Intermountain 12-panel boxcar observations

[nkalanaga]

I received my latest order of these today.  It's been a while since I've bought IM boxcars, and there were some surprises.

On the pleasant side, they came with body mounted couplers and metal wheels.  The plastic wheels on my old ones are fine, at least for me, but the new ones do look nice.  The couplers will save me some work and quite a bit of money.  Thank you, IM!

A less pleasant surprise was the doors.  Nine cars, in six road names, and all of the doors are very solidly glued in place.  Not just tack-glued to keep them from falling off, but more firmly attached than the ladders.  No grain doors for these cars.  I was afraid to try to pry them off for fear of damaging the body.  IM, please go back to the loose doors, even if they do sometimes fall off.  I can always stick them on with white glue, and still remove them if needed.

[christoph]

Maybe they received too many complaints about their doors.  Years ago I had one car where the door had disappered in the inside, I found it after some days and it was hard to get it out again.  This was probably caused by rough handling by the overseas mail.

I would prefer to glue the doors by myself when necessary, my preferred glue is rubber cement.  So far I have never glued doors.

Can you see which kind of couplers are used?  I assume that IM uses the old MTL#1025 couplers which fit the precast mounting holes in the floor.
I am currently thinking how I could lower the car bodies, the new Atlas cars (and others) make IM and MTL cars look "mile high".

[kalbert]

IM has a pretty good customer service dept. You could see if they would sell you some replacement doors so you can be a little more aggressive removing them.

[nkalanaga]

Christoph:  They appear to be MT 1015s, which also use a mounting hole 0.125 inches from the end, and mount within a few thousandths of the same height.  My earlier conversions used 1025s, and the two groups work together fine.  There was some discussion here recently about IM making their own MT-style couplers, so these could be those.  There are no identifying marks visible, and the finish on the case looks rougher than on the MT 1015s I have.

I don't know about lowering the IM cars.  Mine seem to be about the right height over the roof, and noticeably lower than an unmodified MT PS-1.  Also, since the couplers are already directly on the floor, you would have to use either an underset coupler, or carve a hole in the floor.

Kalbert:  A good suggestion, but with the doors glued on all four sides, I was more worried about damaging the body, especially the door tracks.  By the 70s most roads tried to keep the doors closed on empty cars, to save fuel, so the only reason for me to open them would be to have the grain doors show.  Most of my industries have the track in front of the building, so even there the open doors would be away from the viewer.

I'll keep it in mind, though, if any of my loose ones ever disappear!

[wcfn100]

Which part numbers are these?

Can you post a picture of the underside with the truck removed?


Jason

[nkalanaga]

Numbers:
66004  GN Glacier Green, slant lettering
66013  SP
66019  BN
66020  SP&S
66021  T&NO

As for pictures, I'd have to dig my camera out and put it together, since I seldom take pictures.  If you've seen the underside of an IM 40 ft boxcar, after someone put 1015 couplers on it, that's what they look like!
66021

[wcfn100]

Okay, I'm finding pictures on the IM site and MBK and none look like body mounts or metal wheels except maybe TNO and DRGW.    Are all of them that way?


Jason

[sirenwerks]

I'm wondering if the metal wheelsets may be contributing to a lower ride height, because the slew of old ones I have are over-height and I've been looking at lowering them, body-mounting the couplers (still holding out on this job waiting for a new coupler to be released), and changing the wheelsets out to 33" FVMs.  Or maybe they're using a different truck?

RE the doors - IMRC, if you're listening, stop this practice!  I don't like the glued door idea, even if the old ones are super floppy.  IMO, being able to remove the doors to weather the car and then spot gluing them, occasionally in an open position, is preferred.  If I can't get them off easily I may have to reconsider my purchasing habits (although IMRC has the market cornered on 6-panels so what's a GN modeler to do).  If they were getting complaints about the floppiness, re-engineer the doors (the patent on the Kadee/MTL design may  have expired by now).  But I imagine, given the current design's minimal overlap surface, that there will likely be plenty of sloppy gluing to complain about (as much as complaints about floppy doors) and I'm dismayed that door-challenged modelers can't just suck it up and reseat the door themselves.

[peteski]

All of you unhappy with the glued-in doors should contact IM directly. Hoping and assuming that someone from IM is reading this this forum is a guessing game at best.  Direct feedback will be much more constructive towards your goal.

For all we know, some guy in the factory in China decided to use more glue on those doors. IM in USA might not even be aware of that. 

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  That was one of my thoughts, especially since the ladders WEREN'T especially well glued.  The upper ends of several were hanging loose, and a couple broke while I was adding ACI labels.  The floppy doors have never bothered me, although fishing a loose one out of the car isn't fun.  Usually they fall out, not in, so it isn't a problem.

Jason:  All of the ones I got had metal wheels, body mount couplers, and glued doors.  None of the previous IM boxcars I've bought had any of those.  Incidentally, the IM reefer I bought at the same time still had MT trucks with truck mounted couplers, but it was an older "still in stock" model.

Sirenwerks:  As for different trucks, it's entirely possible, as there's no evidence the couplers were removed from these.  They appear to have been made without a coupler.  That may affect the ride height, although the metal wheels shouldn't, as the old cars also had 33 inch wheels.

[sirenwerks]

All of you unhappy with the glued-in doors should contact IM directly. Hoping and assuming that someone from IM is reading this this forum is a guessing game at best.  Direct feedback will be much more constructive towards your goal.

For all we know, some guy in the factory in China decided to use more glue on those doors. IM in USA might not even be aware of that. 

You're absolutely right, and done.

[sirenwerks]

I received a response to my complaint.  IMRC admitted the door gluing was sanctioned and in response to others complaining the doors fell out.  It did not offer to change its policy or offer a "solution" to counteract the glue.  Anyone who cares or doesn't care on way or the other should chime in to counter their decision.

[nkalanaga]

Sorry to revive this, if anyone is tired of it, but I just noticed what may be the biggest change.  The cars now have etched metal roofwalks!  With looking at the doors and couplers I totally ignored the roof...

[bbussey]

Yup, they started that with the NYC Pacemaker cars and carried it over to their standard AAR models.

[nkalanaga]

Maybe they can upgrade the modern reefers next.  I finally broke down and bought one, since I needed a PFE mechanical reefer, and the MDC cars aren't available.  The detail is fine, and body mounting MT couplers wasn't any problem, but the car sits about a 32nd of an inch too high.  It should be a Plate B car, and apparently identical cars owned by WFEX were 15ft 1in.  This car was a pain to lower because, while the bolsters are easy enough to file, the coupler was already at almost the right height.  Every try filing the floor of a detailed one-piece body without knocking the details off?  It's done, but I'm not looking forward to doing the WFEX reefers I have reserved!  Incidentally, the MDC cars seem to be a tad short, but the side sills look to be the right height, so I'm not going to raise them.