Help! I'm just getting back into HO model RRing after years away. I picked up some used Rivarossi 6 axle Pullman passenger cars at a bargain on Ebay for a young friend who is a budding model railroader. Need guidance as to how to remove the trucks and install the electri pickups for the interior lights (that may or may not still work) I would love to give my young friend a neat lighted set of cars for Christmas, but I'm afraid to proceed without some advice. Don't want to break such classic old cars. Any help greatly appreciated.
All the older Rivarossi's I worked with had a pin in the middle of the truck that went up into the body. It is held in place simply by friction, pull straight down and should come out freeing the truck. Hope that helps.
My old Rivarossi passenger cars had plastic wheels and trucks. Cast tan plastic interiors (chairs etc) for various cars were offered as after market parts. Sometimes those are still seen at swap meets.
I believe AHM/Rivarossi (and later IHC) had after-market metal wheeled trucks that presumably would have had the electrical pickup, but would have presumably been held in place with the same plastic pin. Another option of course is battery operated lights and in this day of LEDs those lights and batteries could last for a good long time. Back when the batteries did not last long, guys would install a reed switch inside the car that could be turned on or off with the wave of a magnetic "wand." That is still a possible way to do this. The sides, ends and floor of a Rivarossi car are one cast piece. On my cars the clear plastic window glazing and the roofs were a second piece, held in place with tabs into slots in the floor. A small screwdriver into the slot and then a toothpick to keep the tab from locking again males quick work of removing the roof.
One thing I recall is that if you removed the trucks repeatedly on Rivarossi cars, after a while the pin holding those trucks would become less reliable.
Dave Nelson
Yes, that is how the cars come apart. As for the pins, Toss 'em aside and use a sheet metal screw in place of them. Both trucks should rotate freely, and son sruck should wobble side to side. You will need to replace the trucks to get pwered trucks. Maybe just replacing the wheelsets with metal sets will work, but you will need to fabricate wipers to collect the power from the wheelsets.
If you are using LED lighting you will need a full wave rectifier to keep the polarity of the lighting circuit constant. LION can not tell you about purchased light solutions. If you need to ask this question, you may be better off doing a commercial lighting unit.
The couplers are trruck mounted, so it may not be possible to replace the trucks unless you go with body mounted couplers, which will not work with these cars on tight radius curves. That is why they are truck mounted in the first place.
They are good cars, and I love them, but all of mine will be used instatic display, so I can hard wire them just line lighting in the buildings.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Do they look like these?
Mine are not that old. The trucks are held on with screws. The original ones were plastic. I bought Walthers lighting kits for them, which worked all right at first but the electrical contacts became unreliable. I've hard-wired one of them instead of using the truck-to-body contact plates and that one works well now.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
thanks for the solid advice. Yep the 3 axle trucks have metal wheels, insulated on opposite sides of front and real trucks, I can see lighting set up inside cars and have a loose package of pickup metal pieces. I'll give a car a try with gentle pull to free truck and go from there. OK next question: Whoever owned them before put on rather cobbled on kadee couples on the trucks (not the car body) and the kadee hoses hang down below the plane of the rails and bump into middle of cross over tracks,, rerailer pieces,, and switch points. How can I fix this? If I cut or trim hoses up to have clearance, will it negate the kadee coupler system? Thanks
I have a string of IHC streamline cars which were made by Rivarossi and imported by IHC. I replaced the push fit plastic truck retaining pins with 6-32 pan head machine screws which do a better job at preventing the trucks from rocking side to side. You want to retain the truck mounted couplers unless your layout has very broad curves. I'd expect your young friend is running 18 inch curves which demand track munted couplers. My cars came with hornhook couplers with super long shanks that snap fit to the truck bolsters. I never found a Kadee or Kadee compatable that would fit. I had to make my own coupler adapter bars from styrene sheet, glue them to the truck bolster and fasten a Kadee #5 coupler and coupler box to the end of the adapter bar with a 2-56 machine screw.
To light my cars I bought replacement metal wheels from IHC. That was back before IHC went out of business. I'd expect any decent metal wheel sets to fit. If axle length is a problem, try Reboxx, they make all sorts of axles lengths. I made axle wipers out of phosphor bronze weatherstrip secured to the truck bolster with 2-56 machine screws. You need the phosphor bronze, brass isn't springy enough. You need axle wipers, wheel tread wipers have too much drag. I painted the interior, including the ceiling with a light colored paint to prevent the lights from making the entire car glow in the dark. There was a Walthers light kit, a long bar that gives even lighting over the entire length of the car. A single bulb isn't enough. The Walther's bar was LED, and had the necessary rectifier and voltage regulator to work on plain DC track power and give constant brightness lighting. It would probably work on DCC as well, but I never checked this out, not being a DCC guy.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
dstarr I never found a Kadee or Kadee compatable that would fit.
The Kadee 505 bolster is designed for the Riv 6 wheel truck. It uses a Kadee #5 coupler that is included. I have installed a number of these, they take a bit of fiddling to get right the first time you do one. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! Particlurarly the difference between using 33" and 36" wheel sets.
https://www.walthers.com/ahm-rivarossi-6-wheel-passenger-truck-bolsters-1-pair?ref=1
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Kadee makes a tool (kinda looks like an odd pair of pliers) to bend the air hose so it will be above the rails and not catch on them.
How do the coupler heads match up with a coupler height gauge? (If you don't have a gauge, you should get one.) As a stopgap, how do they match up with other rolling stock and engines?
Yes, the Kadee trip-pin pliers will do the job, but first you must get the coupler heads aligned properly. It could be as simple as adding a shim to raise them, or the whole mechanism may need some work.
I bought some McHenry knuckle couplers made for the Rivarossi 4 and 6 wheel passenger cars. They just push in and snap over the pivot pin that the original horn/hook couplers were mounted on (They just pull straight out). They work OK but I am gradually replacing them with body mounted Kadee #148's. I have large radius curves. I also replaced all wheels with either Kadee or Proto wheel sets. Reboxx makes some very good ones with the proper axle length, which I have used on the Rivarossi 6 wheel tender trucks.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
In my experience, replacing the original deep flanged and therefore undersized Rivarossi wheels in passenger trucks with accurate 36" wheels also need some shaving down of the cast-on brake shoes. I think the old original wheels on AHM/Rivarossi passenger cars was more in the 31" range. A bit of shaving down of the bolster also helped retain overall prototype height of the car.
Yes, that's our project! Thanks to everyone who has posted helpful comments! I'm making good progress and have 3 of the cars' lighting working and have the 4th on the work bench now. What fun. All the advice I've gotten has worked like a charm. Thanks!!!
Joe Spangler
JoeFishersIN thanks for the solid advice. Yep the 3 axle trucks have metal wheels, insulated on opposite sides of front and real trucks, I can see lighting set up inside cars and have a loose package of pickup metal pieces. I'll give a car a try with gentle pull to free truck and go from there. OK next question: Whoever owned them before put on rather cobbled on kadee couples on the trucks (not the car body) and the kadee hoses hang down below the plane of the rails and bump into middle of cross over tracks,, rerailer pieces,, and switch points. How can I fix this? If I cut or trim hoses up to have clearance, will it negate the kadee coupler system? Thanks
Several years ago I bought som Jay-Bee coupler conversion kits for body mounting KD couplers on Rivarossi, Athearn, and Bachmann passenger cars but I don't see them listed as a manufacturer on Walthers website. Unfortunately the owner passed away. According to another thread someone bought their wheelsets but it sounds like they are not offering the coupler conversion kits. You might try e-bay if you want to go that route.
I have a few old Rivarossi passenger cars, their trucks are a pain to deal with! I am still trying to get the KD coupler box mounted but they are uneven towards the end, any advice will be much appreciated!
Yep, this sounds much like what I have got. OK, more help and advice needed. I got all 4 of the cars with interior light sets working (including successful swap of lights from the one "duplicate" club car to the observation car). They all work and couplers pass the kadee gauge/size tests. However, now the other three are the problem. As one of you said, couplers are jury rigged on "wagon tongue" of trucks with Kadee couplers glued to ends. They are all too low by something like 1/32" below the Kadee test rig fit line, and hoses are below the plane of the rails. Obviously, I have to reposition the whole rig "up" just enough, but HOW? You are talking to a pretty low level model railroader. Also, I foresee that there is NOT a lot of room for the coupler to come up without making contact as it swings with the ends of the car bodies. The three cars in question are 9 1/2" long (shorter than the other 4 by about an inch), and have a distance from the truck pivot pin to end of car of about 1 1/2". One is a American Railway Express/baggage car, #2 is a nice USRPO car and the third is a combo 1/2 passenger & 1/2 Railway post office. Any advice and suggestions from all of you wiser than me is much appreciated. Thanks