I purchased an LG&B LGB boxcar from Dash.com for $23 recently. I liked the look of the car, and for that price I just couldn’t resist.

They have been having a lot of LGB and USA cars for auction for less then $30 lately. I need to stay away from that site, but I digress. In another thread I explained how I have been updating my heavier narrow gauge stock to ball bearing journals, so that my Moguls can haul a nice string of them up my 2.58% grade.

http://largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/24202/ball-bearing-journal-inserts

When it came time to upgrade this car, it became clear that this car had been run so much it was nearly worn out. My first clue were the plastic wheels it came with.

It appears they have quite a few miles on them. I can not see how the thing even ran with wheels like that. But putting metal wheels and ball bearings in the truck side-frames didn’t completely fix the car. The car also wobbled badly, because the bolster kingpins were also badly worn.

I also discovered, while working on the car, that it originally came with some kind of sound system. The floor has been partly cut out, and there is the symbol for sound on the car doors. What sound it came with, I do not know.

I had to fix the kingpins so the car would quit wobbling so bad. So I took some Evergreen 1/4 tubing, the package didn’t say if that was ID or OD, but I suspect its 1/4 inch OD, and slipped a piece onto the kingpin. I had to trim the ridge off of the top of the pin to get it slide on. Then I glued it in place with some Tennex, and trimmed it to length when the glue had dried.

The tubing had fit properly into the truck kingpin hole before I put it onto the kingpin, but since it was such a tight press fit, it had stretched a bit and the truck would not fit over the tubing anymore. So I sanded the tubing until the truck would fit. I want the truck to swivel freely, but I don’t want it to be loose on the pin. So it was a matter of sanding a little, test fitting and sanding some more, until I got the fit I wanted. Then I fixed the other kingpin, it was just as bad.

Then it was time to replace the missing stirrup step.

Now I could have taken a silicone mold of an existing step, and tried casting a new step and…that seamed like such a bother for just one step. So I went to my bucket of Plastruct to see if I had anything that I could adapt. I found an I beam that looked to be the right size for a little creative re-purposing.

I cut 2 sections of the I bean to the same thickness of the steps.

Then I trimmed off the unneeded parts and sanded them.

I then removed the remnants of the original step from the car, and glued on the parts I made.

Then I cut another piece out of the I beam to fill in the gap, and glued it in place.

Once the glue had dried it was time to paint the step. Since I didn’t want to try all afternoon to match the car’s colour, I decided that since it was a repair, my shop would paint it with whatever colour they had handy. So steam power black was the choice of the day.

In retrospect, I should have chosen a more visible coluor. When the car is running around the backyard, it still looks almost like it’s missing a step. So, maybe the next time it goes to the shop, the step will get a coat of primer red.

But, the important thing, is that the car no longer wobbles down the track. It runs as well as the other cars I have. So, for a little work, my El Cheepo boxcar looks, and runs, as well as the more expensive cars I run her with.

Nice work. Very creative use of an I beam.

A nice looking, and increasingly rare car, for not much money, is a joy forever!

Good fix David. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

A clever way to fix that missing step on a good looking car.

That LGB car originally came with steam sounds. I have the maroon mate to yours which has diesel sound.

Many of the items on Dash come from Trainz and are well used so it can be hit or miss when buying from them and UGG the 15% Fees are killer.

It is great to see that the previous owner really ran his trains. I have never seen a wheel come apart like that.

Very well done, David.

A good example of trash to treasure. I enjoy doing the same thing.

Very nice rebuild! I will try to remember these fixes. I’ve got access to a 3D printer, so I might either print steps, or revert to my old method of making them from brass strips!

Todd Haskins said:

A clever way to fix that missing step on a good looking car.

That LGB car originally came with steam sounds. I have the maroon mate to yours which has diesel sound.

Many of the items on Dash come from Trainz and are well used so it can be hit or miss when buying from them and UGG the 15% Fees are killer.

It is great to see that the previous owner really ran his trains. I have never seen a wheel come apart like that.

Yes, most of what I bid on at Dash is from Trainz. The 15% fees aren’t bad on the really cheap stuff, and I am cheap. If I am buying something more expensive, I really scope out the pictures. If I can’t tell for sure what condition its in, I usually pass on it. Their way of grading does tend to leave a bit to be desired. That being said, in the past year I bought 2 LGB locomotives from them. One with no run time on it, and the other with very minimal run time on it. They were in great shape, but weren’t getting bid on.

Thanks guys. I would have hated to retire that car due to worn kingpins. Wheels are easy to replace, the other parts took a little more effort. As for 3d printing the step, maybe someone should look into that. I only had one to repair, so to draw up a step would have taken longer then my repair did. And my bucket of Plastruct was nearly free, so the repair just cost me time.

Nice simple rebuild.

I really like the step fix. Have to remember that one.

I might have missed it, but did you mention what BB wheels you use? EDIT, oops just noticed BB journal insert link.

Did you install the BB inserts to this car? I have no more then 1.5% grades, but I really like the idea of BB inserts to help reduce drag and friction. Most of my rolling stock fleet are LGB and USA…with some Hartland. I use LGB metal wheels on most. So I’m interested if the LGB wheels fit the ball bearings you use (that eBay link in your other post)?

There is a lot of satisfaction in successfully rehabbing things. Yes, that I-beam bash is a minor spot of genius. Interesting about the sounds.

Matt Doti said:

Nice simple rebuild.

I really like the step fix. Have to remember that one.

I might have missed it, but did you mention what BB wheels you use? EDIT, oops just noticed BB journal insert link.

Did you install the BB inserts to this car? I have no more then 1.5% grades, but I really like the idea of BB inserts to help reduce drag and friction. Most of my rolling stock fleet are LGB and USA…with some Hartland. I use LGB metal wheels on most. So I’m interested if the LGB wheels fit the ball bearings you use (that eBay link in your other post)?

I have not tried the ball bearings on LGB wheels. They fit well on the new USA and Bachmann wheels I have. The older USA wheels, I had to sand down some of the axle ends a bit to make them fit. It was odd, I would have an axle where one end would fit fine into the bearing, but the other end wouldn’t until I sanded it a bit. I do have to say that I am happy with the way my Moguls can now pull longer trains before spinning their drivers.

Forrest, thanks. I have been a scratch-builder and kit-basher for quite a while now, and I have become used to re-purposing things to make what I need. I did the same fix on a Lionel HO hopper car, using much smaller Plastruct of course. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)