Industrial Rail trolley jerky motion

[dmestan]

I just received the Industrial Rail "Seasons Greetings" trolley via mail order. At low to moderate speed it has a jerky motion. I suspect that it's a problem with the motor. It does run, just not very smoothly. I also noticed that I need a higher setting on the transformer (Lionel CW80) than I do when running my Linoel 4-4-2 with 6 cars. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem, or is this about the best I can expect from an inexpensive "Made In China" product? I could sent it back but I'm wondering if they all do this (plus I don't want to pay for shipping for something I just received - guess that's the problem with mail order.)

thx, Don

[Anonymous]

Industrial Rail no longer makes model railroad rolling stock, so there will be no place to send it. Hopefully someone on this board can help you.

[brianel027]

Don first off, do you have another transformer that you can try out with the trolley... there have been a lot of complaints on the new Lionel transformer you have and a lot of defective units. Have you tried popping or unscrewing the shell to see if there isn't a loose wire or a bad connection. Try turning the trolley unside down and using a couple of wires from the transformer, touch one to the wheels and the other to the center roller and see how smoothly it runs. The other possibility is that there is a tiny piece of grit or flashing left on one of the gears - I've had that one happen on Lionel product. Maybe a little extra weight added to the frame will help (again, I've had that problem on Lionel stuff). Well, that's just a few basic troubleshooting ideas.
Unfortunately Don, nearly everything train-wise is made in China or Korea. Even before Lionel moved the plant overseas, they had been contacting out and many parts and components were being made in China. Track and wheels/trucks were being made in China. My NYC Flyer Set - bought in 1993 - says on the box Made in America, but the casting of the loco shell inside says Made in Macau.
Industrial Rail stuff was pretty darn nice for the money. The others could take some lessons from Industrial Rail stuff. Look at the box cars.... plastic frame, but thicker and heavier than Lionel's. Even though there's no screw to attach shell, the frame snaps to the shell in four different places (again, better than Lionel). Their trucks are heavy and very smooth operating. Roadname selection was very good.
Anyways good luck with the trolley.

[dmestan]

Thanks for the advice - I'll give it a try.
So, Industrial Rail is not making any more rolling stock? That's too bad. I purchased several of their discontinued cars for around $15 each at a local hobby shop and really like them. As brianel said, they're nice and heavy (certainly better than the entry level cars that came in the Lionel starter set.)

BTW, http://www.bobshobbyshop.com/ogaugetrains.htm has the trolley for $26 plus shipping if anyone is interested. When I ordered last week it seemed that they had plenty left.

[brianel027]

What I've been told is the that original owners of the Industrial Rail line were getting older or heaving health problems and wanted to get out of the business. Can't say if that's truth or not. The original Industrial Rail was under the banner of UMD - United Model Distributors. They also make an Industrial Rail line of cars in HO and N scales. Whether the 0-027 line was separate or under separate ownership, I don't know. What is true is that the line was picked up by Hobbyco. I would guess from the availability of the cars is that the last runs were pretty substantial. Whether those last runs were done under UMD or Hobbyco, I can't say. Seems Hobbyco is just selling off the remaining stock. Although they still maintain the website: www.industrialrail.com
When the Industrial Rail cars came out, everyone I talked to said they were selling very well. This is witnessed by the fact that the car numbers changed from run to run. The NYC Pacemaker Box Car was one of the first issued and it's available in 4 different numbers that I know of. Even the later Norfolk Southern and BNSF Box Cars are each in 2 different numbers.
These were very nice cars. And attractive to dealers as the wholesale prices on these cars were far better than Lionel, K-Line or MTH... meaning it was possible to discount and still make a profit.
My only moan with Industrial Rail is wishing it was still made and that they had initially decided to go with a slightly more modern box car, like even an outside braced or ribbed box car instead of the old standby design. Even if they had issued the same thing without the roofwalk and shortened ladders. Their double-door box car is real nice and looks such much nicer without the metal door guides. Hard to believe that no one else has issued a BNSF or NS box car in this traditional size... not Lionel, not Rugged Rails, not K-Line's Train-19. Only Williams has done so with their slightly larger box car. And I thnk Williams has only done BNSF. Railking has issued current roads, but their stuff is so much bigger. And a Railking 50ft. box car is out of the 027 league. And now even Railking is going more scale sized.

[dmestan]

Update: I called Hobbyco technical support. They do not repair anything from Industrial Rail. If you send something back, they just replace it. So if they're out of stock, you're out of luck.
BTW, I stopped by the hobby store again during lunch and picked up 4 more of the 1/2 price cars (3 IR and 1 Railking), one of which was the IR NYC Pacemaker. Pretty good deal - 4 nice cars for the price of 1 Lionel.

Brianel - I think it was you that mentioned that you do a lot of painting/updating to your stock. Any tips on painting ladders, etc to add more detail to these cars?

Don

[brianel027]

Don, the only thing I do to the IR cars is to add wood floors to box car interiors and to tighten the truck mounting to the frame... something I now to to EVERYTHING, no matter what make or brand (eliminates derailments on 027 curves). I've never painted ladders, although I do sometimes add extra decals to IR cars where appropriate like lube plates, ACI markers, loading info. I think I turned one of the Pacemaker cars into a post PC merger car. And I know I added the keystone logo to the PRR tank car. Actually I did mask off one NS box car and did the roof in metalic silver. And again, on occasion repaint paint a box car door to signify distinct prupose: (with Conrail) white doors were for food loading, yellow doors were for clean paper loading. I did once also kitbash a IR work caboose into a combination crane car (with much better crane and housing).

I have had some problem with couple compatability between IR and other makes. I will sometimes use my Dremel to do a little grinding down on the couplers.

I'm overall very happy with the included detail level on the IR cars.... just part of the fun for me is messing around with stuff and making little improvements.