Making Cheap IHC Passenger Cars Perform Better - Metal Wheels, Kadees, Lower Ride!

An epic struggle against brittle plastic! I decided to document how I go about body mounting Kadee couplers to an IHC heavyweight passenger car decorated for Union Pacific's Overland Limited. I purchased the 8 car set at a great price and figured it would be a good way to get into some trouble converting truck mounted couplers to body mounted, plastic wheels to metal, and adjusting ride height. This is how I went about doing so.

I'd like to eventually get some good quality heavys, but until Walthers does a mainline series ($45 and under) that isn't just streamlined cars I'm SOL.

00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Removing the trucks
01:27 - Raise the roof
01:50 - Mounting pads for the couplers
03:17 - Modifying the diaphragm for coupler clearance
03:47 - Drilling and tapping for 2-56 mounting screws
04:21 - On metal wheel replacements
05:01 - Modifying the trucks
05:20 - Lowering the ride height
05:51 - Replacing the truck pins with screws
07:37 - Carry that weight
09:45 - Checking coupler height
10:07 - Cool Shades
10:40 - Shorter cars, shorter coupler boxes
11:15 - The Battle of Brittle
12:15 - Final thoughts