LOWERING ARISTO BOX CARS TO IMPROVE THEIR SCALE APPEARANCE
Last reviewed and revised June 20, 2002(When writing my articles, I have tried to be conscious of the time it takes to view them. Some modelers only have a dial-up connection to the Internet and sizeable image files imbedded in the text can slow viewing down quite a bit. To counteract this, I have kept my images hidden behind key words in the text so that you view them only when you click on those words. This also has the benefit of opening a seperate window with the image in it so that the text and the image can be viewed side by side. As a result, imbedded in this article you will find some underlined words that hyperlink you to photographic images illustrating the point being made. I have deliberately tried to keep the image files small so, necessarily, the images are pretty low resolution but I hope that they help in any case. Enjoy!)
UPDATE - LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Since I wrote this article, Aristo-Craft has noticed the fact that these cars sit too high off the rails too. Apparently my article, when combined with the obervations and articles of several others, was enough to convince Aristo to change their floor molds. About a year ago, Aristo started shipping the newer, lowered version of their car floors in all their new production house cars. You will find an advertisement of the “new lowered floor” on many of the new boxes.
You can learn several things from this developement. First, when buying a new car, check to see if it is old production or new by looking at the undercarriage body bolster. If it sticks up too high, it is older production and will need to be lowered. And, second, if you want to convert some of your older cars all you have to do now is buy the newer floors. They drop right in and essentially do what this article describes with a lot less fuss.
Be careful, though! Don’t toss those old floors! Lewis Polk told me that Aristo modified the only floor mold they had to the new lower style. Since these floors were also used in the Gondola and Flat cars, which needed the higher bolster to be at the right height off the rails, some new production of these cars may end up being too low! In that case you will want to put one of the old floors in them to correct the flaw.
In any case, I will leave this article on the website for those who want to do it the old way.
Enjoy!
Introduction and Credits
I have enjoyed the detail on the Aristo Box Car, Stock Car and Reefer very much but the cars always seemed a little off to me when they were being pulled in a train. Then one day, squinting at a multiple car lash up, I noticed that the gondola cars, tank cars and flat cars all seemed to be sitting lower on the rails than the “house” cars. I decided to get out my trusty blueprints and ruler to see what was up.
I discovered that, after taking the calculator to the measurements and converting for 1/29 scale, the “house” cars were indeed sitting too high off the rails. As a matter of fact, they were 3/16 of an inch too high!
In 1:29 scale that’s a lot.
When I went back to look at the cars again it jumped right out at me and I saw way too much daylight under the cars for my liking. I decided to try to do something about it and ended up developing a nice method for getting good results. I thought maybe some of the rest of you might like to do it too.
I’m not the first one to cook up this idea, though.
First, Bob Uniack and Russ Reinberg published an article in the old “Outdoor Railroader” magazine back in October/November 1993 (page 40) that does basically what I am about to describe. You might want to refer to that article for the illustrations that it includes. The only difference is that I use a special casting as a replacement bolster while Bob and Russ advised building a bolster up from thin styrene stock.
In addition, Paul Burch from Hawaii has done many conversions like this using a method that cuts the old bolster off the car, files it down and then glues it back into the car floor. His photos from frequent postings on several of the Large Scale bulletin boards attest to the excellence of his results.
Recently, George Schreyer has experimented with both my method and Paul’s and has an interesting review of the effort each takes and the results they produce on his Tips web site. If you haven’t visted his site you are missing a real treat.
One of the nice things about putting this article on the web is the ability I have to constantly do updates that improve it. When George did his article on this subject, it gave me the opportunity to include some of his findings in this treatise to make it clearer. You will notice the benefits of this collaboration throughout this article. My thanks to George for his cooperation.
Now on to a description of what I do.
Description of My Methods
Disassembly
The first thing that you will need to do is disassemble the whole car. Take the trucks and couplers off the floor/underframe then remove the underframe from the car body. This will require you to remove 6 long (and I do mean long) screws that hold the floor in place as well as two tiny screws from the sides of the car at the bottom center of each door. Sometimes the floor resists coming out of the car body because of small tabs that protrude into the inside of the car from the steps on the ends. Use a flat bladed screw driver to push one set of these tabs flush and that corner will lift out, permitting the removal of the entire floor.
Set all these parts aside for now. We will only be working on the floor/underframe.
The Floor/Underframe
First let’s look at the Aristo freight car underframe to get some idea of what it looks like before it is modified. Please note that the height of the bolster, to where the truck will sit, is 19/32nds of an inch, or .60 inches. This dimension produces a car that is 3/16ths of an inch too tall. Our object is to change this dimension to .4125 inches.
Removing the Cast In Bolster
Now let’s remove most of that bolster, leaving a thickness of about 1/16th of an inch, or .0625 inches. Here’s a diagram to clarify what we are about to do. (I’m such an amateur at this web graphics stuff!)
To do this, start by removing the two screws on the underside of each bolster that go through to the simulated wood plank floor on the inside of the car. Put them aside for re-use later. You will find, in most cases that the floor planking will not come loose when these screws are removed because it has been glued in place.
Remove the bolster using any method you are comfortable with but be sure to leave 1/16th of an inch of the thickness of the bolster’s original plastic above the black plastic floor planks that form the underside of the floor. Also make sure that the method you use produces a smooth, level surface for the new bolster to sit upon. I clamp the floor in my milling machine and, with care, get the results shown in the photo. (By the way, I now have a jig for this and can remove these bolsters in about 2 minutes per side so if you want me to do it, just email me and we will get it accomplished for you.)
