Protocraft’s General Casting Corp Type 41-N passenger truck

SGL-Protocraft-trucks-8

The seven SGL cars after I installed the Protocraft trucks.

A couple of years ago I picked up a 3-rail seven car set of the SGL Reading coaches for a very good price. It turns out that Protocraft had imported a General Casting Corps 41-N passenger truck which is what is under them. So it looked like the conversion would be rather simple.

Well, nothing is ever as simple as it might first appear. I test fit one set of trucks under a car and thought the car might be sitting a little high. Thinking I had to modify the 3-rail bolsters under the cars the project ground to a screeching halt. The box with the seven pairs of trucks sat on a shelf right next to the cars for a while (it sat long enough for me to have to dust off their roofs as I worked on them).

I just finished a cleaning project in my train-room, well I’m still still cleaning some parts of the room. So lets just say I cleaned a spot to put my old drafting table back in the train-room. Now, I can work on projects on a much wider area. Feeling inspired, I pulled one of the cars down and set it on top of the trucks again. I never did actually attach the trucks to the car. My thought was that I would figure out how much I would have to mill the bolster down to bring the cars down.

I wasn’t exactly sure how much that was so, out came the books. First couple of images were close but it was hard to tell. So, I went through the images I had on the computer. Again the car looked like it did in the photos. Cool, maybe I didn’t have to mill the bolsters after all.

The Precision Scale Company bolster screws fit nicely into the SGL bolsters and they actually fit the Protocraft trucks also. So, it was a simple matter of attaching the trucks using the Precision bolster screws and springs.

Next up for these cars is fitting couplers onto them. Since, they started out as 3-rail cars they don’t have any coupler mounting pads on them.

SGL-Protocraft-trucks-4

The original 3-rail truck screws in the bolster boss.

SGL-Protocraft-trucks-3

Protocraft General Casting Corps 41-N passenger truck inverted next to the precision Scale truck bolster screw and spring.

SGL-Protocraft-trucks-2

Close up view to compare to the prototype photo below it.

rdg 2010

One of the prototype cars later in their service life in West Trenton, NJ.

Mainline Modeler Magazine on DVD

I was reading Trevor Marshall’s Port Rowan in 1:64 site about a week ago. He had a post talking about how the Complete Collection of Mainline Modeler was being released on DVD through the C&O Historical Society.

This is great news. I’ve always liked Mainline Modeler and really miss it since it stopped production. My collection was missing about 40 issues, mostly from the late 80’s. It is the last magazine that I have been keeping, both my MR’s and RMC issues have been cut and I’m just saving some articles and drawings. But this will free up almost nine feet of shelf space taken up by the back issues. I had to order the DVD.

It came in this past Friday and I think it’s great. The scans are much better than other magazines that have been digitized in the past and the files are PDF’s so they are very easy to read.

My only real complaint is that the center spread drawings are done as multiple page scans. Which is not the best to try to print out and use to build something from. So on potential projects where I have the back issue, I’ll save the printed version of the drawings.

It’s a little pricey at $249 for non C&O Historical Society members, but the information is priceless. And it’s so much easier to store than all the old magazines.

C&O Historical Society’s Mainline Modeler order page.

 

 

Image from the C&O Historical Society page.