OK, I have not owned or bought a Lionel anything in 32 years. I just received a beautiful PS-4 Lackawanna flatcar piggyback with Phoebe Snow trailers. Nice looking car with a real wooden deck. A few hits with a Dremel a shim here and there, some wash on the deck and we have a nice O Scale car!

Very nice. What did you whack with the Dremel?

The trucks. I'll take a pix and post later, but there is a frame around the truck that also has the coupler attached. Two quick cuts and it falls away, replace the wheels and your done.

Here are the two cut lines in white. Once cut the housing falls away. Now loosen, don't remove, the side frame screws (red) and swap wheels. I use NWSL 33" but I guess Inter Mountain would also work.

There was an article in 48/ft, O Scale News but I have not seen it and did not want to wait. They may have done this some other way.

Mr. 3 Rail coupler says:
"C'mere, little 2 rail, I'm gonna grab you by the nose!"

Great Pix!

Nice conversion, we've got a few of those and an awesome deal 2 for $90. Now try and imagine doing 25 cars .

Looks like I better get busy

So what do you do with the wheels, toss 'em?

I also have hundreds of high rail wheel pairs left over from my conversions. I hope that someone can use them.

they were recycled, gave it away for phree

quote:

Originally posted by railroad-guy:
There was an article in 48/ft, O Scale News but I have not seen it and did not want to wait. They may have done this some other way.

The March issue(#185) has Brady McGuire's article in it. It's the current issue, and worth checking for some other mods Brady made that really add to the flavor of the car.

Hope it helps

Brian

I could use the 3R wheels. I would trade as many 2R wheels as I could find on my cars and easily remove.

Btw, nice work on the conversion. I've converted one of those flats to kadees.

You can have them. I only use NWSL wheel sets. Check my profile and send me an Email.

Now, if only Lionel would sell the trailers separately...

quote:

Now, if only Lionel would sell the trailers separately...

and sell 2 rail trucks that look good and bolt right on would be nice. But then someone like Mike's club could sell their 3 rail versions and make a few $$$$. Man, that would be terrible.


Great job, Dan. The car looks awesome!

I've started converting my Lionel 40'and 50' flats to 2 rail. They really look much better. Been using Atlas trucks with NWSL wheel sets but will switch to using Atlas 2 rail trucks because they track much better on 3 rail track cause they have a bit wider tread.


My solution was to make frame extentions with coupler pocket and end frame filler for mounting Atlas trucks and Kadee couplers. Easier than chopping up Lionel trucks too.




B&O
Joe

Hey dan, looks good! I friend of mine had the same car and it look really nice. Not too much you have to do to it to make it a nice scale car.

I was wondering, what kind of lights do you use for the layout? Lighting is great!

Hi Joe,

How are you making up these frame extension coupler pockets. Is this built up from ABS plastic structure pieces or ??? I like the looks of them. This is definitely the nicest conversion of a Lionel car I've ever seen.

I went to the webshots site and see where you totally dismantled the car to get to the bare frame. Very impressive. I never realized a 3Rer would go to these lengths to install scale couplers and trucks.

I'm also very impressed with the cast frame that Lionel uses. I've got 5-6 or these piggyback cars to convert and although your method will take considerably longer than just wacking off the 3R coupler and installing 2R wheelsets (which is the only way I've done it in the past) it certainly makes for a good looking conversion.

Butch

quote:

Originally posted by JoeW:

Easier than chopping up Lionel trucks too.

It only takes a minute to chop the couplers off lionel trucks.
I don't know about bettendorfs but in roller bearing trucks the Lionel look better than the Atlas, they seem to be a finer cross section and don't appear so overwide.

quote:

Originally posted by Trickcooley:
Hey dan, looks good! I friend of mine had the same car and it look really nice. Not too much you have to do to it to make it a nice scale car.

I was wondering, what kind of lights do you use for the layout? Lighting is great!

Thanks. I bought T8 fixtures at Lowes and had them order a case of 6500K tubes which is "noon daylight". They also make cooler tubes. The cooler the tube the more filtration you may need on a camera. Normal tubes are down in the 3000K range which is why daylight film appears greenish without filters.

Of course colors just look much more natural and as they should with
these tubes. Yes they cost more but if I am going to be standing
under these for hours at a time, I want to see the proper colors of
what I am looking at.

quote:

Originally posted by up148:
Hi Joe,

How are you making up these frame extension coupler pockets. Is this built up from ABS plastic structure pieces or ??? I like the looks of them. This is definitely the nicest conversion of a Lionel car I've ever seen.

I went to the webshots site and see where you totally dismantled the car to get to the bare frame. Very impressive. I never realized a 3Rer would go to these lengths to install scale couplers and trucks.

I'm also very impressed with the cast frame that Lionel uses. I've got 5-6 or these piggyback cars to convert and although your method will take considerably longer than just wacking off the 3R coupler and installing 2R wheelsets (which is the only way I've done it in the past) it certainly makes for a good looking conversion.

Butch

Butch,
I made two masters out of Evergreen styrene. One for the 40'and one for the 50'. Made a rubber mold of the masters and cast the parts in resin. The back end of the part hooks in a notch on the frame and a little supper glue secures the sill end. Truck screw holds up the middle. When I switch to a harder resin the truck mounting screw will hold it in place without the super glue.
The plan was to do as little damage to the car so it could be converted back to 3 rail by popping the part off and remount the 3 rail trucks stored in the box. Maybe a little touch up paint.


I'm a retired model maker, scale modeler and long time HOer. Now a Scale 3 Railer since 2003 also. The center rail doesn't bother me and I run scale and 3 rail on the same 3 rail track. Not perfect yet but no worse than HO.

I stripped the 40' flat for repaint as B&O. A very impressive frame casting. And the plastic center section with all the brake gear pops out. Replacing the wood decks on some because of the holes for the loads and Lionel has the wood grain in the wrong direction.

B&O
Joe

Joe, very nice work. I just went threw all of the pictures. very cool.

Hi Joe,

I thought maybe you had done that. It looked like a casting from some angles but some of he edges were so sharp it almost looked like a well glued structure built up from ABS plastic. Very, very nicely done.

I've never done any resin casting but this is certainly a good reason to learn it. Build one master and cast the rest. It would be a real time saver after the master was built.

Thanks for the photos and education Joe!

Butch