Hello All...I have recently inherited a set of 9 HO passenger cars, all silver (SS?), lettered for the Southern. They have silver plastic trucks with an offset center hole and the truck is held to the body with a split press pin. They also have metal wheels on them. I would like to get them into usable condtion by adding decent trucks, body mounted couplers, interiors and lighting kits. But first I’ve got to figure out the manufacturer. Oh, and by the way, they look to be scale 85’ long.
Any help would be appreciated. Merry Christma.
Since you didn’t post any pictures it is too hard to tell which brand they are. You might be able to identify them by searching google images or eBay for them and see which ones match.
With the IHC cars, if there's a "combine", the baggage door will be way at the end.
If there's a full baggage, one of the doors in the side will also be way at the end.
I'm pretty sure only IHC did that, so that should tell them apart. If there's baggage doors.
Ed
I believe IHC cars had the roofs/windows molded on clear as one piece and the Con-Cor cars had separate windows.
.
Is this correct?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I have not owned any old Con-Cor passenger cars, but they and IHC were similar. These are a couple of my IHC LW coaches that I painted for MEC and BM
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Well, the Con-Cor website shows stainless steel Southern Ry. passenger cars. I guess I'd see if they look like what you have. (Scroll down after using the link to get to the silver stainless steel cars....)
https://www.con-cor.com/website/shop/?swoof=1&product_cat=ho-model-trains&pa_road-name=southern-railway-crescent
What about Rivarossi? Although, I do believe they had the name on the frame or the bottom of the car, they had an offset pin. I have a few, although a search doesn't turn up anything lettered for the Southern, in a SS finish.
Just a thought.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewiWhat about Rivarossi?
I have some Rivarossi, they all have the name on the bottom
I run two full length passenger trains with that type of truck and split pin in the bolster and added McHenry snap in couplers. I have run them this way for five or more years now and they never give me a problem even on my inclines .
Don't rush in to changing them unless you really have a problem. And if you do have a problem check everything else first. Your trackage should be near bullit proof then those cars set up like that will perform well for you. There is always somewhere else to put that money that would be involved in switching over.
Doncha think ?
Johnboy out.............
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
I have a set of IHC streamliners. They had offset center holes, truck mounted couplers, and split plastic press pins. They came from the store with plastic wheels, but I was able to mail order metal wheels from IHC, also molded plastic interiors. The press pins can be replaced with 6-32 pan head machine screws. I tried body mounting the couplers, but the cars could not take my 22 inch curves. I converted the couplers back to truck mount and had better results. They all needed ballast to bring them up to the NMRA recommended weight (1/2 oz plus 1 oz per inch of car length). I put lights inside them. I made axle wipers from some springy bronze weatherstrip and bought LED light bars from Walthers. The light bars had voltage regulators to keep the brightness constant. The came from the store painted for the B&M. I added the red stripe thru the windows with a rattle can.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Part of the fun here is that IHC used to sell Con-Cor cars in IHC boxes at one time. Then they went their separate ways and IHC had their own cars tooled. The non-Cor-Cor IHC ones are awful models of passenger cars. You can always tell them apart due to the tiny little windows that IHC did that are far too short in height. The Con-Cor cars are better proportioned.
For body mounting couplers, use the tried and true Jay-Bee coupler mounting pads. They are available again at http://jbwheelsets.com/coupler_mount.html They are well worth the price.
IHC did make a truck conversion kit that changed these to center bolsters instead of offset bolsters. You can't just throw any pair of trucks on these offset cars without something like them. They also made really good metal trucks, too.