# American Models Heavyweights



## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Following the successful completion of improvements to the AM scale length lightweight cars, I decided to try shortening the coupled distance between the 72' AM heavyweight cars. These cars are designed to operate on Gilbert 20"R track, their coupled distance between cars is 3/4". That just appeared too large when I compared it to the 1/4" distance between the modified scale lightweights. The project is successful although only two cars have been done so far.
The process on the heavyweights is simple, remove one screw to take off the coupler. Then drill a new mounting hole in the arm of the coupler and cut off the excess arm length. Then remount the coupler on the truck. Note in the pictures three of the cars have three axle trucks, one has two axle trucks. This makes no difference.
The cars are now 3/16" apart when coupled and there is plenty of clearance on 30"R curves due to the slightly curved car ends. 3/16" is really close when they are viewed on the layout, major appearance improvement. As modified they will still run on 27"R track, not sure about smaller, I will test it later.
I took these where I had two curves together so the cars were in one picture. The top track has the unmodifed cars. These cars are so close the couplers are hidden under the coaches so the big knuckle couplers no longer detract from the appearance. The final picture is the observation rear with an added NH drumhead and a scale coupler.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Here are two more pictures to help visualize the modification. The first is a downward view of the car end that shows how far under the car the coupler is now positioned. The second picture is the underside of the truck and car. The screw hole in the coupler assembly was drilled 1/4" closer to the coupler and the excess cut off for clearance to the bolster.
Four cars are now done out of a total of 18, six to a passenger train set.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Looks like you have done it again Tom. Another fine job. At first glance, referring to your looking down picture, I would have bet there was no way that would work with the coupler being so far under the body but seeing is believing. Good work. . 

Kenny


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

If I had thought this project through I would have started with the gray Erie Lacawanna cars, they would have been easier to photograph than the black NH cars. I had tested this coupler position as part of the lightweight car rebuilds, sometimes what seems illogical works fine.
The nice thing is there are zero mods to the heavyweight cars, so it just takes $4/car to buy new replacement couplers if I ever want to undo it. Over the weekend I will get out some 20" and 25"R track to see how small a radius these will run on.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The NH six car train set is completed. I tested it on 25" and 20"R track. it still runs on 20"R curves. In retrospect that is not surprising since 3/16" spacing is about the distance of the Gilbert heavyweights with link couplers. A neat benefit is the six car train is now 3" shorter, that is enough to use a Pacific in place of an E8 and still fit on the four shorter passenger station tracks.
The pictures below are on a 36"R curve on Line 3. An AM RS3 is pulling the train.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The first four Lackawanna cars are now done. Hard to believe that these were more time consuming. Why??? Because this set was assembled with brass coupler screws so the magnetic screwdriver will not pick up and position the tiny screws. For the rest of the cars I will try a little Tacky Wax on the screwdriver tip.
I am done for today, the PSU game is on TV. Here are two pictures. I am not sure these pictures really do justice to how much better the cars look now.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Tom, it is amazing how such a small gap adjustment between cars makes such a big difference in appearance. I don't mean it was a small job. 

Kenny


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The PRR lightweights, the NH and the Lackawanna sets are all done. Just the tiniest bit of the Dept. 56 Tacky Wax made the brass screws stay fixed on the end of the screwdriver. Only the PRR heavyweights are left to do. I also have a set of the commemorative Southern Crescent cars but I do not run those on the layout so they will stay as is. The passenger cars now look much more like a scale train on the layout.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

I couldn't agree more. Great move on your part. 

Kenny


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Super nice.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Looks much better with close couplers. 

Roco and other rolling stock I receive with the Märklin/Roco type hook and loop coupler all get changed out to the close coupler type. The cars are bellows to bellows with the swap.

Question; did older cars of this era not have bellows on the end doors?


