My 3 UP MOW cars were a bargain price purchase on closeout but they had frequent derailments. I took a closer look today and found the innermost axle wheel flanges hit the center frame a bit early on turns and the outermost axle flanges could in some cases hit the coupler assembly cover. And one car in one turn direction had a ladder in from the car end that the truck bearing housing can bump. After some Dremeling and snipping a rung off the ladder they track much better.
I think occasional derails now may be due to on sharpest curves the car ends (hand rungs) and/or diaphragms touching and exerting enough pressure. Does anyone know if the installed couplers are standard Kadee length, such that getting the next longer version is what I should order?
And the wheels on these guys seem to short across the narrow parts of turnout rails. I have a BLI SD40 that was my first equipment to do this, and I applied some nail polish as an insulating bandaid at 2-3 spots that liked to do it. I need to re-do that as I've sinced painted the rails and when cleaning them up created the need to reapply the polish. But these MOW cars seem to do it at lots more spots, so if the nail polish trick did not work, could I substitute plastic (or less offending metal) wheelsets and which type? I do not plan to light these cars so metal wheels are not mandatory.
Thanks for any advice.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Hi, Paul
I have two MofW cars in PRR yellow paint and have not had the chance to run them yet, however, these are the standard issue Walthers heavyweights of which I have dozens. There's quite a few threads here about tuning up Walthers passenger cars. I'm blessed with pretty generous curves (in more ways than one!) so the Walthers passenger cars don't give me too much trouble.
Their newer releases seem to have improved a bit but they are still finnicky to get running smoothly.
The coupler boxes do accept a Kadee shank easily, both the whisker and the pentagon shape so you could use the longer shank 26 or 146 coupler.
The Walthers truck side frames are Zamac or "pot-metal" so they can be prone to shorting. I wonder if you could make an Athearn heavyweight truck work and use Intermountain or Kadee 36" wheels?
Might be worth a try...
Ed
Are the wheels 36"? Guess I could measure them and multiply by 87, but I don't even know if the wheel "size" is the diameter across the tire or the flange. I'd guess the tire.
I would guess a key part of changing to another truck would be comparable location of the mounting hole along the length of the truck frame, as the originals have the mounting hole towards one end (not centered).
Can the wheelsets be changed in the originals by somehow loosening them and getting back together? I'm used to changing them (to metal wheels) in freight car trucks but it's easy by flexing the plastic sideframes.
I have seven Walthers streamline cars that are not near as much trouble (on my curves). The MOW cars have gross interference issues. My curves are pretty much 25"-plus and the MOW cars couldn't handle them. Of course, a truck bearing that hits a ladder step head on is easy to find and fix, but the underneath interference at the frame and coupler box was a bit tougher to evaluate as to weather a real problem regarding needed truck swing on the layout. Of course, for $19 each they are pretty nice cars, just need some loving care. Worst case is they become a decorative string in the yard most of the time.