----- Original Message ----- From: Theodore Weiler I got a [Lionel] # 9123 Trailer Train model. Just substitute S helper trucks and maybe a spacer, then and go. > > > > > > > > > > > These are the open autoracks. That style was very popular on the rails not too many years ago. This Lionel car makes a good stand-in, by S standards. The real ones were of course about 90 ft long, while this Lionel car is only about 60 S scale feet. Even a 60 foot car should have its trucks set back a few scale feet from the ends, but any good roller bearing trucks, plus the scale couplers of your choice, body mounted, will make a good running car. < < < < < < < < < < < < A fellow club member uses them , but only use die cast for the lower level. Use plastic cars for the top two layers or else it gets too top heavy. > > > > > > > > > > > > > I wouldn't use all three decks unless you can lower them. Not only will the car be unstable, but I think it will be over height, even for a modern car. Real auto racks have two decks for shipping vans & pick-up trucks, or three for carrying lower profile autos. You can easily remove the top deck from the Lionel car and put in some pickup trucks. I once saw one that had had its top deck removed and cut up and the pieces used to lengthen the other two decks to a more realistic length.
I tried once to lower the two upper decks by shortening each vertical component by about a third. The pieces of that project are around here somewhere. < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < HE also uses the covered ones, but has to narrow them. He needs to photograph them and write it up for either the Dispatch or?? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I've done that too. It works, makes a short but nice contemporary autorack (if not viewed too closely). Tom Hawley -- Lansing Michigan
