Old Rolling Stock

Hi Ron,

It sounds like you probably have an old collection like mine from the 60's-70's, which consists of a lot of Tyco, Bachmann and Lifelike stock.  Most if not all of my old cars have truck mounted couplers of the horn hook variety.

I would like to resurrect some of my old rolling stock as well, but I think what I need to do with them is to replace the trucks entirely and convert the cars over to a body mounted coupler pocket.  As for couplers, I have become enamored with Sergent Couplers, but I do question whether my old rolling stock is worth the upgrade to new trucks, wheels and couplers?

In many ways this old rolling stock is probably not worth the effort to most experienced modelers because in many cases the details are not very true to scale, or is nearly non existent, but it's a sentimental thing so perhaps prototypical realism is not the most important aspect.

I too would be interested in hearing what those with more experience think about upgrading old rolling stock.

Updating old rolling stock

It's not really that hard or expensive. The easy way is wash the cars with dawn liquid dish soap and an old tooth brush and sell them on E-Bay for $4.00 each. Then buy new ones for $24.00 each.

The second way : because the size of most cars is usually correct you just need to shave the grab irons, stirrups, & brackets and reinstall new wire as well as replace most break wheels then repaint the Bodies. Next replace the wheel sets and couplers check and add or reduce any weight needed All this at a cost of about $10.00 to $12.00 total per car for everything.  After that weather the cars and put them back on the rails.

In the long run the refurbished cars are something you can be proud of and with the money you saved not buying all new rolling stock you can use that money on other projects. The refurbishing of cars is great practice and helps improve your modeling skills.

The final thing you can do is use the cars by removing all the trucks and couplers and use the cars for a set shanty town buildings something that modelers now days seem to leave off  their railroads. You can also use some of the cars staged at the bottom of a bridge or mountain ravine as old forgotten wrecks. This makes a great scene and conversation piece.

There are alot of things you can do with old worn out broken rolling stock that can't be fixed and added back to the inventory.

Dan

Upgrades

The job of conversion likely won't be too difficult, and isn't likely to depend too much on which exact brand of car is involved.  I don't quite understand the lack of interest in the "Kadee version," since changing to knuckle couplers essentially means Kadee compatible in most cases, unless you're just meaning that you don't care if it's the Kadee brand or not.

If you're OK with at least looking into the Kadee brand, they have some helpful products.  One tool you'll probably find useful is a coupler height gauge http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/height.htm .  Kadee also has a conversion list, assuming you can identify the type of car involved, at http://www.kadee.com/conv/holist.pdf.  Plus they have adapter kits specifically designed to work with many brands of older train set cars with the truck-mounted coupler boxes, as well as those with the body-mounted horn-hook boxes.

Perhaps if you could post some photos of the undersides of the cars, somebody here can identify the brand and suggest knuckle couplers that would work.

Most brands of rolling stock that came with couplers had horn

hooks.  If the coupler is held in place by a sheet metal clip, it is Athearn.  Most "toy train" brands like Lifelike, Bachmann, Tyco, etc, will have truck mounted couplers known as "talgo types."  Most of those cars will have the manufacturer's name or logo cast into the bottom of the car somewhere.  If the car was originally made by MDC/Roundhouse, it will have a die cast frame.  I think the old Varney cars will have actual sprung trucks.

Inspection and Identification

Out of curiosity I got out my collection of old rolling stock to have a closer look and refresh my memory.

I found that most of the known Tyco cars that were part of train sets, are indeed identified with embossed printing on the under body, but it is hidden behind one of the trucks in almost every case.  Two Virginian hopper cars that I know were originally a part of Tyco sets have no markings that I can find except a sticker, nearly falling off, that says, made in USA.  I found the same sort of markings on the Bachmann cars and on a MOW set made by Mantua.  Oddly, a few of my cars are just stamped made in Hong Kong, Taiwan and in one case, Austria, with no indication as to the manufacturers identity.

All of the cars have "talgo" trucks with plastic wheel sets and horn hook couplers.

When I compare my old rolling stock to pieces I have purchased more recently...well I have to say I am not exactly thrilled.  All of my old rolling stock is going to look pretty shabby sitting beside the North American Railcar Corp cars or even the Athearn "Blue Box" stuff that I have.

 Dans suggestions for a shanty town and forgotten wrecks are seeming more suited to the old stuff after a closer look.

To all who have replied with

To all who have replied with suggestions: Thank you, all replies contained something for me to consider. Hopefully, this upcoming 3 day weekend I can dig out some representative cars and get some digital pics to upload to the site. Thanks, again,  Ron