A few years back, I had the chance to purchase a bunch of these cars.
They are well detailed but lacking in some respects. If you have
some and also think so, here’s what I did to make them into cars that
I think can compete with the $30 types:
-
The couplers are McH type plastic junk and will easily be damaged.
Fortunately, the draft boxes fit Kadee #5’s perfectly.
-
The wheels are painted plastic, and as soon as the paint wears
off the treads, they look bad. I don’t like plastic wheels, so I
replaced them with 33" Proto 2000 metal ribbed back wheels. I
spray painted them with Modelmaster Light Earth, which is a good
match to the weathered color of the sideframes. Blackened wheels
are not as good for this job since the flanges won’t look right.
To paint wheelsets, I used an earlier suggestion and drilled a
thin board to mount them so paint wouldn’t hit the treads or
flanges. I used small pieces of heat shrink tubing to cap the
axle points so I wouldn’t have to clean them. I cleaned the
treads with thinner afterward to remove minor overspray.
The new wheels won’t spin freely until the trucks are machined. A
Reboxx type reamer is a necessity for this.
- The boxcars weigh half what they should. I added 1 oz lead
weights inside over each truck where they cannot be seen when
the doors are open. I left off the separate floors as I thought
they detracted from the general appearance.
The gondolas are already weighted. I’d appreciate any suggestion
on how to weight the flatcars. Maybe substituting metal floors
scored and painted to look like wood, but seems like too much
trouble.
These cars were hangar queens; now I enjoy running them.
Hal
Good tips, thanks. These cars are sometimes seen at very low prices at swap meets. They are attractive although some knowledgable modelers have had their doubts about the accuracy of the boxcars.
I think the Ertl flat cars are almost impossible to make full NMRA standards weight (without a load). You could try a VERY thin sheet of lead covered with the cast plastic deck, perhaps thinning the deck by rubbing it on a flat sheet of emery cloth.
Solder wrapped around the axles is an old trick that might add a bit of weight. As in most cases if you are going to run lightweight cars then they have to be the free-est rolling cars you have or derailments are almost guaranteed.
Dave Nelson
You are not kidding about the weight problem. I purchased one of the flat cars, ran it once and it has been in a box ever since. It probably explains my built in resistance to R to R freight cars. I might cut off the load and replace with some of the metal John Deere tractors and see if that helps. The load from the Ertl can go into a gon or something.
Simon, I agree – right out of the box the Ertl cars are essentially unusable, but I do think just replacing the trucks or replacing the wheels (reaming out the bearings – if you don’t have the reaming tool that Micro mark sells, I have found a cordless Phillips screwdriver achieves much the same results) might make the car at least runable. As is they combine light weight with much drag, a fatal combination. Once you get them rolling OK their worst feature has been addressed.
Dave Nelson
The Ertl cars were ahead of their time: the molds were extremely proto-correct, the detailing was great, they had seperate grabs, and they were RTR with Kadee-clone couplers. Unfortunately, the hobby wasn’t ready for $30 RTR freight cars, and the line died.
I’ve got several of each of the cars, and really like the USRA double sheathed boxcars. Unfortunately, NONE of the paint schemes are correct. So my 30 or so Ertl cars are sitting in their boxes, waiting for the day I can take them and upgrade them to more proto-correct models. The few that I do have running as placeholders have had 2 ounces of lead added, new Accurail trucks, Life Like metal wheelsets, and Kadee 58 couplers. The ones I convert will have metal grabs and stirrups added, brake lines added, and in some cases, new K brakes and roofs.
As for weighing the gons and flats: the only practical way is to add a load. If you want empty cars, replace the plastic “wood” floor with A-Line sheet lead, scribed to resemble wood planks.
I bought a B&M flat car on ebay about a year ago. I added Intermountain metal wheels and some crates for weight. I’ll replace the couplers when the originals break. It’s not a bad looking piece of rolling stock.
Thanks for feedback. I got these cars in a dealer pack of 35, plus
11 more at shows, all at prices around $7-8. But had to do something
with them to make them better runners; now the boxes and gons are
free rolling and stable. The gons included weights; not full, but
probably enough. I guess I’ll look for metal loads for the flats
because they are feather-weight as is.
Hal