Wheels are rubbing on brand new Atlas master line cars

[Motley]

OK I'm mad now, I picked up 3 of the Atlas master line 72' centerbeam cars today. And the wheels are scraping on the underside of the car. I tried to adjust the truck screws, tight, loose, nothing helps.

When I removed the trucks there is no spacers between the trucks and the frame. Should I try to put spacers in there?And where the heck would I find tiny spacers for them?

Don't they quality control check these. I paid $34 each for these darn things. Or should I take them back to the Caboose Hobbies.

Thanks,

Michael

[Mr B & O]

Kadee makes fiber washers, gray (thin) and red (thick)--I forget their exact thicknesses, but they are on the order of 0.010" and 0.025" or something like that.  They are meant to raise a car with low couplers, but will work for your purpose.  I find the red washers to be the more useful of the two, but I keep both on hand.  Just unscrew the truck, pop a washer in place, replace the truck, and viola, no more rubbing wheels.

Greg

[Hamltnblue]

 Do they always rub or only on turns?  If only turns maybe the radius is too tight. I've also had cars with the wrong size wheels in the past with 36 inch supplied. Switching to 33's fixed it.

 

[Motley]

They rub, on straight track. and all 3 of the cars have the same issue.

I'll pick up those Kadee spacers tomorrow, thanks for tip on that one.

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

 Did you check your coupler height? If not it's worth picking up one of those coupler height gauges from Kadee. As a matter of Standard operating procedure now on my railroad I employ a practice that the club has had in place since they first started. I don't car who's car it is the first thing I do is check the coupler height then the weight of the car, then check to see if the wheels are in gage. and finally remove the wheel sets and use that truck tuning tool just to make sure there are no burs or flashing let over. No your right the quality control people seem to be on sabbatical these days or perhaps they are a victim of budget cuts. like the rest of us. If your coupler height is ok then the only thing that comes to mind besides an obvious defect in workmanship is that they put the wrong wheels on the cars If it were me I would take em back to the LHS where you purchased them and tell them you want three new ones and here's why. At those prices you have every right to be mad. If you have caliper or a micrometer you can measure the wheel sizes and try swapping them with another size just to make sure but why should you have to even bother. I consider the shims as fine tuning so thats no big deal.

[Pathfinder]

How are the couplers?  If they are at the right height, then it will be more work as once you add the shims (or change the wheels to a smaller size) the couplers will be off, then it will mean messing around with them.

An option would be to contact Atlas and see if this is a common problem, if so they may have a fix.

Let us know what happens!

[Motley]

Yes I checked the coupler hight and it's perfect. What is the truck tuning tool you speak of?

Another question, if the wheels are out of gage, how do you fix that? I can't see any where on the trucks where the wheels are adjustable?

I should just return them, but I wanted some centerbeam cars, and these were the only ones they had.

So if I get them exchanged, they will probably have the same issue, since all 3 of these cars have this issue. I think I'll call Atlas on Monday and complain, maybe they'll send me replacement trucks.

[Anonymous]

 Why don´t you just take them back and let Caboose Hobbies sort out the issue with Atlas? Why tinker around with something you bought new and you can expect to be flawless?

[BRAKIE]

Sir Madog

 Why don´t you just take them back and let Caboose Hobbies sort out the issue with Atlas? Why tinker around with something you bought new and you can expect to be flawless?

Sadly in this age of limited production it may be easier to fix a simple problem then return the cars since there may not be a replacement in the road name(s) he bought.

I would add a thin washer since it takes a few mintues..

[blownout cylinder]

BRAKIE

Sir Madog

 Why don´t you just take them back and let Caboose Hobbies sort out the issue with Atlas? Why tinker around with something you bought new and you can expect to be flawless?

Sadly in this age of limited production it may be easier to fix a simple problem then return the cars since there may not be a replacement in the road name(s) he bought.

I would add a thin washer since it takes a few mintues..

One could assume that at one point the idea of quality control was on the mfgs side of things. But that was a myth even back then. Fixing/repairing is up to the end-user.

A simple thin washer really should do the trick here though----

[CNJ831]

I totally agree with Larry (Brakie) that the best approach is to fix whatcha got in your hands already. Odds are that if you received three cars with the same problem then many, if not all, will suffer from the same error and swapping yours out for others may not change the situation.

