Before we had such a nice selection of accurate N Scale truck trailers, one of the most common types available were generic 24-foot and 40-foot trailer models from Atlas. These were offered in many road names with either 2 of the 24-foot models or 1 of the 40-foot model either on a 50-foot flat car or by themselves. Over the years I had acquired a few of the flat cars to get the trailers and once at a train show a bag of 10 undecorated 24-foot models. Some of these got painted and decorated for various trucking lines using Microscale decals.
These Atlas trailers are decent models but were designed only to be a load on a flat car or parked with the stand down. If you want to place them on the road behind a tractor, the under frame does require a bit of modification. The stock under frame has no king pin but it's not difficult to add one. In this first example a 40 foot trailer is used.
Some of the ribs on the underframe were removed with a hobby knife and sanded smooth. Then a scrap of .040 styrene was glued to the top side directly above the area where the ribs were removed. Then a .035 sized hole was drilled through the center between the first and second ribs and a scrap of .032 steel wire was glued into place.
This photo shows the modifications I made to make this trailer work as either a parked or towed model. The forward section was smoothed, then the styrene block, and the steel wire king pin were added the same as with the 40 ft model. Then the longitudinal ribs were filed smooth in the area shown in the photo and new holes were drilled for the jack stand assembly.
Here are two of the 24 foot models shown as both parked and towed. Again, an Athearn C cab tractor is being used.
The addition of a Fine N Scale Products cast resin refrigeration unit can turn these trailers in to refrigerated trailers.
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