Post by tjdreams on Sept 5, 2022 10:18:35 GMT -5
The Aztec Track cleaning car is Yet another item that falls under the classification of:
"You Better Buy It When You See It for Tomorrow it will be GONE"
The Aztec cars are no longer made and Its rare that they pop up on the 2nd hand market. When they do there selling for nearly twice their orignal list price.
So with that in mind I decided to make my own track cleaning car using the Aztec car as a base model.
I mean how hard could it be it's just a block of Anodized Aluminum with a hole drilled through it for the roller and a couple raised post to mount the trucks on. Easy Right?
Not Quite! After pulling the shell off I quickly realized that their was a lot more to it than it first appears. I found that Aztec made 2 different versions each of which used a different chassis. One that fit under the Micro Trains "502 00 000" series 40' Plug Door Steel Box Car and the other which fit under the "515 00 000" series Double Sheathed Single Door 40' Wood Box Car. Other than the Cratex Roller the 2 chassis had several differences and were not interchangeable. Each and every, hole, notched corner, rounded off edge, raised shape and grove was there for a very specific reason.
After taking a couple measurements, I ordered up some supplies. Well ok I took Lots and Lots of measurements because I'm planning to put my Aztec stile chassis under a MTL 500 00 000 series 40' Standard Box Car, with a Single Sliding Door. The measurements of the 502 00 000 series were closest to the 500 00 000 series so I went with it as a base line.
"You Better Buy It When You See It for Tomorrow it will be GONE"
The Aztec cars are no longer made and Its rare that they pop up on the 2nd hand market. When they do there selling for nearly twice their orignal list price.
So with that in mind I decided to make my own track cleaning car using the Aztec car as a base model.
I mean how hard could it be it's just a block of Anodized Aluminum with a hole drilled through it for the roller and a couple raised post to mount the trucks on. Easy Right?
Not Quite! After pulling the shell off I quickly realized that their was a lot more to it than it first appears. I found that Aztec made 2 different versions each of which used a different chassis. One that fit under the Micro Trains "502 00 000" series 40' Plug Door Steel Box Car and the other which fit under the "515 00 000" series Double Sheathed Single Door 40' Wood Box Car. Other than the Cratex Roller the 2 chassis had several differences and were not interchangeable. Each and every, hole, notched corner, rounded off edge, raised shape and grove was there for a very specific reason.
After taking a couple measurements, I ordered up some supplies. Well ok I took Lots and Lots of measurements because I'm planning to put my Aztec stile chassis under a MTL 500 00 000 series 40' Standard Box Car, with a Single Sliding Door. The measurements of the 502 00 000 series were closest to the 500 00 000 series so I went with it as a base line.
I also learned that some times drilling should be done before milling and other times it should be the other way around. oops!. In any case with a few minor design & dimensional changes I was able to recover from my mistakes and continue with the build. 
