dstarr...I replaced the old Alnico magnets, which might have been 50 years old, with rare earth supermagnets and that fixed it right up. Swapping magnets is easier than swapping motors.
I agree, although the rare earth magnets weren't around when I re-motored my B-15 (also from PFM/Samhongsa). The motor which I used, from NWSL, is mounted in the boiler, rather than on the frame, as it was slightly too large to fit when frame-mounted.This brass CNR switcher was given to me by a friend, who claimed that it wouldn't pull enough cars for his needs....
I re-detailed it to match a specific prototype, and re-painted it, then put rare earth magnets in the existing open-frame motor. I also added all-wheel pick-up and as much weight as I could fit into it.
When he visited, I ran it pulling 19 not-too-light cars, a few of which weren't especially free-rollers, then offered to give it back to him.He declined, as in the interim, I had modified two United 0-8-0s for him, using the same upgrades....new magnets, all-wheel pick-up, and extra weight...
Both, not surprisingly, are even better pullers than the 0-6-0, and he then picked up another model of a B&O protptype, which got the same upgrades, with similar performance increases...
Wayne
I have both the IHC mogul. It's not exactly a B15, but it is fairly close. IHC had no problem selling it painted for the B&M. It runs very well:
And a brass B15 by Pasific Fast Mail.
It came to me used, and in pieces. I had to buy a 150 watt soldering iron off Ebay to solder it back together. The open frame motor ran but it was pitifully weak and got too hot. I replaced the old Alnico magnets, which might have been 50 years old, with rare earth supermagnets and that fixed it right up. Swapping magnets is easier than swapping motors.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Pennsy_I1 I have figured that my maximum regular operating length will be about 30 cars, though some trains may run up to 50 cars if I have a motive power shortage. Pushers on all WB trains, if that affects the couplers.
I have figured that my maximum regular operating length will be about 30 cars, though some trains may run up to 50 cars if I have a motive power shortage. Pushers on all WB trains, if that affects the couplers.
Pennsy_I1I can't even imagine trying to operate prototypically with those trucks... God bless the HO scale yard crews back in those days.
Heh. I think the folks going for prototypical operation were already running body-mounts. I believe talgos were mostly found on the toy stuff -- Tyco, Life Like, etc. They're good for sharp curves, and will couple on a curve, which is useful when you're selling people just an oval of track. :)
Autonerd It's a lot of work to save those old freight cars... if your budget is tight, I would consider hitting your next local train show or swap meet for old Athearn (blue box) and Roundhouse kits. You should be able to find them for $10 or less. They are easy to assemble and the couplers are already body- or frame-mounted. BTW, we avoid Talgo trucks at our club because on long trains a sudden slack run-in can shove the trucks right off the tracks.
It's a lot of work to save those old freight cars... if your budget is tight, I would consider hitting your next local train show or swap meet for old Athearn (blue box) and Roundhouse kits. You should be able to find them for $10 or less. They are easy to assemble and the couplers are already body- or frame-mounted.
BTW, we avoid Talgo trucks at our club because on long trains a sudden slack run-in can shove the trucks right off the tracks.
This is true, but is the OP running long trains? If we're talking 10-15 cars or so on a home layout then talgo mounted KD couplers (if not sagging) should be just fine.
If the OP is already running trains dozens of cars long then I'd agree that retrofitting body mounted couplers or just buying different cars is the way to go.
Otherwise, #148 Couplers and #212 Talgo adaptors will get your cars rolling effectively with the rest of your fleet nearly immediately.
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Sorry for the late reply, Mel, but I was sure that I responded to your suggestion about the Loctite product last night. I'll definitely check it out, especially since engineering plastic is used for a lot of applications where styrene might be a better choice. Thanks for the information.
dknelson...Hoppers with seemingly no place to body mount coupler boxes (same problem with tank cars and covered hoppers). Here the goal is to more or less replicate on those hoppers (or whatever) what the hoppers look like that DO have a place for the coupler to be mounted. I cement a flat piece of styrene in whatever gap or opening seems to exist to use as a mounting pad. Yes this can create a slightly unprototypical look and an unprototypical bit of stuff on the underframe of the car. But compared to what?....
