NEW KADEE CARS AND TRUCKS (SELF CENTERING TYPE)

[Anonymous]

SOME PEOPLE MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE FOLLOWING.

DIGITRAX FORUM DISCUSSION ON JUNE 18 AND SUBSEQUENT DAYS


TO: Sam Clarke,

Kadee Quality Products

I thought you and your Company might be interested in the following which created quite a discussion.

On Sunday June,18 2004 a discussion ensued on the Digitrax Forum regarding the following by a fellow named Terry.

I was interested at the time because I wondered if it pertained to #502 trucks which I have, but it did not.

TWO ENTRIES OF ABOUT 15-20 ENTRIES ON THE TOPIC ARE SHOWN BELOW
(RE:KADEE SELF CENTERING TRUCKS).

Hi all,
Sorry that this isn't a Digitrax question but can't get an answer on
any other site that I'm a member of. I hope I'm not being out of
line, and thank you in advance for any help.
I just purchased some HO Kadee box cars and was surprised to find
that they don't roll as well as some other cars I have with metal
wheels. They also seem to make a noise as if something is rubbing as
they are being pulled by a train. These are new cars, never used.
I'm wondering if anyone has had the same experience or if they know
of a fix for this problem.
Thank you!!
Terry


From: "Scott Subject: Re: Kadee box cars
I just purchased some HO Kadee box cars and was surprised to find
that they don't roll as well as some other cars I have with metal
wheels. They also seem to make a noise as if something is rubbing
as they are being pulled by a train.

I have 8 of these and have experienced the same problem. There is a
tool that MicroMark sells (sorry I don't remember the name of it and
many train hobby shops sell it) that is used to hollow-out the
side frame journals to clean out molding material and to make it a
better fit for the pointed end of the axle. I have heard that this
tool is only supposed to be used on plastic trucks but I have used
it with pretty good success on the Kadee metal side frames.

Then squirt a small shot of Kadee's graphite lubricant into the
bearing area. Having done this, they will roll better but never as
well as the equivalently weighted car with plastic truck side
frames.

I also found that I had to remove the plastic centering boss where
the truck retaining screws goes through the truck and cut off the
centering "wings" to get derailment free operation. I use the
heavier duty sprue cutters and small file to clean the cuts.
Reinsert it and the screw. You no longer have the truck centering
feature but you will be able to back the cars through curved
turnouts.


Yes, go ahead and post my comments if you wish.


Regards, Sam Clarke



REPLY TO DISCUSSION

The comments about our cars not rolling very well is not unusual.
For quite sometime we had problems with our trucks getting tweaked
during shipping. The shippers would slam the packages so hard that it
would compress the springs in the trucks and cause the side frames to
either come apart or get misaligned. The misalignment would cause the
trucks not to roll properly. The misalignment is easily fixed and with
a little fine tuning the trucks will almost as good as any others.
We have done a bit of work on the side frames to help and we've added a retaining clip to the trucks on our PS-2 hopper cars so the slamming during shipping does not tweak the trucks.

The unfortunate thing is that many people will not contact us
directly to find out what to do about the rolling problems. If what we
tell them to do does not work, we'll replace the trucks that they can't get rolling properly. [Modelers should ask the actual manufacturer.]

Thanks again for your order and comments, let me know about your
order.

Regards, Sam Clarke [KADEE QUALITY PRODUCTS]


KEN