General Discussion (Model Railroader)

We model railroaders know a few things about out locos and rolling stock.  We know that everything has to be in guage or Murphy's law will come to pay a little visit.  I am going to warn you on something that I thought should never happen.

I tend to take assumptions for granted.  Earlier today, I was checking some Athearn 5161 covered hoppers that I recently purchased.  These cars have excellent detail but so far I found one fatal flaw in one car so far.  I haven't checked the rest (ordered 12).  One wheelset is not insulated.  I found this out the hard way when I went to place it on live track and it caused a short. 

I am going to email Athearn once I check over the remaining cars and see if they can send some free replacements.

Has this happened to any of you?

I thought the wheels were pressed onto a plastic axle on Athearn cars? 

 I have a Kato roller bearing truck with one wheel on backwards; i.e., the flange is on the outside instead of the inside, and it is the wheel that is fused to the axle and can't be removed and turned around.

   That is why I am a firm believer in putting ALL rolling stock and locos on a test track and maintenance program before being set on the layout or modules. I see club members open up the RTR rolling stock and set them on the layout and have all sorts of problems. Couplers drooping, wheels out of gauge, trip pins too low and too high, trucks warped and miss aligned wheels.

  I see a few people on these forums that say weight is as important as all that mentioned above.  Last week at the club I took the plastic frame from an Athearn tank car put kadee #5s on both ends and stock Athearn trucks and plastic wheels. Checked couplers for swing and height, trip pin , wheel gauge and swivel. I had to use 2-56 nuts to hold the trucks on. I put this thing in the center of a ten car train and went around the layout 4 times. Forward and backwards with no derailments!

  We can avoid most of our problems by checking things before we put on the rails.

       Pete

 Back when I was using plastic wheels it wasn't uncommon to find one that one of the wheels was off center to the axle. This cause the rail car to jiggle a bit if the offset was only slight. Any more than that and it was a sure bet there would be derailment. After I switched to metal wheels in 2004 I've found only a few problems. One was a wheel that flat spotted. Can't imagine how that happened. Sure made a funny sound though. A couple of other problems I found were a wheel that was lopsided and a couple that were out of gauge.

I carry an NMRA gauge in my wallet - and avoid airport security by driving...

The only time I put a string of uninspected RTR cars on my layout, the result was a complete disaster!  Normally, I wouldn't even consider activating a piece of rolling stock without a complete inspection, but that was an abberation - a desire to run a traditional U.S. prototype train (of kitbash fodder.)  Never again!

One oddball failure I've encountered was the nickel silver wheel coming adrift from its plastic hub.   Happily, a slight application of CA served to restore things to operating condition.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

I always check the wheel spacng with the NMRA standards gage. Wheels with incorrect spacing are fairly common, but 2 or 3 times I have found bent axles. This was on metal axle/plastic wheel models (before I started my metal wheel replacement program). This results in a wheelset being in gage at one point and out of gage elsewhere. Since then, I check wheel sets at at least 3 or 4 points on the circumference. The manufacturers sent replacement wheels at no cost each time when I informed them of the problem

 Yes - ALWAYS check the wheels, and use an NMRA gauge. Many of the problem that get attrributed to 'cheap' turnouts are really caused by the wheels! Every car that exhibited a 'bounce' over the Atlas turnouts on my previous layout were founf to have out of gauge wheels when checked. Fixing or replacing the wheels resulting in smooth rolling.

                             --Randy

TA462:

I thought the wheels were pressed onto a plastic axle on Athearn cars? 

These cars are based off of the Genesis tooling.  They are equipped with metal axles.  I am contemplating wheter to leave them or change them out to semi scale wheels.

locoi1sa:

   That is why I am a firm believer in putting ALL rolling stock and locos on a test track and maintenance program before being set on the layout or modules. I see club members open up the RTR rolling stock and set them on the layout and have all sorts of problems. Couplers drooping, wheels out of gauge, trip pins too low and too high, trucks warped and miss aligned wheels.

  I see a few people on these forums that say weight is as important as all that mentioned above.  Last week at the club I took the plastic frame from an Athearn tank car put kadee #5s on both ends and stock Athearn trucks and plastic wheels. Checked couplers for swing and height, trip pin , wheel gauge and swivel. I had to use 2-56 nuts to hold the trucks on. I put this thing in the center of a ten car train and went around the layout 4 times. Forward and backwards with no derailments!

  We can avoid most of our problems by checking things before we put on the rails.

       Pete

I agree.  Any time I get new rolling stock, I thoroughly check it over first for any missing or broken parts since it's supposed to be new.  I then check couplers, remove the trucks, check the trucks over (guage wheels, check alignment, etc.), and then put trucks back on, making sure they aren't overly tightened or too loose.  A little work before new equipment goes on the layout prevents most future headaches, in my opinion.

Kevin

One of the standard tests I do on any piece of rolling stock before approving it for the layout is to check the gauge of the wheelsets. However, in all the years of doing that, I can't remember one time when I found out of gauge wheel sets. Maybe I am the luckiest model railroader in the world but I suspect quality control is much better now than it used to be and that out of gauge wheels are a rarity. I should say that for my freight car kits, I always replace the cheap plastic wheel sets with P2Ks which might be one reason I never find out of gauge wheels.

Couplers are a whole different issue, both the kit builds and the RTR. Couplers that are too low or don't swing right are very common.