TTOX

[lionelsoni]

I just did a little repair work on a spine car; and I thought I would describe what I've got.

Lionel sold spine car units in pairs, marked TTUX.  They appear to be models of TTLXs, which come in groups of five.  The extra hardware was supplied for chaining sets together.  But, when you connect five units, you have one left over.

I turned that sixth unit into a TTOX, the 4-wheel spine car that seems now to be obsolete.  I found the base of a Kickapoo car at a train show and cut it up to make two 2-wheel "trucks".  I fixed each (dummy) coupler rigidly to its truck, so that the adjacent car steers the TTOX's truck.  If you have very gentle curves, you might be able to run such a long, rigid 4-wheel car; but steering is essential on my O27 layout.  Of course, I always have to have a conventional car on either end of the TTOX.

The repair that I was doing was stiffening the truck bolster (formerly a piece of the Kickapoo car's floor) so that the wheelset is held in more firmly.

[ChiefEagles]

I've got about 18 of those TTUX that are two cars with only three trucks.  The directions on mine show the extra hardware for making them single cars.  Maybe I read the directions wrong.  I run them as two units together.