So what did ya do to lower it?
It didn't take long, 30 minutes if that. I filed down the bolsters until the wheel flanges barely cleared. I don't have the exact measurement, but it was almost the height of the lower sill on the body. The prototype body appears to sit just above the truck sideframes, so the goal was to get the body as low as possible without the flanges touching. I snipped off the coupler pockets from the existing trucks so I could still use the trucks on the model.
Next, I drilled out and tapped the pre-marked dimple for MTL body-mounts and screwed a 1015 spacer in place at each end. I scored the floor around the spacer to mark the section that would be removed. The spacers were removed, and then the notches in the floor were cut and filed so that a 1015 box would slide in. Not only would this move the coupler up to the correct height, but the notch would keep the box aligned. I cut a section of .250x.100 styrene strip the length of the floor minus about .020" short at each end, so that it would clear the inside sleeve in the body, and cemented it to the floor top. Back in went the 1015 spacers to mark where the new holes were to be drilled and tapped. The top of the coupler box would be higher than the bottom of the ends on the body and I didn't want to compromise the ends in any way, so I trimmed 1015 spacers and coupler box tops to be even with the ends of the floor. This left half of the spring exposed, but the bottom of the ends on the body perfectly covered and were flush with the bottom part of the coupler box. Also used flathead screws rather than the standard MTL panhead screws in order to clear the outside axles. Popped the floor into the body and added the trucks - everything looked and ran great! Except ...
I forgot about how the floor weight was mounted in the car. It now would not fit because I had a .250x.100 beam running down the center of the floor, so I weighed the steel piece (4 oz) and added four ounces of soapbox car weights to the top of the styrene beam. The car was reassembled and put back on the track.
If I were to lower another - which I might when the double door cars are released - I would instead cut a short section of styrene sheet and place it at either end, cut off the part of the weight that overlapped and then glue the cut pieces to the center of the weight to maintain the four ounces. Then the car could be reassembled without having to glue the weight to the floor.
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