I have a set of athearn passanger cars. They are the corrigated side cars. I want to put metal wheels on them. First question is what diameter would they be and the second question would be what brand do you recommend for them? I have some metal wheels but they are sloppy in the trucks, the are loose and not long enough and wiggle all about. I think they are intermountain wheels.
Any suggestions.
Also who makes interiors for these for these cars? I have the baggage, coach, diner, obvs, and greenhouse looking one with the partially glassed roof.
I use Intermountain 36" wheels. As for the interior, I’m not sure anyone makes one specifically for Athearn. Most people I know with interiors, modified the IHC interiors to fit the Athearn cars.
Palace Car Co (http://www.palacecarco.com/) has them, though really it’s a strip of styrenE floor, a flat weight, four strips of styrene for the bulkheads, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 seat sets. Realisticslly, you can buy all that for cheaper, except maybe the pre-set weight.
EDIT: Not coachyard. Be right back woth the correct answer
I use IM 36-inch when I need to re-wheel a passenger car (IHC, Rivarossi, etc) and for additional weight I apply 1/4 oz aluminum wheel weights from JC Whitney (#314-30, 360 pcs @ 1/4 oz). I recall it was approx $36.
My first passenger cars were Athearn BB in '72. Recently I purchased 2 new series RTR baggage cars and aside from having flush fitting glazing, metal wheels, and non-horn hook couplers, they looked just like their 35 year old cousins I still have in a box. But I cannot remember how to gain access to the interior so I can rework the trucks, body mount the couplers, etc. I can’t see any seams.
The Athearn streamlined BB cars do not have the shell fastened to the frame. The body shell is a slip fit over the frame, with the seam runnung flush with the bottom row of corrugations.
I’ve got several of the lightweight and standard Athearn cars, and replaced the wheelsets with Intermountain 36inch wheels. They fit/work great! I also installed the proper KD couplers, and American Limited diaghphrams, and did some light weathering. I tinted the windows so interiors are not important to me.
These cars are mostly “shortys”, but look really good behind smaller locos like 2-8-0s or 4-6-2s or F units. Funny thing, I have sets of Walthers full size passenger cars that are certainly “more realistic”, but I find myself running the Athearn consists more often.
the green house car you refered to is called a “dome car”, or vista dome, or probably a few other names. There were a few cars that had full length dome roofs, mostly ATSF as far as I know.
Thanks dome car and or vist dome just was not coming to the front of the cranium.
Thank you all for the help. I am going to look for some 36 in intermountain wheels. Tinting the windows seems like a viable option. What did you use to tint the windows. I have used testors black tint with no luck at all on my model cars.
oh one more question how tough would it be to light the interiors?
Con-Cor 72’ cars should already have metal wheel sets. I used Jay Bee coupler mounting pads to body mount Kadee couplers, and American Ltd diaphragms work fine. I used Rapido ‘Easy-Peasy’ lighting sets in them.
I have done a couple of my BB Athreans and I used Intermountain 36" wheels on them and I had to do a lot of modifying with some IHC interiors to fit in the the shells. I got 1 out of 3 right and stopped there. I think Walthers have some interiors kits but I’m not to sure on that, that might work.
I use Intermountain wheelsets in Athearn cars with no problems. Like others have mentioned, I also body mount Kadee’s with JayBee pads and use American Limited Diaphragms.
Here is a phot of one:
I also add a number of other details to the underframe.
I tinted my windows with Testors Saphire gloss paint, which was recommended by an article in MR years ago regarding tinting auto windows. I use a light wash on the INSIDE of the windows, and it looks fine to me. Oh, if you ever tire of it, its relatively ease to scrape off.