To what indeed...the couplers on real cars are attached to the frame of the car, as it's the strongest part of the car. The flat styrene is fine to represent the top of the car's frame, and the draught gear box will represent the rest of the frame - a perfectly good solution, in my opinion.
Autonerd It's a lot of work to save those old freight cars... if your budget is tight, I would consider hitting your next local train show or swap meet for old Athearn (blue box) and Roundhouse kits. You should be able to find them for $10 or less. They are easy to assemble and the couplers are already body- or frame-mounted. BTW, we avoid Talgo trucks at our club because on long trains a sudden slack run-in can shove the trucks right off the tracks. Aaron
Aaron
That issue is exactly what I had, and why I'm wanting to body-mount the couplers. I can't even imagine trying to operate prototypically with those trucks... God bless the HO scale yard crews back in those days.
Pennsy_I1 Two old HO scale Varney 40ft outside braced boxcars that I picked up at a show. When I tried to replace the horn-hook couplers with standard Kadees, I found that it looked as if the coupler boxes are molded shut. I have Kadee coupler boxes and screws, but I can't figure out how to remove the old ones. An old Bachmann 40ft steel gondola with truck-mounted couplers, weight on inside of car. A pair of two-bay steel hoppers (brand unknown), truck mounted couplers. Four 4-bay offset open hoppers (brand unknown), nowhere to mount on the underside of the car. Seven 40ft wooden double door boxcars, brand unknown, need to find a new way to secure shell to underframe. Thanks, Victoria
Two old HO scale Varney 40ft outside braced boxcars that I picked up at a show. When I tried to replace the horn-hook couplers with standard Kadees, I found that it looked as if the coupler boxes are molded shut. I have Kadee coupler boxes and screws, but I can't figure out how to remove the old ones.
An old Bachmann 40ft steel gondola with truck-mounted couplers, weight on inside of car.
A pair of two-bay steel hoppers (brand unknown), truck mounted couplers.
Four 4-bay offset open hoppers (brand unknown), nowhere to mount on the underside of the car.
Seven 40ft wooden double door boxcars, brand unknown, need to find a new way to secure shell to underframe.
Thanks, Victoria
I am likely repeating (hopefully not contradicting) advice given in prior postings to the inquiry. If those Varney cars are from the era I am thinking of, for some reason it was common at one time to cement the cover to the coupler draft gear box in place (I think it was a press fit but a weak one, hence the desire to cement). This is back when Varney used its own dummy knuckle coupler - with the draft gear spring so trains sometimes looked like a Slinky toy going down the track. A fresh chisel blade in an X acto knife handle removes the entire Varney draft gear box right down to the underframe floor of the car which is smoothed flat in that area, wide enough for the draft gear of choice. Since I use Kadees that is the brand of box I use to replace it. I routinely snip off the side "ears" and use the central hole for mounting. Only on some (real) wood floored cars have I used the side "ears" held in place with small brads or track nails.
Bachmann gondola. If I know the trucks otherwise look nice after painting and weathering (and it is surprising sometimes what nice detail is cast onto those back shiny trainset quality trucks), I snip off the "talgo" coupler connection from the truck, replace the wheels with better stuff. For the freight car itself, again I use a chisel blade to smooth out an area just wide enough for a new Kadee draft gear box. The weight on the inside of the car can (and usually does) make screwing the new coupler draft gear box in place a challenge. But frankly any open car, gon or flat car, makes screwing it on a challenge. Depending on the car, I have used a drill bit to go completely through, plastic and metal weight and all, and of course that means also right up through the external floor of the car itself. For a drill bit I use a size one below what I would usually use for a 2-56 screw. I have used nylon 2-56 screws (Kadee sells them, or used to) to secure the draft gear box -- they are not really self tapping but can work that way if the hole is just slightly too small for 2-56 -- and then snip off the end of the screw ( I use wire cutters or rail nippers; too big a job for sprue nippers) so the newly flat end of the screw is flush with the floor of the car. A bit of weathering and perhaps a dab of putty or whatever and it is much less noticable than you'd think, for gondolas. For flatcars I have gone so far as to scribe into the nylon the gap between the "wood" flooring. Of course if you ever loosen then retighten that screw the scribed line may never match the flatcar floor lines.
