These are the topics covered in this article:

    A. Converting to Micro-Trains Z-scale couplers

    B. Applying weathering




A. Converting to Micro-Trains Z-scale Couplers

Converting the Micro-Trains PRR #603125 from the original N-scale, truck mounted couplers to the body-mounted Z-scale couplers are not too difficult. This page shows how I did it. Because surgery of the truck is required, I prefer to remove the wheels and then remove the truck from the frame. The first photo shows the truck removed from the frame. A small pair of pliers and a bit of force is needed to remove the bolster pins.

After disassembling the truck-mounted coupler, the bottom of the coupler box needs to be cut off from the truck so that it can clear the new body-mounted coupler. The bright green line shows where to cut. Two passes with a sharp blade is all that is necessary. After that one can snap the old coupler portion from the truck, much like one snaps styrene.

The result of the surgery is shown here. Clean-up of the truck part is not necessary because it is not visible.

There are two holes visible in the frame of the boxcar. One matches the N-scale coupler and the other the Z-scale coupler. Both are there for body-mounting. That was a nice surprise. The orange line points to the appropriate hole for body-mounting Z-scale couplers.

All the was left to do was to use the small screws that come with the couplers and install them. A considerable amount of downward force was needed to get the coupler to really tighten down. The coupler sits just a touch too high when checking with the Micro-Trains coupler height jig, but it is nothing I am going to worry about.

See my other article on this car about how to remove the trucks. I started my weathering of the model with the trucks. The first step was to dull down the shiny plastic. I applied some weathering chalk just to dirty up the trucks. After that I sprayed Testors' Dullcoate. This got rid of the shiny plastic, but it also removed (or hid) some of the weathering chalk, so I re-applied the chalk.

Next, I focused on the wheels. I switched out the pizza-cutter wheels that were on the car originally with the Micro-Trains low-profile wheels. Then I painted the inside of the wheels a "Dwarf Bronze", which is a shiny bronze/copper, heavy rust look. I was doing this for two boxcars, which is why there are eight wheels in the photo.

The wheels have been inserted into the trucks.

With the wheels back in the truck, it is easy to paint the wheel threads (see my Jig for painting plastic wheel threads article).

The final step was to weather the body of the car itself. This next photo shows the one on the left weathered, and the original one on the right. Quite a difference.

Here's the side profile of the newly "decorated" car.