Conversion of Intermountain 8000 gallon tank car
Model tank cars are built rather delicately; this may give a little trouble when the car is to be rebuild. The trucks are the same type as on Intermountain's other freight cars and are converted the same way. Older cars have the non-working couplers shown while newer cars have working Accumate couplers.
I want to use Micro-Trains couplers exclusively and mostly the #1015 type. The underframe of the car is made from plastic and there is not much material thickness to screw on the couplers so I also use epoxy to mount them.
Photo 1: Intermountain 8000 gallon tank car as bought.
Photo 2: Truck with non-working coupler.
Photo 3: The trucks are removed, one coupler is sawn off and the truck bolster cut clean.
Photo 4: The trucks are remounted (without washers) with Intermountain 33" metal wheel sets, and the height is checked against the Micro-Trains height gauge; the height of the underframe's mounting platform is approximately 0.3mm too low for coupler #1015.
Photo 5: The couplers are mounted using M1.2x4 countersunk screws and epoxy; below can be seen a truck with metal wheel sets, a 0.3mm thick washer and the truck pin.
Photo 6: The trucks are remounted using 0.3mm thick washers to bring the coupler to the proper height.
Updated 2009-01-04