But a quick question about the High Speed cars. I wound up with one of the tank cars in a bundle of stuff I bought because of a Kato engine. Is it worth swapping out the trucks to use it?
Sort of depends on you........the high-speed stuff is all pretty vintage, and not well detailed. I did what you are suggesting back when I still had a train for club use that had Rapidos on it.......I had spare Rapido trucks laying around, and for the club, the viewing distance was great enough that the lack of detail wasn't too obvious. If you have to buy the trucks to do the work, I'd say no........if you have spare trucks laying around, it might be worth it if you don't mind the detail level.
I did that to one of the ones I have, too. I already had the trucks w/couplers and it turned out OK. Doug
ABSOLUTION: The priest will extend his hands over your head and pronounce the words of absolution. He will say: “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You respond, “Amen.” Just kidding-i'm a Methodist, no sin ever occurs on my layout , allegedly....
I'm biased. I just would not be able to bring myself to spend the money for such an "upgrade". Nor the time to do it.
You could take the trucks off it, hit it with the spray paint color of your choice, and stick it next to the tracks for storage of something or other.
I put MT trucks on my High Speed stock car, weathered it up and like to run it at train shows on NTRAK set-ups to see if anyone notices. Most times no one does. I like the identity crises going on about what road it belongs to. But it does serve a purpose. It staves off any assumptions that I am one of those annoying, rivet counting, prototype modelers.
If you like the car on your layout, who else is to say whether it's worth it? There's an opportunity cost of the replacement trucks, even if you've already got them (what else might you rather use them on?) But it's your layout, your rules!
I still have a tank car and a TOFC flat laying around.......as a side note, the trucks on the tank car are riveted on, the flatcar uses a pin like most "real" cars from the major manufacturers.
Put a UP shield on the other side of the door of that stock car and I suspect heads will explode (insert evil grin here). It looks OK in context, by the way...
As MRLdave said, depends on you. If you like the car then do it. I converted a Hallmark ornament because I liked the car and it looks okay to me. I did not take a pic of the finished product but this is the one I added trucks/couplers to. Yes, I did remove the very prototypical eye hook...
That's one heck of a lifting eye on that railcar! The RR must be using a novel switching method for dis/assembling trains.
I would suggest fuel oil storage in your loco service terminal as a static model, or perhaps a wreck scene or scrapyard model. The lack of detail, and mangling it might also pass muster despite its origins.
This all reminds me of the fond memories I have of sitting on my bike on the overhead pedestrian bridge over the Milwaukee Road yard here, back in the sixties, watching the crews switch cars and making up trains. There was the old engine house there, of course, (the old roundhouse burned down and coal tower and water tank and turntable removed) and surrounding a couple sides of it, all the usual railroad accoutrements that make a yard a yard. Among them was an old single dome tank car , probably from the late nineteenth century or early twentieth century, sitting in a cradle of various wooden members, they used for heating oil for the engine house. There was also an old tender sitting there, still on its trucks. I never found out for what they were using that. All long gone, now. Removed in the nineteen nineties. Doug
I pulled the converted car out of storage for this pic. Lifting eye removed, left the original trucks from the ornament on since they matched N scale, and added body mount couplers. Picture is with a Kato F7A.
Dang!! I guess we will leave the pitchforks and such put away, this time. That looks really good! I figure most folk would never know it was an ornament at one time! Fun!!
I have been busy gathering things to be donated and came across one of these, still in the box. Complete with eyehook! If anyone's interested PM me. Pay postage and it's yours. Limited time offer! Figured I would reply here first instead of posting to Swap Meet since I doubt that there is any interest beyond that.
