Container/Chassis compatability

[southernman]

Can someone tell me whether or not JTC containers play well with the Magnuson chassis. I’d prefer to use JTC chassis but they seem to be somewhat hard to come by. TIA

[tehachapifan]

Unless they corrected it after I built mine, the Magnuson 48' container chassis isn't anywhere close to being the right length for any N scale 48' container. It's WAY too short.

This seems to be a common malady with N scale container chassis, where it appears they intended to make the chassis 48' over the ends, completely disregarding that the front bulkhead is supposed to sit in front of the container, not under it. GHQ also made this exact same boo-boo with their 48' chassis.

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[southernman]

Thanks for that reply. Upon further examination I can see exactly what you are saying. I should have specified that my interest is 40 foot chassis but they appear to be rather short as well. Oh well, the search continues

[nkalanaga]

Can you cut and splice the 48 foot to make a correct 40 foot?

[cfritschle]

I’d prefer to use JTC chassis but they seem to be somewhat hard to come by. TIA

Spring Creek Model Trains appear to have some JTC 40-ft chassis available.  https://www.springcreekmodeltrains.com/product-category/n-scale/jacksonville-terminal-company-n/vehicles-jacksonville-terminal-company-n/40-container-chassis-vehicles-jacksonville-terminal-company-n/

[tehachapifan]

Can you cut and splice the 48 foot to make a correct 40 foot?

I have spliced the (discontinued?) GHQ 48' chassis into 28', 45' and a correct length 48' chassis. Aside from the unfortunate length goof, the GHQ 48' chassis is wonderfully rendered and highly detailed.

To make a strong splice when joining chassis frame rails, I have found that a pin system is necessary using thin wire. This can be tedious!

[nkalanaga]

There isn't much room for gluing on a spliced chassis.  An easier way, for those who plan on loading a chassis and leaving it loaded, would be to glue the two pieces to the container.

[southernman]

Definitely not wanting to permanently join the container to the chassis as I want to be able to use it in either configuration. The splicing suggestion is intriguing although the durability sounds like it could be an issue. Maybe it one staggered the joints it would be helpful. In the meantime I have discovered that those ancient Atlas 40’ trailer frames fit right into the JTC box. Not an ideal solution but at least I can now run it as a trailer and not just a container, kind of mix up my consist of you will. Thanks for all the replies. I’ll keep looking for the ultimate solution

[tehachapifan]

The pin system I described works pretty for strength with reasonable handling. The key is to drill pin holes fairly deep (maybe 1/16") into the ends of the frame rails to be joined with ACC. I think I used .008 or .010 wire and a #79 or #80 bit to do this with a pin vise. It takes time and patience to do this technique though!

That said, the staggered splice idea sounds interesting! If you could make clean cuts where at least, say, two cross braces that are still molded on one side could be glued to the spliced section on the other side, that would probably be pretty strong!

[nkalanaga]

A lapped joint?  File halfway through the frame rails on each piece, inside on one end, and outside on the other.  Overlap the two pieces and glue them.  To be extra sure, you could drill through both pieces and pin them, which might be easier than drilling holes in the ends of the cut rails.