Hi! Where could I find infos or videos on how to change plastic wheels to metal wheels? I also received from a friend used Tyco freight cars with horn hook couplers and plastic wheels. The couplers don’t match with the recent cars I have. Should I change the couplers and the wheels? Is it worth it? I’ve never done that because I’m new to that hobby. Thanks for your help.
IMO Tyco cars aren’t the best option to be run on a dedicated model railroad IMO. They were made to be toys and are basiscally as such, hence the plastic wheels and horn hook couplers. That being said, you can convert the cars over, I have, but it gets expensive and tedious. I have a Tyco box car that I worked on last winter- changed the trucks/wheels, installed coupler boxes and knuckle couplers (bachmann) had to add weight because the car was underweight, and then hit the whole car with testors dull cote because it, being a glorified toy, had too high gloss of a finish.
Generally if I see a Tyco I run.
It’s a certain amount of work, but it’s not that bad. I have quite a few old Tyco cars accumulated when I was a teenager. I’m retiring next month. These are older cars with metal frames. They’re like old friends, so I wanted to keep them.
Some of the cars have truck-mounted couplers. That is, the couplers turn when the trucks do. The ones I’ve had were made with press-fit metal trucks. I’ve had to throw the trucks away completely, because the plastic wheels could not be replaced. You can buy new sets of trucks with metal wheels, or you can buy the trucks and wheels separately.
Couplers are usually easy to replace if they are mounted on the car body. If not, you will need to add “draft gear” boxes, and you’ll probably have to drill and tap the body for screws to do this well. Kadee makes all the parts you will need.
If you have only a handful, just go to a train shop or train show and get the parts. If you are doing a lot of them, you’re going to be better off buying everything in bulk.
This old thread recently was revived. It’s a pretty good photo-essay on how to do these things:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx
Oh, yeah. Welcome aboard! [#welcome]
I did a how to a couple of years ago:
For Kadee coupler replacement
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx
For truck repalcement
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194011.aspx#2118137
You probably will have to copy and paste the links due to some strange quirk in the forum software
Learning how to install body-mounted Kadee couplers on a “train set” quality car that came with plastic wheels and horn hook couplers attached to the trucks is a good way to learn how to tinker and modify and use basic tools and techniques. A box car or reefer is fairly easy to convert because you can fasten the Kadee coupler draft gear box to the floor (you may need to modify the floor to remove bumpy stuff molded in) with a simple nut and bolt after drilling the appropriate hole. You’ll want a Kadee coupler height jig but you’d want one of those anyway. It may take some adjusting, shimming, and other thoughtful work but again - all useful skills that need to start somewhere, so why not now and with those cars?
A flat car or tank car is not as easy a conversion, but still possible.
Plastic wheels are fairly easy to convert – yet now and then a plastic train set quality truck just does not seem to want to accept any wheels but the ones it came with. But that is rare. Moreover often replacing the entire truck with better quality trucks (and wheels) from Kadee, or Walthers, is a good idea anyway.
At the risk of repeating comments I have made often before, not all items marked or marketed as Tyco are created equal. When I started Tyco was essentially the ready to run brand name for Mantua, and some of the Mantua/Tyco plastic body/metal frame freight cars were not bad at all in terms of detail and paint jobs and worth converting if you liked the car. The problem back then (circa 1958 to 1962) is that Tyco/Mantua used a totally proprietary type of truck/bolster combination and the axle ends were not like those of most replacement wheels. The trucks screwed into the floors using a rather unique screw as well. But the cars had low centers of gravity due to metal floors and tracked well. I have kept the trucks and original plastic wheels on most old Tyco Mantua cars, body mounted the couplers. Should I e
Zazou:
I don’t need to add anything to what has already been said, but I would like to welcome you to the forum!
[#welcome]
Dave
Gidday, [#welcome]to the forum. Just in case Daniel G has cast doubt whether Tycho freight cars are worth doing up, have a look here…
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/227045.aspx
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
It depends on what they are worth to you. Each car will cost you around $8.00, maybe a little less. You will all so spend around $25.00 in tools, but you will need them later on anyway. Each car will take around 20 to 40 minutes. With the cost of RTR Rolling stock these days and if you are not looking for great detail then yes.
When I got started in the hobby I knew nothing and was buying off E Bay. I caught a lot of flack from a gone Troll about wasting money buying worn out junk I had to fix!
Way I looked at it, if I bought all new stuff, I would ware it out anyway so why not learn to fix the cheap stuff first?
Then for some reason I fell in love with the Tyco Old Dutch Hopper cars? Bought 35 of them and made them good rolling stock! Learned a lot from them so to me it was worth every penny!
Cuda Ken
http://s83.photobucket.com/user/cudaken/media/WPFun/Monon1.jpg.html]
I think that there’s no need to look down one’s nose at Tyco rolling stock. With a little effort they can be made into perfectly acceptable models, and the price is certainly friendly for those looking to practise their upgrading- and kitbashing-skills.
In some cases, a big improvement can be had simply by removing too-heavily-applied paint, adding a few simple details, and fresh lettering (along with the body-mounted couplers and better trucks, of course).
This reefer got that treatment, although it’s shown with a Tichy floor which it received at a later date:
That wasn’t the latest upgrade, though: I had several identical cars, and a couple of them had sagging floors:
I initially set out to fix the floors, but decided that it would also be a good time to remove the steel ends and replace them with wooden ones - I’m modelling the '30s, and wood reefers with steel ends weren’t all that common.
I also decided that the cast-in-place running board would look better as a free-standing one. Eliminating those got me to this stage:
…then this:
Well, having gone that far, I went ahead creating new ends, along with some reinforcement of the carbodies:
…and finishing off with scratchbuilt radial roof
This is a Bachmann trainset hopper. I body mounted Kadee #5 couplers on it. You can see the white styrene pad under the coupler box. I need to paint that some day. Cannot remember whether I changed the wheel sets. Actually, merely painting the wheel faces grimy black improves their looks a lot. I painted the trucks rust red, probably red auto primer from a rattle can. The whole car got a coat of DullCote to kill the gloss of the trainset paint, and tone the red down a bit. With a home made coal load, it looks plenty good enough for my coal drags.
It is not worth it to go to the trouble and expense for cheap toy trains unless you have a strong sentimental attachment to a few cars, or it’s a unique car not available in a better form - such as the Bachmann cylindrical hopper.
If you are trying to keep costs down, go to a local train show and buy kit based freight cars such as Athearn blue box, Model Die Casting, Walthers red box, Accurail etc. They have body mount couplers and it’s fairly easy to drop in KD#5 couplers, and optionally change out the plastic wheels for metal wheels.
I realize some here advocate upgrading the Tyco cars as an education or lesson in modeling, but thats only an opinion and for a beginner - unnecessarily difficult - but it’s up to you. I’ve done it on a couple cars back when I was a starving student and can say “been there, done that” but don’t really recommend it.
If repainting your Bachmann/TYCO covered or open hoppers one visual improvement you can make is to remove the draft angles on the ladders and stirrups (the small lip on the backedge of the ladders and stirrups).
This does not weaken them in the least bit but make their profile much thinner looking which helps remove that “toy” look.This works on painted cars too, but you may find your self scrambling to find a good colour match.
Wayne – amazing work as always. I don’t know of anybody else who has your ability to see the potential in these low cost cars. The only comparison I can think of is what the late Art Curren did with, and to, overlooked plastic structures in his famous kit-mingle articles. The guys who did the original tool and die work on these cars would be honored.
Have you ever said “I give up” to any piece of “train set quality” rolling stock?
Just a few side comments. The Life Like trainset reefer is the same tooling that Varney offered in its later years (ditto for some other LifeLike cars such as the hopper and Erie covered hopper), but with even worse trucks if that can be believed. The ice hatches on those reefers are unusual and interesting; even when I replace the roofs I try to save them. And Tyco has offered both 10 panel and 11 panel gondolas over the years. Both of them have attracted skilled kitbashers.
Dave Nelson
Most people think that hook horn couplers and knuckle couplers do not work together, but amazingly, they do. In fact, it works better than the hook horn couplers. I could this out by accidentally pushing a Kadees scale coupler into a hook horn coupler. I thought they wouldn’t connect, but they held.
However I would suggest just convert to Kadees.
Sure any car is worth making better, but at some point you’ve got to ask yourself at what cost and time is it worth it? With the amount of options of kits and RTR there are 90% of the time Tyco cars are not worth my time and money.
This 100% While sure, you can try to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse, for most I’d say it’s simply not worth the time given the many better alternatives.
As my wife would say, your having a laugh!
I once forced a Kadee to hook to a horn hook too, but I would NEVER EVER recommend anyone even consider mixing the two. That is a recipe for frustration. Just bite the bullet and convert. Even plastic clones couplers are better than hornhooks. Even as a teen I hated those things with a passion and was so glad to see the model makers supply KD compatibles. Amazingly horn hooks have continued to be supplied in the packages of many models - I toss them out immediately upon opening the box without a second thought.
“With the amount of options of kits and RTR there are 90% of the time Tyco cars are not worth my time and money.”
I was not suggesting that your opinion was invalid, I was offering what I believe is an equally valid, but alternative opinion.
Ahh Jim, but for some of us the fun bit is in the attempt.
Thank goodness we’re in a hobby that’s big enough to cater for most of our varied interests.
BTW, in belated response to the OP, I only change out plastic wheels if they are causing me an issue.
Just my [2c] Cheers, the Bear . [:)]
Me Toooooooooooo! [Y]
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
There is a saying, If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Plastic wheel sets work just fine. Sure metal wheelsets are nice but they are somewhat pricy. I stay with the wheelsets that come with the kit.
Now, couplers are a different story. If the car is put together, and the couplers are working, I leave them. But if I am building a kit I will use Kadees. I am planning to convert to all Kadees when I have time.
Right, an as they say, different strokes for different folks. But the OP asked “is it worth it”. I definitely think it’s not worth it - but the OP will have to decide if doing that kind of thing is fun or not. His call naturally.
In terms of value, thats a judgement call if a train enthusiast likes Tyco quality train cars enough to put that level of work (or “fun” into it. The the work is fun, I guess and a person is happy with the train, there is plenty of room for that. As the old saying goes, YMMV! I have fun working on models, yes, but the fidelity of most train set quality models isn’t pleasing to me.
Cheers, Jim
[quote user=“Kyle”]
Now, couplers are a different story. If the car is put together, and the couplers are working, I leave them. But if I am building a kit I will use Kadees. I am planning to convert to all Kadees when I have time.
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