Micro-Trains 50 foot flatcars - two suggestions

[nkalanaga]

The MT 50 foot flatcars have been around for decades, and show up on a lot of layouts.  Nice cars, but I have two suggestions for them. 

First, on the straight-side sill car, most of the prototypes I've seen had a fishbelly underframe.  I haven't bought one of these in many years, so don't know if they have the new metal and plastic underframes like the boxcars, but if they do, a new center sill/brake casting would add this detail, with no other changes to the car.  If they still have the old one-piece metal floor, it would be even easier to make a plastic add-on piece that could be glued to the existing metal center sill.

A more complicated change, but one that could sell well, would be to make an end-brakewheel version.  That would require new body castings, but could use the vertical shaft brakewheel from boxcars and reefers.  This might be hard to do with truck mounted couplers, but if so, the tank car brakewheel could be used instead, and still have the open end sill.

[wazzou]

That's what I've done to mine.



Brake removal detail

[JoeD]

The MT 50 foot flatcars have been around for decades, and show up on a lot of layouts.  Nice cars, but I have two suggestions for them. 

First, on the straight-side sill car, most of the prototypes I've seen had a fishbelly underframe.  I haven't bought one of these in many years, so don't know if they have the new metal and plastic underframes like the boxcars, but if they do, a new center sill/brake casting would add this detail, with no other changes to the car.  If they still have the old one-piece metal floor, it would be even easier to make a plastic add-on piece that could be glued to the existing metal center sill.

A more complicated change, but one that could sell well, would be to make an end-brakewheel version.  That would require new body castings, but could use the vertical shaft brakewheel from boxcars and reefers.  This might be hard to do with truck mounted couplers, but if so, the tank car brakewheel could be used instead, and still have the open end sill.

Yep...one of my top of the to do list is to re do it...lower, end brake wheel, correct length...basically a new car

Joe
 

[johnb]

Yep...one of my top of the to do list is to re do it...lower, end brake wheel, correct length...basically a new car

Joe

what about a 40' car?

[OldEastRR]

Yep...one of my top of the to do list is to re do it...lower, end brake wheel, correct length...basically a new car

Joe

YAY! 53' foot flats would be nice....

[cjm413]

Yep...one of my top of the to do list is to re do it...lower, end brake wheel, correct length...basically a new car

Joe

50T AAR flat would cover a decent number of roadnames

[nkalanaga]

Bryan:  I've done the same thing on several cars.  Not hard, but it would be nice to have a fishbelly center sill option ready to use.

End brakewheels aren't hard, if you body mount the couplers, but require that the side brake stand and rod be removed, and a stake pocket shaved from a spare body.  Lowering the car also isn't hard, and I've done both.

As for lengthening the car, a longer car would be nice, and I agree that the AAR car would be an excellent choice.  My suggestion was more along the lines of "something quick and relatively cheap" that would make a new, sellable option, without too much work.  If an entire new car is coming, so much the better. 

But there were true 50 ft flatcars out there, GN 67000-67549 among them, being 50'8" over strikers.  They were fishbelly side sill cars, so wouldn't need the new center sill, but did have end brake wheels.  There is still a market for improved versions of the current models.

[wazzou]

End brakewheels aren't hard, if you body mount the couplers, but require that the side brake stand and rod be removed, and a stake pocket shaved from a spare body.  Lowering the car also isn't hard, and I've done both.

True, that's why I included the detail photo to show the side mounted stand and rod shaved off and the additional stake pocket installed.

[sirenwerks]

Bryan,


How'd you do the underframe?

[wazzou]

Bryan,

How'd you do the underframe?

How I did it, was to cut the ends of the underframe off just inside the bolsters. 
I made new bolsters from Evergreen Styrene and attached them directly to the underside of the flat body to lower the cars.
I filed the sill so it was nice and flat and had some tooth.  I eyeballed photos to determine the Styrene size that looked right for the fishbelly sill, filed the bevel in the sill at the ends and attached it tho the MT underframe with CA.  I glued a slightly wider strip on to represent the lip if the channel.
I drew a shape on paper for use as a jig in order to cut new deeper gussets that were fit over the existing gussets of the MT underframe.

[nkalanaga]

Bryan:  You did a good job on removing the rod and adding the stake pocket - I never noticed it!

That's also how I lowered mine, except that I removed the underframe back to the first cross piece inside the bolster, to make sure I had good flange clearance.  It may not be needed with modern wheels, but I started lowering these when pizza cutters were standard, and it's a habit now...