Please note the two plastic screw lugs on the underside of the simulated wood planking that forms the visible part of the car floor. I leave these intact and you should too. These will figure prominently in our work. Using a #46 drill bit, drill through them, starting at the already existing screw holes, going all the way through the floor.
George Schreyer Tries My Method
When George did his project using my method, he tried to simplify the task by eliminating the need to measure and leave 1/16th of an inch of the thickness of the bolster in place, as I did. His slightly quicker method resulted in his taking even more of the stock floor off the car. The results are shown in this photo. Please note that he milled off both the bolster and the floor lugs to a level surface and still found that there was enough of the lugs plastic left to hold the new bolsters in place. The result of George’s variation, however, is a car that is actually a full 1/4 of an inch lower and this might pose a problem for some large flanged wheels. If you look at his photo closely, you will notice that he has anticipated this flange difficulty and has milled some of the floor bracing to clear the flanges.
Also note that he has milled off the vertical tab that is cast into the floor between the bolster and the end of the car. In case you are not aware of this tab’s purpose, it is used to prevent truck mounted coupler tangs from too much vertical motion on uneven track. If the bolster is lowered, the tab must be lowered too if you continue to use truck mounted couplers.
Fitting the New Bolster Casting
Now comes the neat part.
I used some of my amateur machining ability and made a brass replacement body bolster to fit the bottom of the car. When I got it right, I learned how to make an RTV mold of the piece and cast duplicates using casting resin type plastics. I even found a way to include some cool rivet detail so that the replacement body bolster looks correct under the car. (I can make these available to anyone who is interested for a nominal charge or you can make your own by copying my parts.) So now I take a couple of these cast replacement body bolsters and trial fit the car with them by setting them, one at a time, on top of the screw lugs and replacing the two screws removed earlier.
You should note that the area where the truck will sit is now 3/16 of an inch closer to the floor making the car ride 3/16ths lower. This makes the car measure right about 14 foot 11 inches tall, which matches blueprints for similar cars in my file.
When George did his project, he fitted the new bolster on his underframe and got this result.
Finalizing the Project
Optionally, you may finish the attachment with a little epoxy glue. Remove the bolster and carefully apply the epoxy. Replace the bolster and allow the glue to dry.
To finish things off all you need to do is trim down the center sill near the bolster so that it is level or just below the level of the bolster pad and does not stick up (kinda’ giving the car a nice fishbelly center sill look).
You have to decide whether you want to trim down the plastic tab that is cast into the floor that normally supports the truck mounted couplers. I body mount my couplers and this tab serves as a nice backstop for mounting my Kadees so I leave it alone.
When George did his work he needed to trim the vertical tab for truck mounted couplers and, when his trucks were attached to the new bolster, they looked like this.
When you’re finished with puttering around with the underside of the car, but before you attach the trucks, spray paint the whole floor with flat black paint and then install the trucks and couplers.
You are now ready to test run your newly lowered, more realistic looking freight car. Put the floor back in the car and you should get the results shown in the “before and after” photo below.
My own before and after view.George Schreyer’s before and after view using my method.
All my Aristo house cars have been converted using this method and had their Bettendorf trucks improved, as described in one of my other articles. The result is a truly fantastic looking model freight train in 1/29 scale and my successes in this area have greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the Large Scale model railroading hobby. I hope it will do the same for you.
Other Projects Suggested by This Work
By the way, a similar method works for the covered hoppers too, but that’s another article for later!
Paul Burch’s Alternative Method
As I mentioned earlier, Paul Burch has a slightly different way of getting the same result. His cars are also lowered by 3/16th of an inch, but he has found a way to do it by salvaging the original bolster from the car and cutting it down. The work required to cut down the old bolster and reuse it makes this method a little more labor intensive but the results are just as satisfactory.
Because George Schreyer did it both ways, I have some of his excellent photos of Paul’s method to share with you.
Disassembly of the car is the same as in my method as described above.
Paul’s method does require that the plastic floor plank insert (usually cast in tan plastic but sometimes in yellow) be removed. To do this there are two additional screws, in the center of the underside of the car, that you will have to remove. Sometimes this floor casting is glued in place so you will want to be really careful taking it out so that you don’t break it. When George removed his insert, he got the results shown in this photo.
This leaves the car underfame, when viewed from the top, looking like this.
Working on this side of the underframe, cut away as much material as you can on the inside of the bolster to remove it. Removing the old bolster can be done with careful cutting using a razor saw, but George used a small milling machine and, as a result, recovered the bolster almost perfectly. Here is how George’s careful milling looked after he finished removing material and just before the bolster piece separated.
Whatever method you use, the end result should look like this.
Now you need to prepare the old bolster that you just removed for re-insertion into the underframe by cutting it down. Remove material and continuously trial fit the bolster until the outside edges are just flush with the underside of the underframe. When George used this method, his results looked like this after he installed and glued the modified old bolster back in place.
Notice that the center sill, floor bracing and the vertical tab still have to be cut down just as we described above in my method (depending on whether you are using body mounted or truck mounted couplers).
Well, you can now finalize you model just as we described above in the “my method” section and you should get the same great results that both George and I got.
Here’s a picture of the cars that George did. The one on the left is my method with a cast replacement bolster and the one on the right is Paul’s method reusing the old bolster.
As you can see the end result is almost exactly the same…a great improvement in the prototypical appearance of the final car!
Thanks for your attention! Now get busy!
If you have any questions or comments about my methods, or about 1/29 model railroading in general, please Email me at [email protected]
Thanks again for your interest.