e & c shops boxcars

[tjsmrinfo]

i have some e & c boxcars that i had to cut the draft gear off the bolster to make the cars run properly. now i find that the coupler height is too high to run in a consist. what can i do to lower the coupler height without major surgery or unprototypical draft gear height????


tom

[cheese3]

kadee makes couplers with an off set shaft where the shaft is attached at the top...lowering the coupler or at the bottom...raising the coupler, it sounds like you could use the ones attatched at the top

[cacole]

The solution is going to depend on how much discrepancy there is between the E&C car and other brands. If the height difference is minor, you can use a Kadee or McHenry coupler with a lowered head, as cheese3 suggested. If the height difference is more than 1/32", then you will need to shim under the draft gear box to lower it, assuming that you now have body mounted coupler boxes.

[tjsmrinfo]

adam & cacole thanks for the info and help. i tried something completely different-- i had an xtra athearn underframe and cut the bolsters off of it and placed them on 1 e&c boxcar, and it lowered the car very noticeably. cant wiat till saturday night to run it and see if i need to do some minor surgery next.
Once again guys thanks for the help and info.

tom

[bogp40]

Just shim the #5 Kadee box w/ the shims needed for proper height if you don't want the odd look of the offset couplers. The E&C cars do have some decent detail and lettering but the bolster/ draft box is real bad. Good choice in your modification.
Bob K.

[tjsmrinfo]

bob i got a 50/50 chance of it workin. my girlfriend lives in hyde park
thanks

tom

[tjsmrinfo]

it worked it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the idea i had using athearn bolster on an e&c shops boxcar worked good the only thing is on our club layout had 1 spot where the trailing truck jumped track, i added extra weight so it was probably the track work


tom

[jsoderq]

The other thing to be aware of is not all HO trucks have the same bolster height so you have to be careful swapping trucks. Or, in this case, a truck swap may cure the problem. Also your fix is a good idea.