Introduction & a bunch of questions.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My name is Todd and I'm in my 40's. I originally got into the hobby through my grandfather. I was about 10 at the time. He worked for both the New York Central and Long Island Railroads. I took a long hiatus from the hobby and have recently gotten very interested again.

I don't do Brass, too expensive. My HO collection consists of Athearn engines and rolling stock, Atlas engines, Proto series engines, Walthers rolling stock, some Accurail, Roundhouse etc... You get the idea. Most of my trains are NYC, PRR and NH, basically Northeastern 60's & 70's railroads.

As for the questions, there's lots but I'm only going to ask a few right off the bat.

1) Athearn passenger cars - Is there anything out there for interiors?
2) Wheelsets for Rolling Stock- What are the best wheels and/or trucks to replace the plastic ones that come with items like Athearn? I know I want to go with metal but don't know those things that probably took you guys years and lots of wasted money to find out.
3) Couplers- Kadee, McHenry, Proto??? What's the best bang for the buck and why?

Basically I'm looking to beef up my existing collection before getting any more. Since I haven't done wheelsets, trucks and couplers on any of these I would like to get it right the first time.

I'm willing to spend some money on the above but not too much. I'm a midrange enthusiast as you can tell from the manufacturers I listed above. You won't find me spending $30 per passenger car for trucks, too rich for my blood.

Thanks for your time.

[Anonymous]

Let me be the first, WELCOME ABOARD!

I will leave the answers up to the pros. I'm still climbing the grade.

[nfmisso]

Hi Todd;

1. There are no specific interiors made for the Athearn passenger cars, but there are many items that can be used of adapted. At the low end are the IHC interiors, take a look at Walthers for individual components, etc.

2. I keep P2K, InterMountain and Branchline on hand. Each has a different axle length, which works in different trucks. I use a digital caliper from Harbor Freight (less than $20) to measure the axles removed. I also use a "Tool" to clean up the side frames. It is capable of removing quite a bit of material when required, such as on the discontinued Ertl cars.

3.If you are sticking with short trains on level track, any with a metal coil knuckle spring, and you can intermix them. If you have grades and/or heavy trains: Kadee; #5 or 40 series.

[simon1966]

Hi NY Central, welcome aboard. Sounds like you are in a similar boat to me, coming back to the hobby in your 40's.

I don't think that there are any off the shelf solutions for Athearn interiors. IHC makes some cheap ones that you might be able to adapt. You would certainly want to paint them to get ris of the ugly colors.
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=286LQ2377855P84X186I33N0400719

As for wheel sets, do a search on the forum for Metal wheel sets. The subject comes up fairly often and there are some lengthy threads that discuss all the options. I have been using Proto 2000 wheelsets in my Athearn Blue Box kits and have been happy with them so far. I have not replaced the trucks on these.

Couplers. Well I am a fan of Kadee. They are metal and have a metal coil spring. I have also used some of the McHenry couplers with good results in specific applications. What ever you do, don't bother with any knucle coupler that does not have a metal coil spring. The plastic filament designs do not last. McHenry makes couplers with both, so be careful when purchasing.

Anyway, have fun with your new, old hobby!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the welcome and quick answers. This seems to be a very busy place and that's great!

I've seen the IHC interiors and figured that might be the way to go, at $5 a car I figured I'd give it a shot.

The proto wheels look really nice and that should give me a little more weight and a nice sound.

I figured kadee would be the way to go, they've been in the business a long time. Thanks for pointing out that plastic coil springs don't cut it. I have seen varying designs and was wondering something. On the part of the coupler that would go in the draft box I see it can be done several ways. Some couplers just have the shank that goes in and sits in a metal tray and that metal tray provides the "spring action centering". Others have plastic curved right off of the shank and that provides the spring action. Any preference on those?

To answer nfmisso, yes I will have grades and I will haul heavy trains. Kadee is looking like the way to go.

Thanks again.

[lesterperry]

as far as wheels go i have no problem with stock athern plastics. some other brands occasionaly trouble. I repplace with proto. Couplers, Kadee are the way to go. They are made of metal and take hits very well . The others are plastic and the shank will break if wire is a little low and catches a frog. The first thing i do is remove other brand and replace with kadee. (300 plus cars)

[JohnT14808]

Welcome to the forum, NY Central!!

I'm in your boat as well, but a bit older, with some train gear, but no layout. I also use Kadee couplers, but haven't gotten around to changing out the wheelsets. I suppose that should be next. Invest in a good pair of 'coupler pliers'. They will save you a LOT of time. I ordered mine thru Micro Mark.

www.micromark.com

[RedGrey62]

NYC, welcome. Another good source for metal wheels is Reboxx. If you go to www.reboxx.com , they have a complete listing of different manufacturer's trucks and which length wheel sets are reccomended. I read where one guy was doing a test with the wheel sets and improved the rolling performance by some obscene amount over the stock wheels.

I try to stay with Kadee couplers, just a personal preference.

Rick

[tstage]

Hey, Todd!

Let me throw in a "welcome to the forum", too!

Looks like you got all your questions answered. I use P2K metal wheels sets myself and have been very happy with them. Todd, you're are the first person (other than myself) that's made a comment about the "sound" of metal wheels. The "ka-chunk, ka-chunck" of the metal wheels rolling over the track makes the layout seem more real to me. They indeed also add to the free rolling of the cars. I definitely know where all my "less-than-level" areas are on my layout. [:)]

The Kadees are supposedly the best. I have a few of them. But, since I have a number of Accurail boxcars and hoppers, I have a lot of the Accumate couplers that came with the kits. Maybe one day I will switch them out for Kadees. (Probably not before they break on me first.) In the meantime, I'll live with what I have.

Again, good to have you on board, Todd! [:)] Nice to have another NYC guy to chat with.

Tom

[Anonymous]

Generaly speaking as pointed out the favorite is www.kadee.com.
For car conversions, www.kadee.com/conv/list.htm for 40 different applications but the #5, a bit oversize,
or the #58, closer to scale will fit a majority of your stock.
For tools, http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page120.htm
and http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page160.htm and for a coupler recap, http://www.nmra.org/beginner/couplers.html

Wheels, not as easy . As Nigel pointed out, depending upon the truck manufacturer, axles
vary in length. Wheels also vary in size.
http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/197xvpbs.asp
http://www.nmra.org/beginner/wheelsets.html
http://www.micromark.com item #82838 and click on description for an exploded picture.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47257, courtesy of NIGEL.

The bottom line on wheelsets, it's a hit or miss thing as sometimes the axles fit and sometimes
they don't. www.reboxx.com makes 40+ axle lengths and as RICK pointed out, super rolling
ability over stock. Reboxx makes a comparison rolling test on stock versus their replacement,
0.088 wide versus the more common 0.110 wheel thread.

Favorite among modelers, P2K, Intermountain, KD's, all different lengths.

The next topic of concern you may have is clean track and clean loco power wheels.
Again, many choices/applicatiions

[mondotrains]

Hello Todd and Welcome!
Last year I posted a topic on Metal Wheelsets. With all the input I received, I bought Proto 2000, Intermountain, and Kadee wheelsets.

Well, it turns out that while different cars may require different length axles, I've found that I like the Kadees best because they fit about 90 of the cars I have. I stopped using the Proto 2000's because the axle is a little short for most cars and the plating on the wheel tread begins to wear off after a couple of hours run time. I only use the Intermountains when I can't get the Kadees to fit, even after reaming out the plastic journals on the sides of the truck with the Micro-Mark tool mentioned above.

I also found that because the Intermountains are soooooo slickkkkkk that in areas of my layout where it is not PERFECTLY flat, a car will roll when spotted. I'm only running 8 car trains so the Kadee wheels are plenty slick and cars equipped with them won't roll when spotted.

Believe it or not, I've also found that the plating on the Intermountain wheelsets also begins to wear off after a few hours of run time. I don't know if I got a bad batch or that is typical. All I know is I don't need the super slickness of the Intermountains.

By the way, you can get the Kadee wheelsets from www.toytrainheaven for $4.39 per pack of 12 (they list for over $9.00 now. If you're like a lot of guys who don't like the brown coating on the wheel tread and flange of the Kadee wheels, you can become a fanatic like me and use a brass wire brush in a Dremel tool to remove the coating. Then, the wheels look more prototypical like the Protos and Intermountains. Just be sure to wear eye protection when using the Dremel. The good thing about Kadees is that they are cast zinc and therefore don't have any plating to wear off.

Hope this helps.
Mondo

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the hellos and welcomes. I think I'm going to try the kadee wheelsets. The complete wheelsets, sprung metal trucks with metal wheels. Seems like a no brainer to go with the kadee couplers as well, which suits me fine, deal with just one manufacturer. I'll outfit a few cars and give them a whirl over a rough course to put them through their paces.

[CP5415]

Welcome aboard NYC!

I can't answer the interior question but as for wheels, Athearn has metal axles available as replacements for their plastic/metal trucks that come on the BB passenger cars.
For freight, I went with Proto axles both 33 & 36" depending on the car.
Couplers, there is no substitute for KD's!!!!!

Gordon

[tatans]

Well defined, very answerable questions, you are certainly at the right spot and you will soon be well informed, your economic limits are well defined, just stick to them, some members have a litte extra cash, not realising we all don't. you are truly off on the right foot here. I'm sill trying to learn.

[loathar]

Welcome! And that's a me three on the turned 40 and back into the hobby.I'm using Kadee and Mc Henry and havn't had any problems with any mixing. The plastic centering springs havn't given me any problems. I like that you can get them with offset
heads to adjust for coupler height.(does Kadee offer offset heads?). I don't like messing with the draftgear box to adjust height.
loathar

[jfugate]

I've had failures with the plastic shank couplers (McHenry's and Kadee 20/30 series). The Kadee 40 series and #5's use metal shanks, and I have yet to have a failure in them.

We've had derailments on the Siskiyou Line where the coupler head twisted right off the plastic shank. As soon as I saw that, I've outlawed any plastic shank couplers on the Siskiyou Line. We don't need those kind of failures.

With metal shank, if a car hits the floor coupler first, the coupler will often absorb the impact and you'll get minimal damage to the car. With plastic couplers, if they hit the floor first, they will fly to pieces and do little to protect the car. So it's all metal on the Siskiyou Line ... we don't lose stuff off the rails often, but when we do, I want couplers that can take the impact and perhaps protect the car. Saving a few cents with cheap couplers just isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

Hello, and welcome!!! I am modeling the PRR myself, and from a bit earlier, about 1956-1957 during the transition from steam to diesel. As far as your questions, I haven't seen anything available for the interiors of Athearn passenger cars. I have 2 sets of them, and love the sets nonetheless. As far as couplers, I would go with Kadee #5's. They are the industry standard. Period. I have used McHenry and find that they LOOK better than the Kadees, but do not perform as well. Mine would tend to ride over the coupler it was mated to with a long train and disconnect. I have never had this problem with Kadees. As far as wheels, I recently have been using the Life Like Proto 2000 wheels. These are steel and roll like bearings. They are available in 33" plain back, or ribbed back, and 36" wheels also. I have these now on all of my rolling stock and passenger cars. They make more noise on the tracks because of metal on metal, but they sound more real. As an additional benefit, the steel wheels keep you tracks cleaner than the plastic wheels. I would also recommend the Kadee coupler gauge to adjust your cars to "code".

[Pruitt]

A lot of folks will change out just the wheels in their trucks, installing quality turned metal wheels for the stock plastic ones. As for me, I replace the entire rigid truck with metal sprung trucks with metal wheels. This lowers the CG of the car and makes it ride smoother (at least over my trackwork!).

For couplers I use Kadee #5s mostly, but I've begun adding #58s to all new kits as I build them. The 58s are closer to scale than the 5s, but either looks good and works great.

[BRVRR]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I too have been looking for interiors for Athearn passenger cars. Haven't settled on any yet. I'd be interested to know how you make out with the IHC interiors.
I use Kadee #5s for nearly everything. I have a few others for special applications.
As far as wheels go, I usually stick with whatever comes on the car, but if I have to replace wheels, or if I need more weight on a car, I use LL/PK2.
I model the NYC too. Take a look at my website if you get the chance. Locos, rolling stock structures etc.
Welcome, again and good luck.

[loathar]

JFugate
I'm really glad to hear I not the only one to have trains plunge to the floor.
loathar

[csmith9474]

I believe my LHS sells interiors for Athearn passenger cars that were/are manufactured by Palace Car Company. They look to be really nice interiors. These are the same folks that produced interiors for many passenger cars. I will check when I go back in there, probably today. As far as wheelsets and trucks, I do quite a bit of passenger car modeling and have had great success with Kadee wheels used with Train Station Products trucks. The trucks require assembly, but are sharp once complete. Kadee couplers all the way!!!! You can take some Kadee #118 and modify them relatively easily (trim off the upper and lower shelf) to make nice looking couplers for your passenger cars.

[csmith9474]

New York Central,
I just checked with the LHS here and they have a few of the Athearn interior kits left. These interior kits are out of production, so if you are interested shoot me an e-mail at csmith9474atadelphia.net (replace "at" with @). Red Cap Line offers some great interior details as well.