Lowering an N scale Micro-Trains Hi-Cube Boxcar

by:  John Sing, ATSF_Arizona
October 30, 2006

Here is photo documentation of the frame modifications for lowering an N scale Micro-Train Hi-Cube boxcar. 
This project was inspired by Tom Mann, his superb job of lowering and weathering this same MT boxcar, which he shared in a thread started 5/24/06:

            http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28931

His results are *so good*, it inspired me to try my first lowering job shown below.  Check out his thread above if you missed it the first time around.
Thanks to *Tom Mann* for his inspiration and tutoring me on how to do this. :-)

Here's my lowered boxcar (nowhere near as good as Tom's, but it's so much better than the as delivered car from Micro-Trains:



N scale Santa Fe Bx-108 Hi-Cube Boxcar:  This red MT boxcar Santa Fe 40' Hi-Cube was lowered, used body-mounted
Z scale MT  905 couplers, painted trucks, and given a light weathering job with Bragdon Enterprises weathering powders.

I hope you enjoy your visit to this "Modeling Lessons Learned" little web site!

John Sing                                       
San Mateo, California, USA         
singj@us.ibm.com                                

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Most recent update: November 21, 2006
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Here's the original too-high appearance:



Here's how the frame had to be ground down to clear the low-profile Micro-Trains roller bearing trucks:








The frame between the coupler box and the bolster already clears the MT low-profile roller bearing truck:





Here you can see the axle clearance - which is why a Z scale MT 905 coupler is necessary, I found that a MT-1015 wouldn't fit:




Note that the low-pro MT roller bearing truck has an *offset* in it's bolster, I positioned the trucks as shown to maximize clearance of the axle from the coupler box:




And a shot showing the low-pro MT roller bearing truck positioned on the frame:



I hope these photos may make your lowering job on any Micro-Trains car a little easier.   Enjoy!


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This webpage created by:

John Sing
San Mateo, California, USA

Modeling the Santa Fe's Peavine Line (Ash Fork -> Phoenix, Arizona)
in the 1950s and 60s - in N scale