I have a few of the old Athearn blue box Maxi-III 5-unit well cars. They are all equipped with Intermountain wheelsets and I run they with weighted containers because they are so light weight. They run well enough, but they just seem to lean too much going through curves. And most of the time they will not go back to center once they are in straight track. I mostly have them loaded with 2 containers per well, and each container has weight added so each unit of the 5-unit car will meet the NMRA standard. So for example if I need 2 ounces of weight in each unit I have 1 ounce in each of the 2 containers. I do move containers around so I am hestitant to put weight in half the containers and always put them on the bottom. Are there any other tricks to get these cars to stay upright?
Put the cars without containers on a track. See if you can make the car wobble from side to side. If the car flops from side to side, no amount of added weight will cure that problem.
Hi there. Try tightening the screws holding the trucks. Not too much. I like to have one truck a bit tighter to prevent having too much sideplay. You should not have to add weight.
Simon
Yes, you can do that… But first take a look at where the bolster pin goes through the hole in the truck. You may find that even though you can tighten the screw until it bottoms on the end of the pin, the truck will still flop around. If that’s the case it may be necessary to file down the end of that pin enough to eliminate the flop.
Yep, I give that occasional wobbly car to Goodwill.
Rich