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Michael, that is an interesting question best answered with a picture. No Gilbert cars had bellows although scale modelers used to buy detail parts and modify them.
In the picture below, left to right, are the AM 72' heavyweights, the AM streamlined Budd cars, the current Lionel AF heavyweights and the very early AM full scale 84' lightweights. The Budd cars have fake bellows and they couple close together, the bellows are about 1/8" apart. All but the full scale cars on the right are made to operate on 20"R track so bellows are not practical for them. If bellows are desired they can be added from specialty suppliers as long as wide radius curves are used. No S gauge passenger cars are made with bellows.
About a year ago GGD announced the intent to make full scale, fully detailed passenger cars in S if enough preorders were received. I placed a pre order for a six car set but a year later it sounds like not enough were received to initiate production. Three problems firms like GGD find trying to produce in S gauge. One, the market is at least an order of magnitude smaller than HO or O. Two, the products are expensive, above the price point S gaugers are accustomed to. For example the proposed GGD passenger cars were about $350/car. Third, if it will not run on Gilbert 20"R track 80% of the operators are eliminated from the market.
When the trains are running on the layout the absence of bellows and some other details are not apparent. At least in S, unlike in O, all the equipment is made to the same 1/64th scale.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Two more pictures to show how the cars look when coupled together. The first picture shows, at the top, my modified close coupled heavyweights compared to the unmodified Budd cars with the fake bellows. The second picture shows the unmodified Budd cars, top, with the unmodified heavyweights, bottom.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I was motivated today, finished the last AM set, the PRR heavyweights. Now they all look good, coupled close together. Should have done this years ago. The Observation had a failed lighting circuit board, so I had to disassemble that car to put in a replacement. The heavyweights are a pain to take apart and get them back together without any light leaks between the sides and roof. Fortunately I had an extra lighting board on hand.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I decided to reactivate this old thread so that all the documentation of modifying American Models passenger car couplers will be in one place. I was running some passenger trains this AM, for the first time in a while I ran the Lackawanna set (pictured above) behind both the AM Lackawanna Northern and the Lionel Legacy U33 E-L diesel. The AM Northern is one of the AM engines with added electrocouplers, they stick out an unreasonable length because the tender trucks were not designed for these couplers but they work fine.
I made a decision to further shorten the coupler arms on the front of baggage car that couples to the engine. It needs to couple to both the Northern and the U33 and navigate the 30"R curves. After some measurements I decided to shorten the coupler arm another 1/2", making it 3/4" shorter than what came from the factory. This puts the coupler totally under the car.
The tightest clearance is with the U33, on the 33"R curve shown below there is about 3/16" clearance. As modified it will likely work on 27"R track but nothing smaller. I think the train now looks much better.
Below are some before, with the yard stick, and after pictures with both engines. I now plan to do a similar mod with the NH heavyweight set.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

After posting my latest coupler mods it belatedly occurred to me that I also had a Lackawanna AM E8 that pulls those passenger cars. The E8 has the shortest coupler protrusion of any engine except the Lionel Legacy Berkshire. Testing was immediately conducted. If the E8 was measured prior to the mods I would have left an additional 1/8" on the coupler arm. Amazingly it does work fine, here are two pictures. The one on the straight track section has a light behind it to highlight the gap. On the 30"R curve there appears to be no gap but the car end does not actually touch. They run fine.
I will make another coupler for this set 1/8" longer and use this coupler on the green NH set since I do not have any green NH E8's.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The swap is done, the short coupler is now on the NH set. Here are pictures with the AM NH Pacific with the long electrocoupler and with an AM NH Train Master. Both look much better. I will make a new short coupler for the Lackawanna E8 combo. Do not be concerned about modifying the heavyweights. Only the coupler is modified and a bag of replacements can be purchased from AM if any errors are made. The results are worth the few minutes per coupler it takes to do this mod.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

AmFlyer said:


> After posting my latest coupler mods it belatedly occurred to me that I also had a Lackawanna AM E8 that pulls those passenger cars. The E8 has the shortest coupler protrusion of any engine except the Lionel Legacy Berkshire. Testing was immediately conducted. If the E8 was measured prior to the mods I would have left an additional 1/8" on the coupler arm. Amazingly it does work fine, here are two pictures. The one on the straight track section has a light behind it to highlight the gap. On the 30"R curve there appears to be no gap but the car end does not actually touch. They run fine.
> I will make another coupler for this set 1/8" longer and use this coupler on the green NH set since I do not have any green NH E8's.
> 
> View attachment 590775
> View attachment 590776


That is tight!


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

It is too tight! It looks worse than being too far apart. I am making a longer coupler for the car that couples to the Lackawanna E8.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Revision 1 to Modification 2 is completed. 1/8" was added to the coupler arm length to slightly open up the space between the coach and the E8. 3/16" would have been better but that was not possible because of the narrow "waist" that is molded into the AM coupler arms. It is necessary to keep the mounting holes out of the narrow waist area or the arm will break.
The pictures below show the new hole locations. The "1/4" shorter" hole used to bring two coaches closer together is where the screwdriver tip is closes to the original hole. The 5/8" shorter arm is where the srewdriver is between the narrow part and the coupler. This is for closer coupling to the engines.
The Lackawanna E8 pictures show the gap with the extra 1/8", the curve is on 30"R track. It will run on 27"R curves as well, and 20"R with any engine but the AM E8.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Tom that closer coupling does look good. I'm surprised though that those cars can negotiate 27R track with any engine. 

Kenny


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The reason the cars can be pulled close together and still navigate curves is the shape of the car ends. The picture shows how the ends are cut back from the center so they will work all the way down to 20"R Gilbert track ( except the one case of the Lackawanna E8.) I only cared about 30"R which is my minimum, but they tested ok to my surprise on sharper curves. Check out the UP Budd cars on the E8. They are factory and run fine on Gilbert track.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

That end shape design would be a great help Tom. That Budd UP car behind the E8 looks so much better and close enough to look prototypical. Nice job. 

Kenny


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