Hoppers with seemingly no place to body mount coupler boxes (same problem with tank cars and covered hoppers). Here the goal is to more or less replicate on those hoppers (or whatever) what the hoppers look like that DO have a place for the coupler to be mounted. I cement a flat piece of styrene in whatever gap or opening seems to exist to use as a mounting pad. Yes this can create a slightly unprototypical look and an unprototypical bit of stuff on the underframe of the car. But compared to what? The real cars attach couplers to something and we can come at least close. Unless it is purely a contest/display model, don't allow desires for "accuracy" make the styrene piece be weakly or insufficiently supported.
A new way to secure house-car shells to the underframe. Not sure what I am dealing with here but in general I do prefer to have the ability to in some manner remove the underframe from the shell (often because weights get loose after time and I want to re secure them). So I do not cement the bodies of Accurail, Bowser, or Athearn blue box freight cars to the underframe if I can help it.
So I'd think about the methods that some manufacturers use, and that often involves a slight molded on ridge inside the car, so the body of the car uses those ridges to rest on the floor of the underframe. To replicate this means doing some precise measuring and precise work but if you cement in and use lengths of 1/16" or maybe 1/8" strip styrene to make ridges, say four of them, both sides of car, on either side of the door. Unless the car has a sort of built in inward bow that makes it a tight pressure fit onto the frame, I might use a surprisingly small amount of "tacky" but not solvent based cement to allow the underframe to adhere to the ridges even with normal handling yet if need be the floor can be pried off, with care, without damaging anything. Often that tacky cement is not needed.
Dave Nelson
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8KnMKr3snD4cLM996
I don't know if this will work, I'm posting from my phone.
doctorwayne Some of those trucks have holes moulded into them, which permits modifying them, as there's not much in the way of glues that will make a good bond with engineering plastic. I used some styrene rod, just slightly larger (.003/.004") in diameter than the holes, then coated it liberally with MEK, which softened the surface, allowing the rod to be forced into the holes. While it's not cemented in place (the MEK has no effect on the engineering plastic) it does result in a very tight fit.... Wayne
Some of those trucks have holes moulded into them, which permits modifying them, as there's not much in the way of glues that will make a good bond with engineering plastic. I used some styrene rod, just slightly larger (.003/.004") in diameter than the holes, then coated it liberally with MEK, which softened the surface, allowing the rod to be forced into the holes. While it's not cemented in place (the MEK has no effect on the engineering plastic) it does result in a very tight fit....
Pennsy_I1 Hello, I have a bunch of old freight cars that need coupler box replacement. There are various issues making it a pain in the neck to replace these, however. I can't afford to lose any cars, as I'm short on equipment that fits my era. I can provide photos of equipment a bit later, as I don't have my camera on me right now, Here are the issues: Two old HO scale Varney 40ft outside braced boxcars that I picked up at a show. When I tried to replace the horn-hook couplers with standard Kadees, I found that it looked as if the coupler boxes are molded shut. I have Kadee coupler boxes and screws, but I can't figure out how to remove the old ones. An old Bachmann 40ft steel gondola with truck-mounted couplers, weight on inside of car. A pair of two-bay steel hoppers (brand unknown), truck mounted couplers. Four 4-bay offset open hoppers (brand unknown), nowhere to mount on the underside of the car. Seven 40ft wooden double door boxcars, brand unknown, need to find a new way to secure shell to underframe. A 40ft plug door boxcar, same issue as last entry. Any help will be greatly appreciated, as getting these cars in service will mean it'll be sooner until operations can begin on the layout (when that is built, separate thread). Thanks, Victoria
Hello,
I have a bunch of old freight cars that need coupler box replacement. There are various issues making it a pain in the neck to replace these, however. I can't afford to lose any cars, as I'm short on equipment that fits my era. I can provide photos of equipment a bit later, as I don't have my camera on me right now, Here are the issues:
A 40ft plug door boxcar, same issue as last entry.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, as getting these cars in service will mean it'll be sooner until operations can begin on the layout (when that is built, separate thread).
Thanks,
Victoria
As long as there's not too much sag, you can use the existing "talgo" truck mounted coupler boxes. A #148 KD coupler will fit in place of the old plastic horn-hook and you can use a 212 talgo coupler adaptor to snap on top. If this ends up being not satsifactory for you, you can always cut off the talgo coupler boxes, reuse the KD coupler and only be out the 20 cents or so for each #212.
The picture below shows a bent plastic EZ-Mate coupler, but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. The black "I" is the 212 Talgo adaptor that snaps on top.
I've done a fair number like this and they all work well. There's one or two that have a bit of droop and I'll either body-mount a new coupler or replace with a compensated coupler. I find this to be a great way to press cheap cars quickly into service with minimum fuss.
For the Varney specfically, does it have the little melted plastic post in the middle? I had a Varney gondola like that. I just cut off the melted part. Then the cover came off and after putting a #148 in there I carefully glued the cover back on.
Some pictures could be useful, based on what you've described.
Truck-mounted couplers can simply be cut-off - a utility knife may be preferable to an X-Acto for this work, as that engineering plastic can be pretty tough. Remove the trucks from the car, and the wheelsets from the trucks to facilitate the cutting.A lot of modellers discard those trucks, too, but many of them are fairly nicely-done. For cars like Tyco and others, the trucks simply snap into place, although they're a little more difficult to remove.I remove them, then modify them to be screw-mounted, and if the wheel flanges aren't to deep, keep the original wheels, too.
Once the plastic rod hardens, the excess material is trimmed off, then some .030" black sheet styrene is cemented to it, and then a hole is drilled at the centre point of the truck's bolster...
The too-large hole in the underbody of the car (to permit the snap-in feature of the original trucks) can be filled using styrene tubing (the underbody is also styrene, so solvent-type cement works fine). If the tubing is too large for the hole, re-drill the hole to a size just slightly smaller than the tubing (same method and same reason as for the trucks, as explained earlier). Next, use an appropriately-sized piece of rod (and more solvent cement) to fill the tube.Once the joints have hardened, the excess can be removed, and the "plugs" suitably drilled-out to accommodate screws for mounting the trucks...
As you can see in the last photo, a Kadee coupler, in its own box, has been added, too.Here's one of those Tyco gondolas in service, with its original trucks...
Painting the face of the wheels some shade of dirty-looking black, and the axles and wheel-backs a rust colour helps improve them, as does a little paint to highlight the truck's springs.
If you can't open the draught gear boxes on the Varney cars, a last resort might be to use a #17 or #18 chisel-type blade to remove them, but I'd prefer to wait for photos before you take that action.
Likewise for those four bay hoppers and the boxcars with the falling-out underbodies.I was given a Proto 50' automobile car by a friend, who bought it at a train show for a good price. However, when he got it home and had a closer look, he discovered that it was too modern for his late '20s layout.When I got it, I found that the original owner had botched the assembly quite badly with misaligned or broken details, and an excessive amount of glue on the exterior of the body. The underbody was a mess, too, badly warped by using too much solvent-type cement.This LINK will take you to a post about mid-thread into a series of photos and how-tos of some cars I built or re-worked. It shows the restoration of the car and one method for securing underbodies to their body shells.