# Aristo Streamliners - Lowered with Body Mounted Kadee 907 Centerset Couplers



## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

Aristo Streamliners - Lowered with Body Mounted Kadee 907 Centerset Couplers 
Ted Doskaris
January 28, 2015

I realize this is an old topic since Aristo-Craft Streamliners have been around for many years (now resurrected by * Polk's generatioNeXt*). 
However, there have been some factory improvements over time with the latest version having interior seats viewable through clear windows - replacing those translucent green windows (shown later). I, also, know that some folks had done very clever things to further improve their appearance to correct the cars for sitting too high and for being too far apart when coupled together and putting on truck mount Kadee 831 offset couplers, but I don't recall any description about installing body mount Kadee centerset couplers like the Kadee 907s (or for that matter Kadee 906s) to these cars.

I had accumulated seven new Aristo Union Pacific Streamliner cars over a period of time many years ago but was not interested in them until I decided how to deal with them. 

Described and illustrated here are what I have done in the way of adding body mount Kadee 907 centerset couplers in conjunction with lowering the cars that can operate on as little as 8 foot diameter track.

An example short train with all cars lowered and having body mount Kadee centerset couplers used for testing is shown below. (I had already installed Kadee centerset couplers in custom made metal boxes on my Aristo E unit locos.)










*Comment about Aristo's Streamliners & Smoothsides*:

In the parlance of Aristo speak, they make / made two types of streamliner cars, the first being called the "Streamliner", which is characterized by fluted sides and ribbed roof tops, whilst the second being called the "Smoothside". However, they differ (aside from what their name obviously identifies) in length with the Smoothsides being longer by 4 to 5 inches. Though the two type cars have construction similarities, the information herein is only focused on the "Streamliner".

The Aristo Streamliner cars are replicated after prototype Budd cars having stainless steel fluted sides and ribbed roof tops that are about 85 feet long. However, Union Pacific's Budd cars were relatively few in numbers for them (about 50) and most were painted in UP's armour yellow & harbor mist gray. 

*Concerns with Respect to "Streamliner" Prototypes*:

For me, there are several areas of concern with respect to the Aristo cars verses the prototypes:

(1) They scale out to be too short by about 20 prototypical feet.

For example, most modern type passenger cars are longer than a 60 foot box car, but as shown in the example below, the Aristo Streamliner is virtually the same length of that box car. (Note that the Streamliner car was lowered by me and equipped with Kadee 907 centerset couplers to be more realistic.) 










(2) They scale out to be too high from the railhead by about 1.5 prototypical feet (this makes it noticeably taller than the E8 when, if anything, they should be slightly lower) See below picture










Shown below is how a more realistic lowered car and factory car look next to each other at a distance of 10 feet.










(3) They have truck mounted couplers that project out an excessive amount, particularly for early production runs, with the observation car end being grotesque (Maybe this was done to accommodate operation on a 5 foot diameter track circle to put around the Christmas tree.)

Shown below is an early example observation car.










Shown below is the distance between two out-of-the-box factory streamliner cars.
With that much distance you could drive a Buick through it!










Now compare the dramatic decrease in distance (about 2 inches shorter!) with the body mounted Kadee 907 centerset couplers of the cars shown below, and these cars will operate on 8 foot diameter track; that's why the slight gap between diaphragms is accepted.









*
Mitigating Appearances*:

I think the Aristo Streamliner cars are reasonably nice, so the intent is to mitigate their appearance to be plausible (as shown above) whilst fitting body mount Kadee centerset couplers; thus, lowering the cars becomes a necessity. Even though the cars are shorter than prototypical, they will then look realistic enough to use, particularly, on a layout that is restricted in size and limited to 8 - 10 foot diameter curves that may preclude operating longer cars.

*Car Lowering Methods*:

There are a couple of notable ways to lower them and a third way that could be a combination of methods.

_Method 1_: Reposition the car floor within the body.
This is a very clever method done successfully by folks like Jim Carter and Mark Scyphers and probably others. 

