Question on converting Con Cor Passenger cars to MT

The first one I checked has them;

http://www.fiferhobby.com/products.php?sku=MT00130014

  It seems I never have any money when a set of CC cars turn up. The only place online I have found them is Tex'n Rails in Miami. I will not do any business with them, I was very unhappy with my last experience with them. The Con Cor heavy weights are a great starting point for me for my passenger train. I have seen them converted with trucks and couplers on the trucks. That seems to work fairly well.

Jacko 

I have 6 CC passenger units. Two baggage and four coaches (making two trains, one CP one CN) and I have fitted MT truck conversions to both.

 There are other issues though...I find these cars VERY light, and that both have a high resistance to rolling. That and the construction is not consistent.

ie: my CN cars are one piece from the floor up, the CP are one piece from the roof down.

The CN cars required a light bit of modification aside from new trucks/couplers. Snce they are slightly heavier than the CP ones; They seem to operate better. The thing I had to do was trim off what appears to be a guide pin on the bottom of the car for the trucks. the MTL trucks will make the car wobble or become lopsided with the pin in place. Trucks are held by a small snap in pin.

 The CP coaches are a complete PITA to become useful. In fact I destroyed one of them trying to get it to work properly. First off the trucks are screwed on...sounds good...until you find out that the METAL retaining bolt is just super glued to the PLASTIC interior. If the bolt does not want to come lose, or the factory worker over tightened/cross threaded the screw, your pretty much effed. (I was at least, one of my trucks was cross threaded and I couldn't get it off without using bolt cutters on the screw itself). Even after the conversion was completed properly the cars are so light that they jump the rails at any inconsitency in the rail. EVEN going over a re-railer!

What I did to fix the CP's was trim off the 'closets' in the cabin (which are not visible due to lack of windows) and fill the area with small lead weights. This added in their ability to stay on the track. But have made them limited in their mobility. They are now heavier than a Kato coach.

 What I wish I coulda found at the time of purchase was a set of MTL trucks that are compatible with these cars that have metal wheelsets.

Thanks Luke I'll keep that in mind.  Once again this prooves how great a resource this site is.

Eric

Deer Lodge, MT