# Are Aristo boxcars abnormally high?



## rexcadral (Jan 20, 2016)

Having recently acquired a number of Aristo REA boxcars, I've noticed they are almost 1/8" above where my Kadee gauge wants the bottom of the car to be. I don't have much to base the height on besides a number of USAT American series (1/24) cars, but it appears the bolsters on the Aristos are much thicker, and actually protrude from under the "skirt" of the car's sides.

I'm guessing this is not prototypical. 

Can anyone point me towards a how-to to lower these cars a bit to a more prototypical height? (Or at least 1/8" so I can drop my couplers onto them.)


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Aristocraft used to offer a lowered floor retro-fit kit... I have lowered over 50 cars! 

If you search mylargescale.com for lowering Aristocraft cars you should be able to find some threads discussing same.

Michael


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

*Aristo Body Mount Kadee Considerations*

See article hosted for me by Greg E. on his Web site, title:
*Kadee Coupler Body Mounting Considerations*: Car Height & Attitude, Floors, Trucks, Wheels & Prototypes

Aristo-Craft as well as other brands are described.

-Ted


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## rexcadral (Jan 20, 2016)

Found some very specific bolster tricks on the GIRR site as well.


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Note that Aristocraft also installed the underframe backwards, the brake wheel on top was at the wrong end.

Aristo stated that is was a 50/50 chance that it would be wrong, but 100 per cent of my cars were backwards. What are the odds of this with over 10 cars????


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan Pierce said:


> Aristo stated that is was a 50/50 chance that it would be wrong, but 100 per cent of my cars were backwards. What are the odds of this with over 10 cars????


If its true that there was a 50/50 chance, then your odds of getting 10 in a row all on the wrong end would be 0.0009%.

however, its far more likely they were *all* installed wrong..in which case, your odds of getting them all on the wrong end are 100%! 

Scot


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

I took a look at Ted's write-up for lowering Aristo 40-foot boxcars, on Greg's site:

http://www.elmassian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=157&Itemid=184

So that was a kit that Aristo offered, with a new floor?

does anyone have a write-up for lowering Aristo 40-foot boxcars without using that floor kit?

thanks,
Scot


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## rexcadral (Jan 20, 2016)

@scottychaos, see this page, it's long, but about midway he talks about a number of ways to approach the problem.

http://girr.org/girr/tips/tips2/aristo_car_tips.html


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

*Lowered Car By Use of Modified USAT Truck*

Another method to lower a car is to use a modified USA Trains Bettendorf truck.
An Aristo "lowered floor" lowers the car by 0.175 inch. So if that is satisfactory to you, the USAT truck bolster could be lowered with respect to its sidefames to achieve this value. I do body mount couplers, but this technique can apply to truck mount couplers, maybe with limitations.

An example shown below are areas of the USAT Bettendorf truck that are modified to lower its bolster by 0.210 inch within the truck. 










This example amount of lowering may be more than you need to do that may differ from the dimensional value of example above. Depending on how much you want to lower a car will determine the dimensions of the modified USAT truck, and if you need to notch the Aristo floor's bolster when using the original Aristo floor with tall bolster. 

An example of this is described in vignette hosted for my by Greg E. on his Web site, title:
*Aristo Flat & Gondola Car - Lowered, Weighted, and Fitted with Kadee Centerset Couplers*

-Ted


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## rexcadral (Jan 20, 2016)

Hi Ted, yup, read that article too. Since these guys are getting Kadee trucks, going after the frame is probably the most likely scenario.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The backwards floor mystery was solved long ago...

For many years people complained, and then it was found that the way these things are assembled is that besides the molds, there is a single built-up example of the product.

The example had the underbody on backwards. So no matter what they were told by visiting Aristo employees, when they built the car in China, it matched the incorrect example.

After many years, it was fixed, no idea how, but when Sanda Kan was bought by Kader, the backwards underfloor appeared again.

So simple, yet so hard to fix at the factory.

Greg


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

*Aristo & LGB Backwards Floor*

As to the Aristo backward floor issue, LGB's 1/29 scale standard gauge 40 foot box car had its floor's underframe assembly backwards, too! So one wonders who copied whom back in those days?










-Ted


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