_Method 2_: Replace the bolster with a shallower one (Like George Schreyer's cast resin bolster as described in his Web site or fabricate your own)

_Method 3_: Combine / adapt both methods 1 & 2 to achieve prototypical car height. However, if prototypical car height is done the trucks' frames will tuck under car's skirt edge, restricting operation on only the widest diameter track curves.

*My Chosen Method*:

Since I already had acquired George Schreyer's bolsters a long time ago, albeit not enough, I decided to do Method 2 and fabricate additional replacement bolsters, but of my own design, since his are no longer available. 

By incorporating "Roller Dowels" at the truck fulcrum, the design includes allowance for more friction free movement, including a bit more vertical forward / aft truck rocking distance. This should improve operational performance on less than perfect track work.











Utilizing the fabricated bolster, a car height comparison is shown below.










The bolsters I fabricated lower the car a bit more than George Schreyer's bolsters (respectively 0.29 inch as George stated vs .my 0.355 inch) but not as much as repositioning the floor like Jim Carter did (respectively a claimed 0.375 inch vs. my 0.355 inch).










The bolsters I fabricated allow car operation on 8 foot diameter curves, and that's with body mounted Kadee 907 centerset couplers. The train below is shown on an 8 foot diameter track circle with E8 pulling lowered baggage and lowered observation cars all having body mounted Kedee centerset couplers. The train operates OK in both forward and backup directions.










The observation car, also, has a body mounted Kadee 907 centerset coupler installed on the round end that includes a plug /spacer to cover the large notched opening formerly needed for the truck mount coupler. Because of this, this car, also, having interior lights took the most effort to modify, compared to the Baggage car having no lights that took the least effort.










Shown below is the E8 coupled to the end of the observation car. The train operates OK in both forward and backup directions.










Shown below are a few close up pictures of the car/s body mounted coupler alignment with the Kadee 980 track and coupler height gauge on straight track.



















- and how the cars look coupled together:




















*Bolster Types for Fabrication*:

I came up with 3 possible types of bolsters that can be fabricated: "Winged", "Full" and "Basic". Each type is made from 3.7 inch wide by 1/8 inch thick plastic that can be inexpensively purchased and cut in sheet lengths from TAP plastics. From these sheets several bolsters can be cut off and scribed where holes and cuts are to be located.










Each bolster type has two slots to accommodate fulcrum "Roller Dowels"; spacer standoffs are later added for pivot & guide posts.

An example Basic Bolster is shown below:










As to the dowels, TAP Plastics sells lengths of 3/16 inch diameter round stock that can be cut into segments for the dowels. Alternatively, individual 1 inch long Nylon spacers of the same diameter can be purchased from a hardware store. 

The bolster material I purchased from TAP Plastics has peel-off paper on each surface, so I took advantage of this by outlining with pencil where holes and cuts are to be located. The Winged bolster penciled outline is shown below.











*Pivot & Guide Standoff Posts*:

These are needed for mounting the truck. They are used in concert with the fabricated bolster.

Standoff spacers measuring close to 1/4 inch long by 1/4 inch in diameter (slightly undersized preferred) can be purchased at a hardware store or maybe from TAP Plastics then cut as required; however,you can utilize bushings salvaged from an Aristo Bettendorf freight truck, albeit trimmed in length, which is what I have done. 










*Truck Installation*:

Illustrated below is how a car's truck is installed on the fabricated bolster and Roller Dowels using the screwed in pivot and guide posts. (The bolster holes for these were drilled and tapped for #4-40 screw thread through both plastic bolster and metal car floor.)










If desired, an optional switch like that shown above can, also, be installed to turn off car lights that likely won't be seen in daytime operation, thereby, saving power.


*Body Mounting Kadee 907 center set couplers*:

The truck's coupler tang is too long and will interfere with the body mounted couplers. So it must be cut short as shown below.










Once the car is lowered, the mounted coupler assembly is to conform to the Kadee 980 gauge.










