Running 86’ Cars on 18” Radius Curves

[Mopac Junkie]

I never thought it possible, but just a couple small mods and these guys make all of the curves and even this “S” curve crossing with no derailments. These cars are Athearn Blue Box

 

[santafewillie]

Athearn Blue Box cars can do just about anything! We had a forum member known as new guy who would run them with one truck on one track, and the trailing truck on a parallel track.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Those couplers look like they're almost sticking out at the corner of the box car.

 

[Mopac Junkie]

Those couplers look like they're almost sticking out at the corner of the box car.

Yup. The coupler box is mounted to this:

 

[bnsf971]

Yup. The coupler box is mounted to this:

The ones I had suffered from coupler droop from the length of the drawbar. I ended up fabbing and installing supports on either end of the car for the drawbar to ride on. The support was a piece of stiff brass wire with a 90 degree bend on each end, drilled a hole in the deck of the car,inserted the wire through the deck, and glued in place. Some flat black paint allowed it to blend in.