prototype photos, and they do get in the way of the steps.

I drilled a new hole (1/8", but it needs to be enlarged just a tad with a round file)  in the new truck, nearly centered over the middle axle.  It's actually just a little off-center so there's enough clearance for the steps. There's a little circle cast into the top of the truck bolster that's in the perfect spot - I used it as a guide.    I had to add an 0.020" shim on top of the truck. I'm not going to file that down, because then the king-pin screw would be too long.  I'll try filing down the body bolster a tad (less than 0.005" should do it).    All-in-all kind of a pain to do, and the king-pin screw head tends to hit the center axle now - that's a problem!

I'm going to try again, but use an idea John suggested - leave the truck alone, and create a new bolster offset towards the center of the car.  I suspect that will be easier.

[nscalbitz]

Why not cut or grind away the ...
have RiRo cars ...

 RiRo cars ??
 
dave

[OldEastRR]

RiRo cars ??
 
dave

RIvaROssi -- otherwise "RR" just means "railroad"

[nscalbitz]

RIvaROssi -- otherwise "RR" just means "railroad"

Ahh-so... thanks... moving dialect for old equipment- I also have a bunch of them and wondered about steps (almost nil about underside equipment) but despair of ever seeing correct length passenger equipment in D&RGW lettering.

MTL and WoT have helped a bit.
We know all models in D&RGW war paint get snapped up promptly (even foobs) so MTL could do us favour with a few basic cars lettered up!
Dave

[nickelplate759]

Well, I decided to finish the job.  The previous method (drilling a new hole in the truck) wasn't terrific, so I went ahead and tried John "Lemosteam" LeMerise's suggestion.  I think it works well.

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Car on the left has the new Micro-Trains 1187 trucks and John's terrific Pullman steps, along with a 1015 coupler body-mounted.
Car on the right is unmodified except that the stock trucks were replaced with Micro-Trains 1018 trucks with truck-mounted couplers.

To mount the 1187 trucks I did this (John's idea, not mine):
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The new bolster comes with the 1018 trucks (not, alas with the 1187 trucks), and is installed upside down.  it's intended to retrofit the old Con-Cor cars.  To install it, I trimmed the old bolster back, filed it down roughly even with the bottom edge of the car sides, and drilled a new hole (about 7/64, but you may want to go a little smaller first and then ream to fit) with a centerline about 2.5 scale feet (0.1875") closer to the center of the car.

The truck end loops will hit the coupler box if the curve is sharp enough. You can solve this one of three ways:
1. drill the new hole a little closer to the center of the car
2. trim the funky loops off of the end of the truck (they are the only part that hits)
3. use the 1188 (top-equalized) or 1189 (PRR-style) trucks instead.

Thanks again to John for both the idea and the terrific car steps!