Hello Ed, I have several heavyweights but haven't touched them recently.
I'm in the middle of redoing an AM lightweight set for the B&O. I've
accumulated some experience which I can share as follows (keyed to your
questions).
Regards. Paul S.
**********************
1) Is there a easy way to remove the roof Can't recall offhand but it
shouldn't take that long.
2) I removed the lights with silhouettes and was wondering if there
are any commercial interiors made for these cars or is this something
I fabricate myself? Use the AM Budd car interiors. You can cutoff excess
with saw tool, file or Dremel. Paint them first. Use construction paper to
make window shades or order HO scale shades from the Walthers catalogue. Use
the shades to block the "bad" views which might be created with the next
step. Purchase an AM passenger lighting kit. you're going to turn it upside
down, run the wires up thru a styrene tube cut off to sit on the floor of the
interior and be high enough to keep the AM lighting kit circuit board above the
window line. Use styrene - again painted - to assist in partioning off the
interior of the car to again hide anything you don't want to see. There is
an article by V.S. Roseman in RailModel Journal with the last 3 years on the
window shades. You'll put shades in all windes but vary their height.
Purchase a set of MTH passenger figures - between S and O but inside the cars
no
one will notice the difference. You can either get the painted set or paint
them yourself. Then use Scenic Accents glue to mount a few inside the cars.
Above is just a summary but you get the idea. With the Budd interiors,
reverse mounted AM lighting kits, window shades and figures, you'll have some
nice
cars.
3) Can I mount kadee 802's or SHS's scale couplers directly to the
flooring and get the correct height or do I need shims to accomplish
this task? I used AM truck mounted c ouplers as I have the long
lightweights and they have to go around 24"radius curves. I suspect, however,
you can
mount SHS scales to the heavyweight "shortie" bodies.
4) Are there any other upgrades I should do while I have the roofs
off?, add addition weight, etc? The lightweights are fairly light so I
added some lead fishing weights (again hidden behind the drawn shades)
directly
over the wheels. You could use stick on weights, although as I recall the
heavyweights seem closer to the NASG standard weight (I got an inexpensive
postal scale at an office supply store and measured for myself)
5) Are the supplied trucks OK or are replacements available. I'd defer to
others on the trucks. The Roseman article has recommendations for
painting/weathering the trucks and underside which I hope to follow. You
might
consider NWSL replacement wheels, though. I've got one car equipped and hope
to do
the others. They're great.
******************
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