Adding one, or two, Kadee red washers (just a scale couple of inches, really) is likely enough to correct minor rubbing of the wheels against the body, without altering coupler height enough to be any problem. Of course, if the wheels are actually dragging because of contact, it may be more of a problem to correctly fix.

CNJ831

[Hamltnblue]

 I know it's a dumb question but the chinese factory workers didn't by any chance install the trucks upside down did they?

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

FYI: I'm not meaning for this to sound condescending but just spelling it out as simple as I can for information sake, more then likely you already know most of what I've posted.  

Motley

Yes I checked the coupler hight and it's perfect. What is the truck tuning tool you speak of?

Well shimming it may solve the problem but you will now need to adjust the coupler height accordingly

 This is the truck tuning tool it can be purchased from other sources but I got mine from Micro-Mark, what it does is clear any burs left behind when the trucks are injection molded and just gives the inside surface and uniform consistent angel  matching the taper of the axle.sort of like lapping valves on an engine if you've ever done that.

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=truck+tuner

 

Another question, if the wheels are out of gage, how do you fix that? I can't see any where on the trucks where the wheels are adjustable?

 You obviously check your wheels for gage using your trusty NMRA gage, also available at Micro-Mark or the NMRA website using the two "slots" marked wheels on the left side looking at the gage.if the wheels fit in the slots, 

 http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/images/gag_s.gif

 

 If your wheels are out of gage you can use this puller tool to gently slide the wheel on the axle into gage.

I have only had one set of wheels that were "outside of gage" and needed to be pushed back in I know they make a fixture for holding the axles and you can press the wheel inward using a small arbor press that they sell but like I said I only came across it once so I just jury rigged something to hold the axle and taped on the wheel to push it in. after spending way too much time fusing with it i threw the wheel set in a scrap box and grabbed another set and put the new one in. Wheel sets are one of the things I personally think you can never have enough of. One of the little inexpensive items I look for at train shows.

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=wheel+puller

I should just return them, but I wanted some centerbeam cars, and these were the only ones they had.

So if I get them exchanged, they will probably have the same issue, since all 3 of these cars have this issue. I think I'll call Atlas on Monday and complain, maybe they'll send me replacement trucks.

 Well Atlas has always been pretty good when it comes to customer service and for me they are relatively local so I've even just taken it upon myself to drive up there and drop things off and or ask questions. They used to have a retail outlet store years back but not any longer but that hasn't stopped me........lol It's very possible they have a bad production run. I know it sounds like a poor excuse and it generally is, but Atlas doesn't manufacture anything themselves any more so we have a pretty good idea where it's being made and the quality control should be at the factory level or at worse case Atlas should check them randomly, but perhaps they aren't even aware of the problem so sure hit them up with a phone call first. If your luck is anything like mine I would have purchased the only 3 cars out of thousands made with the wrong wheels or some other defect.

 

[nedthomas]

If the wheel flange is hitting part of the underframe maybe the part could be shaved off a little to provide cleanance. Bower had this problem with some covered hoppers and corrected it on the second run. This is why it would be good to contact ATLAS so they can correct it on future runs.

[Medina1128]

 I keep underset and overset Kadee couplers on hand, just for those occasions like you run into. Are the couplers body mounted? If you raise the body to clear the wheels, overset couplers will bring them back down to the correct height. If they are truck mounted, raising the body won't affect your coupler height at all.

[Motley]

Well... I just called Atlas about this issue. Apparantly there is a manufacturer defect on all these cars, and they told me to return them to the hobby store, as there is no fix for this.

So these expensive cars are going back, I'll just have to wait for the new Walthers centerbeam cars to be available and I'll get those.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Michael

[BRAKIE]

Motley

Well... I just called Atlas about this issue. Apparantly there is a manufacturer defect on all these cars, and they told me to return them to the hobby store, as there is no fix for this.

So these expensive cars are going back, I'll just have to wait for the new Walthers centerbeam cars to be available and I'll get those.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Michael

That is so sad..

Atlas has a near perfect track record on producing quality products.I read on the Atlas forum many centerbeams arrived broken but,was unaware of this issue.

[Motley]

Ya kinda strange, they said something really bad happened, someone dropped the ball on this one. These were the first Atlas cars I have ever purchased, I'll give them another shot though, I really liked the details on these things, they looked great.