A couple years ago I got 4 new accurail CP/SOO grain hoppers, and I was quite pleased with them. A few months later, I got 8 used ones in near-mint condition. Unfortunately, the previous owner appears to have been dis-satisfied with the ability of the kingpins on the trucks and couplers to stay in and instead of replacing them with something sensible like screws, just glued the kingpins in. I discovered this when I went to change a coupler and instead of being able to open the coupler box, the kingpin broke in half! The same happened to several other cars over time and now my fleet of 12 has dwindled to 7…it’s very depressing! I’ve tried to drill out the glued-in kingpins but the pins are made of harder plastic than the surrounding parts, so the bit inevitably goes astray, and now I have 3 cars that simply cannot be fixed and two more that I’m afraid to touch.
I suppose the moral of the story is…don’t glue your kingpins!
Those kingpins are the reason I quit buying Accu-Rail products. Is it possible to gring the old coupler pocket off and replace it with a Kadee coupler box? That’s what I would do.
I own many of the Accurail 3-Bay Covered Hoppers and had problems with the Friction Pins. I pretty much convert all of mine to screws when I buy them. Recently Accurail has changed their designs and use screws instead of the pins.
I wouldn’t quite with Accurail. In my opinion they make some of the best inexpensive freight cars on the market.
Put the car in a vise on a drill press and use a good quality drill bit or proper size end mill cutter. Or drill it oversize and put a thread insert in it.
Very carefully center punch the place were you want to make the hole, this will give the drill bit a good start and should eliminate the wandering. Also do not try to do the hole with one size bit, but start with a smaller bit and work you way up to the final size (maybe 2 or 3 different bits to be use).
For the ones that are already messed up, get some styrene rod bigger than the hole is now, and drill a hole so the rod will be a good press fit. Glue it in, let it dry really well. Then do the center punch thing as above and you should be good to go. You will soon have your fleet of 12 back in revenue service.
Accurail stopped including the king pins in their new kits and now they come with 1/4", 2-56 screws to hold the trucks in. I wouldn’t let that deter you from purchasing any more of their kits. Even if you get an older kit with the king pins, you can just swap them out for the 2-56 screws.
I can replace the coupler boxes with kadees no problem, but when the truck kingpin breaks…I’m up the creek! The new ones are great, and that’s what two of my original four are. Buy more accurail, I love them! (Not used, NOT USED!)
Drill out the remains of the pin out, tap the hole, then screw the truck to the car. If the hole is too large, cement a cylinder of polystyrene in it, then drill and tap it.
Even as you have mentioned, don’t worry that the drill has walked away from the center of the harder plastic plug. Just drill it out to a larger size and sprue. Now you can relocate the exact center, and drill and tap for the 2/56.
I find that using Delrin or other engineering plastic for this purpose works far better than regular styrene. The sprues from Kadee, Kato handrail sets and other sprues with this plastic are always saved and on hand for this purpose.
I have several Accurail king pin equipped cars and have had zero problems…The key is to push the pin completely in…By doing that you will have a tight fit and the pin will stay in place.Some of you may not know this so,I will pass this on…N Scale manufacturers been using push in king pins since the earliest N models and they work well…
As a side note.Buying use model freight cars(or locomotives) is like buying a use auto…One has to be careful.As sad as it is many modelers try to fix what isn’t really broken by following “expert” advice found in magazines and on forums.
Maybe thats why I have little or no problems with my models?
As a PS…One of my “tricks” is on use Accurail cars is to remove the wheel next to the coupler box to get in order to change couplers. if I can’t get the king pin to move.IF the car has the Accurail wheels they get changed out anyway to Athearn wheels.
Re-glue them, or get a spring loaded center punch from Brownells Gun Supply to start the bits in the absolute center. Really neat little item. You place the point right where you want it, and then press down with increasing pressure, and when it’s just right “SNAP” it is punched perfectly.
You gotta start thinking more and ranting less. I have never had a car (or loco) sidelined long because something was broken, unless I was waiting on a manufacturer’s part.
P.S. - I like Accurail and the kingpins don’t bother me a bit, and I bet I haven’t replaced 10 with screws, and they do not fall out when I don’t want them to, either.
I’ve had a few fall out on me in the past. That’s why I prefer using the screws. If you do glue the kingpins in, you have to destroy the truck to get it off again.
Also, with screws, you can more easily adjust (fine tune) the amount of swivel and sway in the truck(s) themselves.
Tom,I must respectfully disagree…My Accurail cars are rock study and don’t wobble like some of my cars that use screws including 2 Walthers gons…Again by pushing the pin completely in the trucks swivel as free as the screw on types.
I also find some of the cars that has truck screws takes some tweaking so the cars don’t wobble going down the track…Three of my BB 50 Railbox boxcars and those 2 Walthers gons drove me crazy with their constant waving(read wobbling)…I finally got that wave adjusted out.One car had one set of P2K wheels that was out of round causing the car to have the webble wobbles.The other two was cause by me when I built the cars…I didn’t get the trucks tight enough.[:O][:I] I gave up trying to adjust the trucks on the gons and replace the wheels…
And I respect your respectful disaggreement. [:)] I was only sharing how the kingpins worked (or didn’t work) for me - even when I pushed them all the way up into the beveled truck hole. I am delighted to hear that they have been working for you though. I guess we could agree that gluing in the king pins is not the best idea. [:)]
I was running a train earlier today and to my suprise I lost a kingpin on a truck on one of the Accurail boxcars. The kingpins may work in N-scale but not in HO. I will convert everything that I own to screws.