 Photo from Atlas O website http://www.atlaso.com |
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I wanted to make this car look more turn-of-the-century. So I decided to shorten the body by 4 scale feet and move the trucks inward 3-6 scale inches. |
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I. Analysis |
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I examined the body to see where it could be cut. My inital thought was to cut 4' out of the door
opening. This meant rebuilding the door, the tracks, and the cast in details. I decided this was too much
work. That left cutting a small section (2' or less) out of each end between the end and the floor mounting studs. The final location was chosen in order to preserve the spacing of the roof ribs. But this means the end section of the roof will be larger than the others. |
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The metal floor attaches to the body at four spots. Mounting lugs are cast into the body and the floor has raised portions to fit onto these lugs. I did not want to remove and rebuild these, so any length chopping could not interfere with these. |
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From left to right: the floor mounting holes, the bolster mounting holes, and lugs for the coupler mounting. The model is 3-rail so I tested the truck/coupler height. The coupler needs a pad of approximately .125" to achieve proper coupler height. This is bypassing the coupler lugs molded into the floor. |
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The left truck is stock and the right one has the coupler removed. The mounting tang will need to be shortened or removed when the body mount couplers are attached. |
II. ConstructionNow that the model has been analyzed and I knowwhat I want to do and how to accomplish it, construction can begin. Construction sequence:
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A. Preparations |
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The paint and lettering were removed with 99% IPA (isopropyl alcohol). It took several hours and a lot scrubbing. |
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The body bolster is filled with Milliput putty. The bolster will need strengthening when it gets new mounting holes in its new location. |
B. Body and Floor Chop |
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 The body sections were cut with a 32 tpi hacksaw. |
 The ends and the body were marked to show where they were attached. In this case it is not important as the body is the same on both ends, but could be important in other cases and I marked them out of habit. |
Left is the stock body at 40'. Right the chopped body at 37' 3". |
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The floor was cut at the same time the ends were attached. |
C. Underframe |
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 The chopped frame is installed. Right: a close-up of one end. Note that the body bolster covers the body/floor mounting screws. New holes were drilled through the bolsters and into the floor and then tapped for 2-56 screws. |
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D. Couplers/Trucks |
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 The floor was drilled and the Kadee metal coupler boxes installed. This required a .160 (not .125 as I had originally thought) spacer between the floor and the coupler box to get the correct height. The end of the coupler mounting tang on the truck had to be cut off in order to clear the coupler box. |
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F. Completion |
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Here is the rolling chassis awaiting its transformation into a boxcar. |
 Body is primered with spray Almond and touched up with Testors gray. Underframe is spray painted gloss black. |
 The body gets purple paint. |
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Painting is complete and decals are applied. |
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| The roof walk was cut, painted and installed, along with the trucks and cut levers. | |