[RJC]

I am thinking about purchasing a brass REA reefer from River Raisin. It comes with scale wheels. I run everything Hi-Rail.

One person tells me to change the trucks and one says to simply change the wheels. Both of these comments come from very knoweldgable sources.

Help. Obviously, if I am going to invest a decent amount of bucks for this car, I do not want to make any mistakes.

Thank you

 

[AmFlyer]

I will preface my comments with the caution that I do not own any River Raisin products.
My guess the reason to change the trucks is to have truck mounted couplers for compatibility with the standard S gauge cars on typical radius highrail track. I am pretty sure the the RR cars come with body mounted KD's, and they are scale models of 54' cars.

 

[RJC]

Wheel Conversion

Tom,

As always, I thank you for your response.

 

[AmFlyer]

That car has nice trucks and a lot of underbody detail. I hope replacement trucks would clear all the detail. If not then replace just the wheels and make a transition car with a matching KD coupler. That may or may not work on the Gilbert/SHS/MTH/FasTrack 19" radius curves. It would work on the 27"radius curves.
As a final alternative you could always put it on loan to my railroad! It can run both scale and highrail equipment, it has 30" minimum curves and minimum #5 turnouts. i could send you pictures from time to time.

 

[RJC]

Scale to Hi-Rail

i have been in touch with Dan Navarre at River Raisin. He questions the success of any conversion based upon him looking at the car and providing some options; none of which can guarantee success. This car is too expensive to experiment with.

Thank you for your generous offer to take the car "on loan" to your layout. I will consider that as a legitimate option. Maybe I could visit daily on Facetime?

 

[AmFlyer]

Just curious, did you take a pass on buying the car? I have looked at those but decided it was a level of detail in rolling stock beyond that I was looking for.

 

[RJC]

Scale to Hi-Rail

No, I did not purchase the car. The risk was too great in what needed to be done with no guarantee it would work.

 

[Chuck7612]

I have one and I would not recommend putting high rail wheels on it. The trucks do not turn much and struggle with 20 in curve. High rail flanges would further reduce the rotation of the trucks and potentially rub against the underside of the chassis.