Cheater Boxcars Or Helpers

              
"Cheater" Boxcars are a great addition to N scale railroading . This type of boxcar is powered and aids N scale locomotives especially steam locomotives to negotiate grades of 2% or greater, that many steam locomotives couldn't handle without help.

The "Cheater" boxcars are easy to make and work well on layouts with DCC. In 2004, one of the large hobby shops in Ft. Lauderdale Florida had a "blowout special" on Life Like  UP GP-20's for $16. Needless to say there was a large "run" on these sale price GP-20's. I bought eight of the LL GP-20's which I intended to use for "Cheater" Boxcars or "Helpers" for many of my steam locomotives as the "Original" JJJ&E had a completely graded 120 foot mainline  ( 2% ).

I used the frame of the LL GP-20 as the main component to build the "Cheater" boxcar. I was able to hard wire a Lenz 0521W decoder to the diesel frame and motor.The orange and gray wires of the decoder are soldered to the motor tabs. The red and black wires of the decoder are soldered to the original light board. The led is cut off from the light board and the rear light board is removed from the frame. The decoder is taped to the frame where the rear light board was positioned with Kapton tape. This  Life Like GP-20 wasn't DCC friendly. Front and back lights weren't necessary as the frame was completely covered by a 50 foot boxcar shell. At the time I had some MRC 50 foot boxcar shells that I used for my new motorized "Cheater" boxcars. I was able to install MT N scale couplers at each end of the GP-20 frame.

Now I consisted the "Cheater" boxcar to a steam locomotive that needed extra power. The "Cheater" boxcar provided ample pulling power to aid the steam locomotives, I consisted these to. The Life Like GP-20  is very powerful  in its own right and this Gp-20 can easily pull 20 cars on level track.

I used two 'Cheater" boxcars on the "Original" JJJ&E and they have a presence on the "New" JJJ&E ( See Photo  1 ).

I gave several of the other Life Like GP-20's that I didn't use to friends who wanted to make "Cheater" boxcars or "Helpers" for their own layouts.

Photo  # 1  Two completely weathered 'Cheater" Boxcars on a siding with the Switching Yard in the background.

                      Photo  # 2  A Completely weathered Southern "Cheater" Boxcar on the mainline east of San Marino with the Monterrey Mountains in the background.

           Photo  #  3     An  N  scale coupler mounted to the LL GP -20 frame. This car was weathered using Bragdon Weathering Powders. There are couplers on both ends of this "Cheater" Boxcar.

                  Photo  #  4   A Completely weathered Western Pacific  "Cheater" Boxcar on the mainline east of San Marino with the Monterrey Mountains in the background.

                  Photo  #  5  The WP "Cheater" boxcar in a consist with a ATSF 2-8-8-2 articulated steamer on the mainline in San Marino.

                  Photo  #  6  The Southern "Cheater" boxcar in a consist with a ATSF 2-8-8-2 articulated steamer on the mainline in San Marino.

The "Cheater" Boxcars are easy to assemble. You can use any GP-7, GP-9, GP-18 or GP-20 frames with a 50 foot boxcar shell. All the above N scale diesels have interchangeable parts.