A Tale of Two TILX

Here are two covered hopper conversions, both PD hoppers from Atlas (nee BLMA for the 5660) but with very different stories.

The larger 5660 cuft hopper is one of the finest cars in N scale, the smaller 3230 cuft hopper - not so much. I'll start with the easier 5660 conversion: the coupler pocket and truck post is a separate part that is glued to the car. I first tried a retro-fit into the existing pocket, but the coupler height was too low, and it required carving some room in the back of the pocket to accommodate the centering spring. It turned out to be much easier to remove the pocket outright and use a scale box. To remove the pocket, make a cut right behind the pocket wall with a razor saw:

Pry the pocket off with a chisel-point X-acto blade (it does not take much force to break the bond):

Mark the position for a mounting screw:

Use the screw as a tap to prep the hole:

And that's it:

The coupler height is perfect without having to raise the ride height.

The 3230 pocket is cast as part of the car, so a scale box is not an easy option. Alas the stock pocket is too short to accommodate an N-P without modification. Since some tricky surgery was required, I first made a cradle to protect the somewhat fragile roof walk from damage. I used 1/8" square and 1/8" x 1/4" styrene as shown:

For the pocket modification, I made two cuts with a razor saw: one on either side of the rear box wall:

Use a sharp narrow X-acto blade to carve out the required material, down to the level of the box "floor" (actually its ceiling):

Glue the retro-fit centering shim into the box:

Install the coupler:

I had to draw up and print a new pocket lid for this car because the existing lid was binding the coupler slightly (unless I left the screw quite loose). The box lid and washer parts may be downloaded here.

In addition to the above, I cleaned up a lot of assembly and finish issues with the car (personal preference) and I swapped out the ugly wheels for FVM 3603 wheels, which - despite having an axle length of 0.563" - are actually a bit shorter than the stock wheels, which are the longest axle I've ever seen in N scale at 0.574". The FVM wheels work well though. Finally, I added some 0.2 mm washers on either side of the truck bolster (2 per bolster pin) to raise the ride and coupler height slightly, and to stabilize the otherwise wobbly gait these cars have.

In the end, I'm very happy with both conversions, giving cars that look great and perform very well: