So I'm having some difficulty with my Athearn 86' Hi Cube boxcar. I still haven't glued it together as it seems flimsy. What should I do to improve these? Walthers no longer sells the self-centering body-mounted couplers for it, so I guess I'm stuck with the truck-mounted ones.
Any suggestions?
Julian
Modeling Pre-WP merger UP (1974-81)
Check out the coupler listings on the Kadee site.
i have several of these and once you snap the floor in place there fairely solid as for the coupler's i always cut the self-centering lugs off as they offer the same problems as tanglo trucks , if the piece is missing a strip of .060 or .080 styreen and a kdee coupler box makes the same thing.
I have the offset shank Kadees on it now, with the original truck-mounted couplers. The Walthers ones were still for the narrower curves (I have some areas at 22") but would self-center (They were based on the swing brackets for the auto carriers)
Kadee has some, but they aren't at all forgiving, probably 36" curves at minimum from the look of the swing box - it's too short to have much play.
On another note: Does this have enough weight with what comes in the box, and are these trucks okay?
fieryturbo I have the offset shank Kadees on it now, with the original truck-mounted couplers. The Walthers ones were still for the narrower curves (I have some areas at 22") but would self-center (They were based on the swing brackets for the auto carriers) Kadee has some, but they aren't at all forgiving, probably 36" curves at minimum from the look of the swing box - it's too short to have much play. On another note: Does this have enough weight with what comes in the box, and are these trucks okay?
the weight is close to 7oz on mine seems to be close to nmra standards aside from that mine seem to track ok , on the trucks depends on what era they are the old ones don't roll well the newer ones roll well if you don't object to plastic wheeles.
I remove the Athearn Crap Coupler Boxes Entirely and Replace them with Details West Wide Mouth Coupler Boxes#1026 with a long skank Kadee Coupler, either a #26 or 36 depending.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
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I would look into getting the special weight intended for these cars made by Adair Shops, part 2014R. That might help make the car feel more substantial and less flimsy.
If by flimsy you mean the feeling that you can squeeze the sides of the car in, an interior cross brace or two should address that.
As for the Walthers coupler adapter that was meant for these cars (and as I recall it also worked for the Blue Box 89' intermodal flat cars), I see that just within the last few days Walthers had gone and goofed up the search engine on their website again. Now to do an advanced search for couplers or coupler adapters from Walthers, you have to know any of the dozen or so "trade names" they have invented for themselves. You wonder if the people they assign to revamp their website have, themselves, ever even once searched for something they needed or wanted on the site. For all I know it is still available but tucked away into some bizarre little corner of their website.
Anyway -- those coupler adapters are VERY commonly seen at swap meets so do not lose hope.
Dave Nelson
I have never used glue on any Athearn cars ever to hold them together, only for details. I have some of these cars and I never had any problem with them. I have the Walthers replacement coupler pockets but never felt that they needed to be replaced. The way the Athearn couplers are engineered they work like body mounted couplers because the force is on the truck mounting screw not the truck itself. Check to see if the weight is bent or if the coupler mount sags. If so just straighten them out with your hands, they should bend pretty easily. I hope this helps.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe I have never used glue on any Athearn cars ever to hold them together, only for details. I have some of these cars and I never had any problem with them. I have the Walthers replacement coupler pockets but never felt that they needed to be replaced. The way the Athearn couplers are engineered they work like body mounted couplers because the force is on the truck mounting screw not the truck itself. Check to see if the weight is bent or if the coupler mount sags. If so just straighten them out with your hands, they should bend pretty easily. I hope this helps.
This car is a bit different because it's just so huge. The top wants to fall off the chassis and it flexes when you put the top on the chassis because it's so long.
The coupler mount doesn't sag, it's just not straight side to side I had to add grease to the pivot points on the wheels only because of the truck mounted couplers. At that point I still had the screw pretty loose. The truck mounted coupler should slide but in reality tends to bind against the bottom of the car.
I'm from the club that says the NMRA RP is the minimum. The other thing that is important, as I discuss on my site, these cars are like some of Athearn's 57' cars. There are not enough gates in the shell to keep the chassis from slipping up into the shell. This is a disaster for couplers, body or truck mounted. I always use under shank couplers, no matter what. The long flexible chassis always tends to drag the couplers. Even with under shanks you will likely need a washer or two. With the added weight and proper coupler height, they will run reliably.
So many trains, so little time,
Larry
www.llxlocomotives.com
On my 1 86' BB car, I trimmed the floor aound the ends, to clear the coupler boxes, as the "rub" issue was present. (Only on one. No apperant reason why it rubbed either....) I did leave the end corners on, to hold the body in place, and, as no one should be seeing the underside of my railcars, (except me), no one will ever know that the floor has a hole on each end of the car....
D'Oh!
Except for now, all of you know it.....
Oops....
Oh well. None of you will tell, right?
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
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