Just so--that was my take on using the Ace cast bolster conversions for the AF flats and gondolas, that they ended up just sitting too high. I have one gondola I practiced on, taking bits off the underframe, finally concluding that there isn't much worth salvaging there, and two left to play with when I figure out what I really want to do with them. And three AF plastic flatcars and one cast metal as future projects.
Someone (Bob Nicholson?) wrote a while back that he just removed everything on the underframe of the gondolas and fabricated bolsters and all from styrene. I am still playing with these in between other projects; happily, I try to keep the cost of AF bodies in the $5-6 range so I am not damaging expensive collectibles (that is part of the challenge, the silk purse/sow's ear approach). Jace Kahn General Manager Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co. > If I remember correctly, ACE had a conversion bolster for the AF gondola as > well. For those cars, however, I prefer the box car bolster or hopper > bolster which fits nicely after I have ground down that ridiculous plastic > underbody. At the moment I have kitbashed a CGW 50' gon out of two AF gon > bodies. It's nearing completion. I say it's the last AF conversion I'll do, > but then I'll see article, such as the MR feature some years back, where the > author talked about converting TYCO gons into more prototypical specimens. > So perhaps I'll "adjust" a few more AF gons. I've long thought that the AF > gon was the most workable AF freight car. > > Tom > Ace had conversion bolsters for the flat and gondola. I've used both, but > prefer to mill or cut off the AF truck mount and use a flat Ace metal bolster > because the Ace flatcar conversions make the car sit too high above the > trucks. I can use a dremel tool to mill the plastic cars, the cast metal flat > is tougher and may require either a machine shop or using the Ace conversion. > > Pieter E. Roos > > > > Yes, that is what got me started on this topic: I bought > > three conversion floors which seemed to be based on the Rex > > gondola but > > also had the typical Ace #5 mounting surface. But > > they are good, heavy, zamac, as are all the other Ace > > bolsters I've acquired so far > > to convert AF cars. > > The catalogue sheets some kind soul scanned for me list > > quite a few Ace parts, with many of the urethane castings > > you note; I'd guess > > the owner of Ace at the time (Russ Downs?) was in > > transition between the original zamac line and more recent > > resin production. When > > everything started back in the 1950's, there was no good > > alternative to zamac and the expense of cutting dies for the > > castings, but as > > small-production became possible with epoxy/resin/urethane, > > it permitted developing new items without a major financial > > commitment > > (and perhaps to replace the zamac dies as they wore out). > > > > Jace Kahn > > > > General Manager > > Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Ace had conversion bolsters for pretty much every > > possibility of A F freight > > > car IIRC. There was even a conversion floor made for > > the boxcars. The > > > bolsters were urethane & made converting the AF > > cars to scale very easy when > > > used with the Ace trucks. They were set up to body > > mount Kadee #5 but I did > > > fit 802 on them. I have not heard yet if the new owner > > plans on continuing > > > those parts. > > > Bill Lane > > > > > > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > [email protected] > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
