Best Of Lowering MTL Gondolas

[ai5629]

I remember reading here or on the A board about lowing MTL gons in the following manner, but I cannot find the thread.  I searched for the last couple days, but I just cannot locate it.  I recall someone saying you chop off the bolsters and add a 0.040 piece of styrene where the trucks attach.  I thought they said you drill out a hole for the bolster pin, and you are ready to go.  I was at my LHS the other day, and I looked at a package of 0.040 styrene.  It did not appear to be thick enough to hold a bolster pin.  I did not purchase the styrene, and thought I would ask here so I could pick up the right stuff next time.  If you know the thickness and width that I need, I would be forever grateful.  Thanks for the help.

[Mark5]

Here's the famous one Wazzou did:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/archive/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=38126&SearchTerms=lowering

Unfortunately the pix are dead links.

Mark

[wm3798]

I took the more drastic approach of cutting the stock floor out of the shell, and filing out a little swing space on the ends for the truck mounted couplers.  I then lowered the shell as far as it would go over the frame, then used a piece of v-groove Evergreen siding, I think it's .015 thick, to replace the floor.  A little weather, and bah-BOOM!





No modifications to the frame were necessary, although in reviewing the photos, I see I need to move the stirrups from the top of the frame to the bottom.

Lee

[ai5629]

Thanks for providing a link to the A-board thread.  Also, I think what Lee did is an interesting option I may give a try.  Good stuff.

[ljudice]

Now, how do you lengthen them to the correct 52 feet?

[ai5629]

I completely agree with you they are 2.5 feet too short, but these are the best representation of a PRR/PC/CR G31A-M or DLW/EL/CR GE51D that we have in N scale.  This is a compromise I made a long time ago, and 30 decaled gons later, I cannot turn back.  If a closer model comes along, I will start to decal those into Conrail and its predecessor road names.  In my opinion, you cannot accurately model 1980's Conrail without lots of Conrail gondolas, and this is how I manage to do that.  I don't like it, but there is not other way to do it.  Thanks.

[ljudice]

I'm TOTALLY with you on that - and I have a bunch of these as well!   It's especially nice that MTL has done a few styles to get closer to some of the many prototypes out there.  Sorry if I sounded snarky - believe me I would love it if MTL or anyone else did some with the 2 feet or so restored, though!

[Mark5]

I have one of the Concor models ... I wonder how long it is. If I get in the train room this weekend I'll check.

Lotsa rain locally recently, lotsa grass to cut. >

[bbussey]

I wrote an article on lowering MTL flats and gons for the Jan/Feb 1994 issue of N Scale Magazine using the method sited.  I also wrote an article on lowering MTL auto racks for the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of N Scale Railroading using another method.  Either method would be a workable solution.

...

bb

[bbussey]

I took the more drastic approach of cutting the stock floor out of the shell, and filing out a little swing space on the ends for the truck mounted couplers.  I then lowered the shell as far as it would go over the frame, then used a piece of v-groove Evergreen siding, I think it's .015 thick, to replace the floor.  A little weather, and bah-BOOM!

Your car looks fantastic in the eye level photo.  The only issues for me are that the top of the floor no longer matches the rivets on the sides so the car must be loaded at all times, and that body-mounting the couplers (using 2004 knuckles in a 1015 box if necessary) would have eliminated the need to remove detail from the bottom of the ends.

This is the MTL gon I lowered for the N Scale article.  It easily could have been lowered further if desired, but my goal was to basically get the top of the floor to as close a prototypical height over the rail as practical.



bb

[ai5629]

Bryan,

If you could email me the 1994 article, I would be grateful.  I probably have the issue at my father's place, but don't know where.  My email is my username at Yahoo.com.  I remember the autorack article, and found it useful.  Thanks.

[bbussey]

I no longer have the original Word document, but I'll see if I can scan the magazine article for you into a PDF before the end of this coming week.

[sirenwerks]

Brian,

I got it to him. I already had it scanned.

[Sokramiketes]

Bussey's article will get you where you need to be.  As I was the one who mentioned the .040" styrene bolster... some more info:

The truck pin will have to be trimmed.  .040" of length on the truck pin seems to be holding well for me, but if it pops out, use a drop of CA.

The .040" bolster is also for mounting Z scale couplers directly to the underside of the plastic floor.  N scale couplers of any variety will likely need a different bolster thickness or end treatment.

[Mark5]

Brian,

I got it to him. I already had it scanned.

Me too! Can I have it? ;D