# Re-trucking a MDC/Piko D&RGW shorty wood caboose



## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

All-

I just bought one of the cheap day-glow yellow MDC/Piko cabooses. Nice model, looks good with the HLW loco I bought it to go with. 

Plan one is a date with an airbrush, but plan two is re-trucking it.

I am thinking about buying a pair of trucks from HLW, but wanted to see if anyone else had a suggestion for this car.

I am also thinking that it might look better with the 24mm Bachmann metal wheels.

Thoughts? Thanks!


----------



## djacobsen (Jul 20, 2011)

Garrett, 
if you go with the HLW trucks, purchase the HLW wheel sets to go along with them. 
I tried B-mann wheels on HLW trucks and found them unsatisfactory. 
I ended up having to order a bunch of metal wheel sets from HLW to replace the 
plastic ones that came on some of the HLW rolling stock I have. 
The B-mann wheel set's worked quite satisfactorily on ellgeebee rolling stock, though.


----------



## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Thank you for the reply. 

What was the problem with the Bachmann wheels? My idea of using them was to lower the car by using the smaller diameter wheels. My big complaint with the two 1:24 D&RGW cabeese (this oen and the Delton caboose) is the both sit too high on their trucks.


----------



## djacobsen (Jul 20, 2011)

If I remember correctly, the problem was that the B-mann axle's were slightly longer 
and the HLW axle's were slightly larger in diameter. The combination of differences 
did not allow for the wheels to turn freely. I suppose I could have drilled out 
the trucks to accept the B-mann's, but HLW wheel sets were cheaper than B-mann, 
so I just ordered what I needed from their parts dept. 
You might consider trimming down(cutting off the excess plastic) new bright/scientific toys 

caboose/tender truck's and using the small diameter B-mann wheels on them.

I recall someone having posted on doing so, and the results looked quite nice.


----------



## Peter Osborne (Jan 5, 2008)

It's actually fairly easy to take the axels from the Hartland plastic wheels and use them with the Bachmann metal wheels. Just takes a few minutes and a little patience to use a spare axel as a driver to remove the wheels and swap them. Done it several times with great success.


----------



## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

This is my former Piko Union Pacific caboose, with the cupola removed and repainted. It rides on Bachmann freight car trucks with metall wheels. I am waiting for my body mount Kadees to show up and have to reinstall the window glass.


----------

