Atlas trucks on Intermountain cars

[bigdawgks]

Hi, I'm seeking knowledge from those who've been in the hobby longer than I.

I've bought a handful of Intermountain boxcars (a 40' and 3 50' cars) on eBay and condition wise they seem like new, but all appear to be equipped with atlas trucks with their accu-mate couplers and dreadful bendy plastic wheelsets. I can only assume these were installed by the previous owner; or has IM ever released their cars with atlas parts installed? All other cars I have from IM have their own style of trucks and couplers. Assuming I am missing the original trucks from these cars, does anyone know which brand of replacement truck works well with these cars? I'm skeptical I can find original ones from IM anywhere.

[bbussey]

The Atlas trucks probably are better than the trucks that came with the InterMountain kits back in the day.  You could either swap in metal wheels, or replace the trucks entirely with Micro-Trains Bettendorf trucks w/coupler.  Any other option would require body-mounting couplers.

[thomasjmdavis]

Hi, I'm seeking knowledge from those who've been in the hobby longer than I.

I've bought a handful of Intermountain boxcars (a 40' and 3 50' cars) on eBay and condition wise they seem like new, but all appear to be equipped with atlas trucks with their accu-mate couplers and dreadful bendy plastic wheelsets. I can only assume these were installed by the previous owner; or has IM ever released their cars with atlas parts installed? All other cars I have from IM have their own style of trucks and couplers. Assuming I am missing the original trucks from these cars, does anyone know which brand of replacement truck works well with these cars? I'm skeptical I can find original ones from IM anywhere.

Those sound a lot like the early Intermountain trucks (I have IMRC cars that date back to the early 1990s, maybe 1980s?).  Trucks of that description were also included in their kits. I don't know if the trucks were actually made by Atlas, but they are similar to the Atlas/accumate plastic wheel trucks of the same era (do they still use them on the "Trainman" line?).  Later on, IMRC went to body mount MTL couplers and metal wheels. 

Simplest route is to chop off the couplers and install metal wheels and body mount the couplers of your choice.  Although I haven't done it yet, I would be tempted to try BLMA trucks or other "low bolster" trucks in an effort to correct ride height.  I haven't measured, but just to my eye, most of my IMRC rolling stock (primarily boxcars, reefers and stock cars of 1950s and earlier) look like they are levitating the car frames.

[bigdawgks]

Thanks. I do intend to install body mount MTL couplers as I have already done on my other  IM cars. I am familiar with the trucks and single piece couplers that were included in the kits (I have already picked up a bunch of the 40' boxcar kits), but what's mounted on the cars I described have the accumate style couplers and trademark atlas style brown plastic wheelsets. These are exactly the type you can buy in bulk from Atlas. I have been installing ESM metal wheelsets on all my stock so if you recommend I keep the Atlas trucks then I will be sure to get extra Atlas compatible wheelsets when they become available. I do have spare MTL trucks as well but wasn't sure how well they would work because I know they have offset bolster holes.

[bbussey]

I don't necessarily recommend the Atlas trucks.  I was merely pointing out that Atlas trucks are better than the original InterMountain trucks, but you already were aware of that.

I tend to find the correct truck for the prototype regardless of the manufacturer, and then do what is required to make it work with the model.  For my road in my era, the majority of the boxcars regardless of builder rode on ASF A-3 trucks, which means I stock up on the ex-BLMA trucks.  But MTL has a number of truck styles where they are the only manufacturer (Dalman, National B-1, coil-elliptical, BX-express, etcetera).  So the trick with them when you need a centered bolster hole is to buy the trucks with the medium-extended coupler arm — the ones originally designed for the B-end of the mill gondolas.  They are the only 70-ton MTL style that has a centered hole.  Just cut off the coupler arm.

[nkalanaga]

If you go that route, you might contact MT about buyng just the boxes for 1023/1025 couplers.  The trick-mounted couplers are the same parts, and can be put in the body-mount boxes, saving the cost of buying new couplers.

In fact, the last time I bought trucks, it was actually cheaper to buy the trucks with couplers, and the separate boxes, than to buy trucks w/o couplers and new couplers.  I bought 500 pair of boxes several years ago, to convert all of my truck-mounted cars, so have a lifetime supply!

[nkalanaga]

If you decide to reuse the trucks, with ESM wheels, their website says the wheels should arrive the first week of January.  Allow another week to get to the dealers, and they should be available by the middle of the month.

[bbussey]

If you decide to reuse the trucks, with ESM wheels, their website says the wheels should arrive the first week of January.  Allow another week to get to the dealers, and they should be available by the middle of the month.

The wheels are in Bayonne NJ currently and have cleared Customs. We are waiting for the forwarder to deliver the shipment this coming Tuesday.

[bigdawgks]

So I do usually try to install appropriate trucks as per the prototype wherever I can, but I am not very well versed in freight car trucks and I'm starting out with limited references.

I will clarify that the cars in question are all PRR cars, and while I've seen many online resources it's not the primary road I model so I'm not quite ready to dive into that rabbit hole. I do know they tended to use a lot of coil elliptic trucks, but I can't really tell what prototypes the cars I have are supposed to be.

But now I have a better understanding of what my options are. My priority is to get these cars up to operational standard with metal wheels and MTL couplers. Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge.