HO MSI Equipment Up-Date

[Anonymous]

Courtesy of Atlas Forum, David Harrison Author.

David,

Since you brought up the locomotive on the MSI layout, I'm curious to know how much wear & tear do the freight & passenger cars recieve? Do they recieve any modifications, such as metal wheelsets & Kadee couplers, before anything is pressed into service?



D.Harrison

Posted - 05/05/2005 : 01:09:19 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
Car and coach modifications at MSI can be talked about with two words...InterMountain and Kadee. The InterMountain wheelsets are bought by the hundreds. If a new car already has metal wheels, they will be used. Plastic wheels are trashed immediately.

Kadee #5s go on all equipment. If a problem develops and nothing else works, an overset or underset Kadee might be used.

Last weekend I put into service an Athearn RTR flat and since the wannabe coupler had coiled knuckle springs, I thought I'd give 'em a try. Car separated today and upon close examination, the plastic wannabe is bent. If someone would make the wannabe's out of metal, they'd have a winner.

The InterMountain wheelsets replace anything out on the road that looks like trouble. Neat thing is we never measure IM's; just pop 'em in. Guess you could call that confidence.

The rolling stock at MSI is determined mainly by the types of trains on the three main lines. The "A" line is usually hosting three Amtrak trains: two long distance trains of SuperLiners and a shorter one with single level coaches.

Walthers almost has a monoply here. Only the Metra coaches use the metal sideframes and we wear out original Walthers wheels within a week. Those trucks get the IM roller bearing wheelsets, as even the regular IM's will wear out in those Walthers trucks.

On the freight side, there are six trains including a loaded and an empty unit coal train; an intermodal of stacks and trailers; plus a mixed manifest, a multilevel, and a train of seven flats loaded with John Deere tractors. Multivels fill out the tractor train which without a doubt is a favorite with the kids.

Walthers, probably is 50 percent, especially since they're the only game in town with the multilevels. The loaded coal includes 30 Athearn RTR bethgons...remember the give and take about them when they came out.

Except for when they were removed for wheel cleanings, they've run non-stop since March '04 AND on their original wheelsets. Although we really don't track cars, the RTR b-gons stay together, so they're easily tracked since we aways run a coal train. One month an empty train maxed out at 70 cars.

Some of the Walthers multilevels date from the November, 2002 layout opening.

We have a 15 car circus train that runs occasionally. The mixture of flats carrying various circus equipment was also a "kid's favorite."

David Harrison