To accomplish this, spacers are needed between the coupler assembly and the car's floor surface. Also, leveling shims may be needed for proper coupler alignment with the Kadee 980 gauge.

Shown below is how the Kadee 907 coupler assembly is to be stacked on the larger then smaller spacer such that the larger one overhangs smaller one.










The longer screw is a # 2-56 by 1 inch to be inserted in the coupler box hole, through the spacers that will thread into a hole to be drilled in the plastic part of the end bulkhead. The smaller screw is a # 2-56 by 3/4 inch that is to inserted in the couple box shank (with lock washer), through the spacers and then thread into a hole to be drilled in the metal part of the floor. 

*Observation Car End - Coupler Mounting*:

The observation car is a special case with respect to the end of this car. Since this end has a huge cutout to accommodate the swing of a truck tang mounted coupler, it not only needs to be plugged for appearance sake, but at the same time serve as a mounting spacer for the Kadee 907 box.

For much more informational detail, including dimensional drawings for bolsters, coupler spacer & mounting dimensions, options and various techniques, see the full article on Greg E. Web site:
"*Aristo Streamliners - Lowering & Body Mounting Kadee 907 Centerset Couplers*"

-Ted


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## roushraven (Sep 15, 2010)

Nicely done and well presented. I'll refer to this page when I get around to modifying mine. Thanks for the hard work.


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## MikeMcL (Apr 25, 2013)

That's an awesome mod, and nicely explained. I copied your log and saved it for one of my round tuit projects. Might be a long while though.

I have Aristo UP streamliners, but also heavyweights too. Do you think it would work on the heavyweights? I do run with some 8' min, so yeah, that's a big concern for me!


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Ted - really nice job of explaining the job! Good photos too.



> I have Aristo UP streamliners, but also heavyweights too. Do you think it would work on the heavyweights?


Mike,
I don't have streamliners but I do have heavyweights, and I could relate to all that was said! I haven't replaced the couplers, as the string hardly ever gets uncoupled.

I modify the couplers (which stick out just like those shown) by cutting off the tongue at the truck - much as Ted shows in this 'coupler tang removal'. Then I cut the remainder off the truck so it is a flat surface. The original tang/tongue can then be fastened back to the truck at least 1/2" shorter than it was. I use a short bolt screwed in to the tang/tongue through the top of the truck. It ends up like this:


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

Gentlemen, thank you all for the positive feedback.

As to the _Heavyweights_, I do plan to get to these cars sometime in the future with the intention of installing Kedee body mount centerset couplers. But before I do those, the _Smoothsides_ will come first since they are closely related to the _Streamliners_. Because the _Smoothsides_ are longer than the _Streamliners_, I will have to determine if the Kadee 907s might have to be repositioned or contemplate something else.

That said, the focus of this thread should be on the Aristo _Streamliners_.

Thank you all again,
-Ted


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## apo234 (Aug 14, 2013)

Ted your mods are amazing and you spend so much time writing them up its amazing! I have streamliner cars and I will be doing this to them all! because I don't run them because I cant look at them and all their problems! But they will be awesome after these mods!! Keep up the good work!


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

Ted- Thanks for posting this incredible info. I've recently purchased an old set of streamliners that could certainly benefit from this mod. Your a genius!


-Kevin.


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

What they said! I also picked up a set with A-B locomotives, and your mods are exactly what is needed

Thanks

Jerry


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Thank You Ted i like your bolster with rollers i did this to my Smoothsides a month ago and had the bolsters made on a 3D printer. i picked up 2 new smoothsides and will try your bolster,and i did put kds on but truck mount and shortend. once again thank you


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

guys, a COMPLETE list of all Ted's "vignettes" is all in one place on my site, so if you need to reference them, or find ones you "missed" visit: http://www.elmassian.com/trains/ted-doskaris-vignettes

Regards, Greg


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I have 14 of the Fluted/ Ribbed Roof ones. With two baggage cars. Lucky for me they are all modified. I got a Aristo B unit that I need to lower anyone got input on that ?


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