Athern blu-box heavyweights.........

[doctorwayne]

zstripe

The wheel sets that came with my Athearn HW's in the late 50's had all plastic molded axle's and wheels, all one piece.....

Perhaps Athearn did the change after yours were purchased - mine would be either '58 or '59, with metal sideframes and two separate wheels on each steel axle, one plastic and one metal.  Later versions had plastic sideframes, but the same set-up for the wheels.
I have an even older Athearn flatcar, mostly metal, and it has cast metal sideframes with brass wheels on steel axles, but it will run on Code 83 too.

Wayne

[riogrande5761]

I'm going to have to go with doctorwayne and Paul Cutleri on this one - the wheels on those heavyweights should be ok on code 83 track.  The issue is fairly limited as to what wheels have too deep of a flange for even code 83 track.

It sounds like from the last post by the original poster, that this is indeed the case - they will run~!

My guess is those old heavyweights just need some tuning up to run well, or perhaps the side frames were out of whack.

[zstripe]

Wayne,

The wheel sets that came with my Athearn HW's in the late 50's had all plastic molded axle's and wheels, all one piece. The 72ft Athearn shorty's I have from the 70's, have one metal and one plastic wheel with metal axle's. I use all Atlas and Shinohara track, the 70's and 50's wheels will bottom out on the frogs of code 83 track, I have tested them numerous times, with just the truck and moving it with my finger, the flanges are also wider than a RP25 contour:

http://www.nmra.org/beginner/wheels-metal-or-plastic

Take Care! 

Frank

[doctorwayne]

I don't know if they're RP25, Frank, but mine are from the same timeframe and operate just fine on Code 83 track.  They're certainly not pizza cutters.

Wayne

[zstripe]

Paul3

zstripe,
What are you talking about?  Code 83 or Code 100 track makes no difference to an NMRA RP25 flange staying on the track.  Only European NEM "pizza cutter" flanges (like old Rivarossi) have issues clicking along the spike heads, and Athearn's never had them.  All Athearn BB's will work just fine on Code 100, Code 83, or even Code 70 track.

Paul A. Cutler III

 

Athearn HW Passenger cars of the late 50's did not have RP25 wheel flanges......that's what I'm talking about, I also had the Rivarossi passenger cars. I was in my teens in the late 50's and I bought them new.

Take Care! 

Frank

[SS Express]

Some great ideas guys thanks!! We have one of the cars rolling around pretty well now. We haven't done the wheel swap yet but we have gone through a stash of wheels with the NMRA gauge and swapped out the really bad ones. It made a huge difference. The second car is still a work in progress. I am going to take the truck sets to work with me and look at them under the scope and see what the deal is. I am guessing that I have a warped or bent truck because it appears the axel centerlines look a little caddiewampus. If that is the case then I will purchase some truck sets as well as some 36 inch wheels and then let my dad detail the car bodies up a bit. Allen, thanks for the link to the BRVRR!! Some nice looking streamliners for sure. I hope to get some time on the layout in the next couple weeks. Rich

[BRVRR]

Rich,

Almost everything has been covered about the BB heavyweights. If you need a few pictures, I have a thread/How To on my website that goes through the methodology I used install lighting and modify my Athearn streamlined cars.

The Athearn Heavyweights are much the same, particularly the weighting, truck mounting, wheels and lighting.

Here is the link:

http://www.brvrr.com/SL%20Passenger%20Consist.html

Hope it helps.

[G Paine]

SS Express

Thanks for the replies fellas, I now have an idea how to make these cars run without spending a fortune and wasting time with trial and error fixes. Rich

Hi Rich, another thing you might want to check out is if there is a bit of flash in the socket where the end of the axle rides. MicroMark sells a Truck Tuner tool that is great for cleaning this out. If your dad has been modeling for a while, he may already have one. This link explains how it works:

http://www.micromark.com/ho-truck-tuner,8241.html

[Paul3]

zstripe,
What are you talking about?  Code 83 or Code 100 track makes no difference to an NMRA RP25 flange staying on the track.  Only European NEM "pizza cutter" flanges (like old Rivarossi) have issues clicking along the spike heads, and Athearn's never had them.  All Athearn BB's will work just fine on Code 100, Code 83, or even Code 70 track.

Paul A. Cutler III

[wjstix]

Maybe to state the obvious, but in recent years these cars (which are still in production) have come with metal wheels...so you could check the Athearn website about just ordering the wheelsets for these cars from them.

[SS Express]

Thanks for the replies fellas, I now have an idea how to make these cars run without spending a fortune and wasting time with trial and error fixes. Rich

[BRVRR]

I have a bunch of the old BB heavyweight passenger cars. All have the plastic trucks and the standard insulated wheel sets. I light the cars using a brass wiper on the wheel axles with the electricity transfered to the internal weights via the truck mounting screw. I use a single bulb to light the cars and copy paper as a diffuser.

An Athearn BB heavyweight baggage car that came to me undecorated.

All of the cars have the truck mounted Kadee #5 couplers. These cars run without a problem on either my code 100, 22-1/2 or 20 inch mainlines and travel the 18-inch radius reversing loop and will back at nearly any speed as well.

 

[NP2626]

I have six of these cars, 3 from when I was a kid and three I bought new in the very early 1990s.  The three I had as a kid had metal trucks with metal wheels with one side insulated.  All three of the insulated wheels in each truck need to be on one side and the insulated wheels of each truck need to be on opposite sides of the car, so that the car doesn’t short out.   The cars I bought in the 1990s have plastic wheels and trucks.  The older cars with metal wheels and trucks use the weights inside, as bulb holders for lights and the lights still work on my cars set-up this way.  The older cars do have deeper flanges than what is currently used.  I have 22 inch radius Code 100 track on my layout and the cars do work on this tight of radius.  I did not need to do anything to the inside wheel set to get them to work as there is play in the axel ends to truck length which allow this to work.

People will tell you that you need to remove the truck mounted couplers and mount your couplers to the body of the car.  I think I would have more trouble if I did this.  Maybe Kadee offers couplers with very long shanks that would work, I don’t know.  I have also mounted diaphragms to my cars. 

 

 

My three cars that are probably from the 50s are very loose with the fit between the chassis and body, so much so, that the body can slide down and tend ride on the coupler holder (Talgo) portion of the trucks and keep the trucks from rotating and following the track.  I have not come up with a method of fixing this as I have so many other more important projects going on, on my layout and running passenger equipment is not very important to me.

I feel the length of these cars demonstrate that the 22 inch radius I chose, is too small!  Then the fact that I have had these cars so long, makes me want to hold on to them, anyway!

[peahrens]

I acquired some old Athearn heavyweights and re-did them.  I replaced the wheelsets on the plastic truck frames with metal wheeled Intermountain 36" and for the one that had a metal truck frames I found some Athearn plastic replacement trucks with metal wheels.  They run fine on my 25" code 83 curves, with the couplers left mounted in the trucks. 

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Athearn-HO-6-Wheel-Passenger-Trucks-p/ath-90413.htm

I recall most of my cars had the larger truck stem that goes through the floor, and that the metal one was the one with a smaller hole and truck bolster post that the screw goes through.  Not 100% sure I recall that right.

These are nice cars as far as I'm concerned.

 

[SS Express]

Yes, our basement layout is code 83 and these kits are pretty old according to my dad. Most of his BB kits were leftover stock from his fathers hobby shop back in the fifties. Like I mentioned earlier, the wheels were way out as far as the NMRA gauge was concerned. I am trying to go thru all his stuff and see what is still usable and upgradable. My dad don't get around too well anymore so he hasn't been able to finish his projects. These Pullman cars looked pretty good in the box, and even better on the layout, they just didn't run at all. Hopefully a truck and/or wheel upgrade will do the trick.

[Soo Line fan]

I have been running them on 18 radius for years with the truck mounted couplers and zero derailments This is what they were designed to do.

Sounds like the wheels are definitely out of gauge.

[doctorwayne]

I have a bunch of them, mostly converted into wooden baggage cars.  They will definitely run on code 83 track, but they're not the most free-rolling cars around.  Mine are the older ones, with cast metal trucks.  The wheels are 36", one plastic and one metal on each axle, supposedly to support lighting.

Wayne

 

[zstripe]

Did You test them running on code 83 track? If You did...they will not work on it. They should work on code 100. I had about six of those in the late 50's and they would run well on brass code 100. I even got them to take 22 inch radius curves by filing down the flanges on the center wheel set. If You want to keep them and get them to work well, You might be better off, changing the truck with wheel sets. A lot of those BB kits will not work on code 83 track. If You wanted interior, either You scratch built it or bought a Campbell scale model kit with, wood seats, staples for arm rests and cardboard.

Take Care! 

Frank

Edit: You posted same time I did....axle tip to axle tip.

[SS Express]

I assume I would measure the axle from point to point?? Not the distance between the wheels..........Rich

[dstarr]

The Athearn heavyweight passenger cars are excellent models of the everyday standard passenger car, in service from the turn of last century until the Amtrak in the 70's.  They want 36 inch wheels.  The industry never standardized the length of axles.  Reboxx offers all lengths of axle to fit every piece of rolling stock.  Either you measure the length of the old axles, or you ask Reboxx what fits and Athearn heavyweight. 

 

[SS Express]

I recently ran across some a couple old blu-box heavyweights my dad had stashed away on a shelf in his basement. (He does this alot) I grabbed them them down and proceeded to try and run them on our basement layout. They were really bad on the track and wouldn't even run on 22 inch radius. Those old wheel sets weren't even close on the NMRA gauge. I did some surfing online and found some Reboxx wheels but I don't understand the different axle lengths. I believe these would use the 36 inch wheels also. If anyone could shed some light on these old heavyweight wheel sets, it would be a great help. I know my dad would love to see them run again.

Thanks, Rich