I usually replace the couplers with KD’s & I’m starting to replace the plastic axles with all metal axles from Proto for easier running on the locomotives.
My Accurail, MDC & Athearn boxcars & my MDC bulk end flats I’ve replaced the axles with 33" ones from Proto 1000.
The Accurail & Athearn Covered hoppers I have, I replace the axles with 36" axles from Proto.
Gordon
I thin down the stirup steps, mount the weight inside and bump weight up to NMRA standards. I paint the under carrage and truck frames with roof brown. I weather with both paints and chalks. I install and tune/level Kadee number fives and replace wheelsets with P2K metal wheels.
I put KD’s and metal wheelsets (also from Kadee), then I make sure the car is up to NMRA weight. I usually by cars from Red Caboose, IM, P2K, Bowser, and Branchlineso I don’t bother detailing them.
Kadees, Metal wheelsets, starting on stirrups. Of course, I don’t usually buy shake-the-box anymore, preferring Resin & craftsman kits.
Kadee couplers, IM or P2K wheels, and sometimes new grab irons. Too light cars are give more weight in the form of steel sheets or BB bullet.
And of course a dose of vitamin W.
Kadees, Intermountain wheels, dust, grime and shmutz as applicable, weighting to slightly above NMRA recommendations.
I do options 1, 2, or 4.
i replace the couplers with kadees, althought i still have a few cars with the bachmann cheesy-mates that they came with. as long as they continue to opperate fine i dont really care. i’ve replaced the wheles on a few, but that costs money which i dont have. i’ve weathered a few cars, but never played much with it yet.
Generally I replace plastic wheelsets into metal wheelsets (KD, Proto and Jay-Bee).
And I bring the weight to NMRA standard.
Trucks I replace sometimes.
I run long, and so heavy, trains. When the Bachmann E-Z coupler operate I do not replace them. [:)]
Some cars I had superdetailed but not much.
I weather them, put semi-scale wheelsets,&Kadee # 58 couplers
It probably makes no difference in the overall results, but I clicked detail and should have click 2, 3 & 4. [:)]
I normally replace the couplers and trucks with Kadees, after polishing the wheel treads with a wire brush in a dremel tool. I’ll usually replace the grabs and ladders with thinner ones. Then add weight to bring them up to NMRA standards and weather them with washes and chalks.
Have fun,
Tom Watkins
I have always installed Kaydee’s. After about a year I started to weigh and adjust the wieght to NMRA standards. (I need to go back and do this to a number of cars). I just purchased Proto wheels and will start to replace these as well. Most all cars are weathered with inks, and chalks. The odd one goes under the airbrush as well.
Actually, I’ve got very few shake the box kits left these days. Over the past five years or so, I’ve been buying almost nothing but Atlas, Intermountain, Red Caboose, P2K, Westerfield, Sunshine and F&C, all of which are highly detailed cars (and except for Atlas and IM, relatively involved kits). My STB purchases have been restricted to Bowser PRR cars, which all get metal handrails and proto-specific details like cut levers and new running boards (where necessary), Accurail cars lettered for correct prototypes, which then get the same treatment as the Bowser cars, and Roundhouse cars that I kitbash/superdetail into specific prototypes (and those cars are only wood cabooses and passenger cars). Everything on my layout gets P2K wheelsets and Kadee #58s.
first thing I do is replace the wheelsets with Proto or Kadee. Second thing is kadee couplers. Third thing is putting them at the head end of a long train to see if they need extra weight to track. Fourth thing is put on a pot of coffee if 1,2 and 3 worked out. I have about 87 boxes of weathering chalk that I haven’t tapped yet, because I tried weathering a car about ten years ago and it turned out so bad that I turned it upside down and put it at the bottom of my Yuba River Canyon as a wreck that was too much trouble for the railroad to reclaim.
Regardless of brand the first thing I do is check to see if the floor and frame is warp.Then I paint the frame,weight,flooring and truck frames.I then built the kit…I add P2K wheel sets in Athearn trucks for replacement wheels and truck frames and add and adjust the KD couplers…
Note: On BranchLine’s Yardmaster series I also check the roof to make sure its not warp…
2,3,4.
KD’s and Metal wheel sets on everthing and sometimes lift bars, and air hoses
Every car gets KD’d
Every Car gets metal wheels
It makes a big difference in performance and keeping the track clean. Drag is reduced by at least 30%
I don’t care what anyone else says. Plastic couplers break and loose there “memory” (ability to stay closed)
Fergie
I replace the couplers if they come with X2Fs or Accumates.
06archerd, why are you bringing all these old polls back?[%-)]