I like the Branchline cars, both the early ones and the ones after Atlas bought the line. They have nice detail and even though they are not as short as the classic Athearn shorties they navigate my 24" curves with no problem. Whether they look sufficiently prototype on such tight curves is a subjective matter, but they don't come off the track. I have one or two Bachmann Spectrum cars, too, which also perform wonderfully and have nice detail. The only heavyweight passenger car that has given me problems is an old AHM blue-and-yellow box baggage car, whose wobble I complained about vociferously in the forum here but have so far been unable to remedy.
[tried to embed a video on my Google Drive page here but it didn't work. Here's the link:]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p-sJ08R_yakKzvoBVFs5A7vZ0ZwGHmPP/view?usp=drive_link
-Matt
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
crossthedogThe only heavyweight passenger car that has given me problems is an old AHM blue-and-yellow box baggage car, whose wobble I complained about vociferously in the forum here but have so far been unable to remedy.
Have you tried Kadee 33" wheels in your Rivarossi trucks, Matt?
Rivarossi-old by Edmund, on Flickr
The original pizza-cutter wheels are indeed awful.
Rivarossi-gauge by Edmund, on Flickr
Kadee wheelsets snap in easily. A little graphite (I use molybdenum disulfide) in the cone helps. You may have to tweak the brake shoes a little.
Rivarossi-truck by Edmund, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
gmpullmanHave you tried Kadee 33" wheels in your Rivarossi trucks, Matt?
Anyway, thanks. I do love Kadee products. Not sure my wobble comes from the wheels. It seems to be how the trucks are mounted to the underframe, and everything I tried failed, even shimming under the coupler and adding proper weight inside the cars. I'll have to go back and revisit all that, but I don't want to steal any more time from this thread's very simple survey question.
crossthedogHi Ed, my trucks don't look like that at all.
These are the later version of Rivarossi truck on their 'shorty' heavyweights:
Rivarossi Truck by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_8037_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
Is that the style truck you have and is the wobble caused by a loose-fitting bolster screw?
Regards, Ed
"Rivarossi" can be a bit confusing, because the 1960s-90s AHM / Rivarossi cars really have nothing in common with the later Rivarossi / Hornby / Walthers 60' cars (which are based on actual 60' C&NW cars).
Note that Athearn heavyweight Baggage, RPO and Coach cars are not "shorties". In heavyweight days coaches were generally around 70' long, like the Athearn car, head-end cars like RPO and Baggage cars were normally 60'-70' long, again like the Athearn models.
My apologies for the confusion, guys. @Ed, I think my car is not an AHM but an IHC. Here's my original post from a year or so ago.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/290810.aspx
Again, sorry for highjacking an already necromanced thread.
From everything I've ever read, seen or heard, whether or not there may be other causes for car wobble, the monster flanges on the so-called 'pizza cutter' wheels will either create new or exacerbate existing problems.
My first step in avoiding such problems, particularly for older cars I'm attempting to upgrade to play well with others, is to immediately swap off the pizza cutters. The junked pizza cutter wheelsets end up parked on a maintenance facility flatcar or in a pile in some yard, sufficiently rusted to make overlooking their poor appearance easy. Without doing that as a first step, I've found that all the other fixing I try to do never has the desired full effect. If changing out the old wheels seems to necessitate installing entirely new trucks, I can still use these old prizes on my layout to populate static scenes while final fixes await my budget catching up. I'm a lifetime subscriber to the old adage that some car is better than no car, so nothing goes to waste even if I have to wait to get it up and running. Some of the old cars, even the cheapos, can be really handsome with a little TLC.