In another thread, someone was asking about upgrading Athearn BB streamlined passenger cars. I’d like to do the same with some BB heavyweights. I had these left over from a previous layout and I’d like to put them to use as coaches for my commuter operations. I’ve done some test runs with some of them and they are prone to derailing. Of course the first step is to check the wheels with the NMRA gauge but I rarely find that to be the problem. The one thing that jumps out at me is the truck mounted couplers. I bought these when hornhooks were still the standard but they have been upgraded with KD #5s. I’m guessing the reason for the truck mounted couplers is to allow them to run on 18“ and 22“ radius track. My layout has a 36“ minimum so I see no reason I shouldn’t have body mounted couplers. I have several Jaybee conversion kits to do that. It seems counter intuitive to me that truck mounted couplers would be the cause of the derailments, but is it possible these are the culprits. Are there other issues with Athearn 3 axle trucks that could be the problem.
I intend to run these in 2 and 3 car consists. Any recommendations on how closely I can have them couple. I intend to put inexpensive foam rubber diaphrams on the cars so I would like to have them couple reasonably close.
I have converted my couplers and have had no problems with them being truck mounted on my 18" curves. I do run only two or three cars at the most. Also, I haven’t done a lot of backing on my little layout.
Do you have your cars weighted more than the weights they come with. I have added weight to bring them up to standard.
I think I have seen that you can get body mounted couplers with extended boxes or some such which might work a little better.
No, I haven’t added weight but that is an excellent suggestion. I just bought some new weights today with my freight cars in mind but I’ll check out the passenger car weighting to see if added weight makes them more reliable.
I did notice that the quarter ounce lead weights I used to buy are now steel. Do they really think this was a hazard? Oh well. Don’t get me started on political correctness. I know the moderators frown on that sort of thing.
I have had Athearn BB Heavyweight passenger cars for years without any derailing problems, and they still have the truck mounted couplers and no additional weight. The only change that I made was to replace the Athearn wheelsets with Intermountain metal wheelsets. I have run these cars on curves with a minimum radius of 22 inches. Check out your track work. That is where most problems arise with these cars. If you have 36" radius curves on your layout, you definitely should not be having derailment problems with these cars.
I have several Athearn HW baggage cars. I replaced all of the cast-on grabs with metal ones, and have also replaced the truck mounted couplers(Kadee #5(body mounted). These have newer plastic trucks and I used I-M metal wheelsets in them. I also added some weight to match the NMRA specs. They ran on the old layout with 22" radius curves, but look rather strange doing it.
Jecorbett, one thing to check is if the wheels are dirty, particularly if running the stock Athearn wheels (plastic on one side, metal on the other). I run a 9-12 car HW consist, and everytime I used to, I would have derailment problems, only with these cars. Why? No issues with any freight stock or loco’s…I’ve body mounted couplers, run on 22" radius, and exasperated myself looking for track issues to no avail. It would be random among cars and derailment spots would change depending on which way I ran the train.
All this was until recently when by accident I discovered the plastic side of the wheels on one to be quite dirty. I had kept checking the car for problems and when I saw the buildup on the wheels I cleaned them off and tried again. No more derailments from that car. I proceeded to clean all the plastic side wheels on all my Athearn HW’s and now NO derailments! And BTW, most all of them are running WITHOUT any weights, factory or otherwise!
It seems the buildup of crud effectively reduced the flange height on them enough to allow climbing the rails; no longer an issue for me! (Another plug for metal wheels instead of plastic!) Hope this helps- it’s worth a look!
As I mentioned earlier, I replaced those Athearn wheelsets with Intermountain metal wheelsets after experiencing the same crud build up that singletrack wrote about in his post.
As I mentioned earlier, I replaced those Athearn wheelsets with Intermountain metal wheelsets after experiencing the same crud build up that singletrack wrote about in his post.
Rich
Amen, Rich… did most of my freight stock about a year ago with IM’s, greatest thing I did. Now I’m just waiting for the “someday” budget to allow me to do my passenger fleet…
Sorry that I don’t have any additional info to add to this thread, but I do have a question.
Last year I brought two Blue-Box heavyweight coaches for use in modeling a Tourist train (so I didn’t really care that much about prototype paint schemes since I was going to repaint anyway, nor was length that big a deal as these cars won’t be run in trains with Silverliner IVs or Amfleets).
Well, recently I got around to working on the models, when I had a Wile E. Coyote running-over-the-cliff-edge moment - where are the end doors? As that HOSeeker link to the Athearn instructions shows (The same instructions came with the kits) - there are no end doors included. Say what - What was Uncle Irv thinking?
Some searching thru the web demonstrated that railfans seem to be rather lousy at getting 3/4 and head-on shots of “vintage” heavyweight NA passenger stock, even with museum stock (more likely, I am using sub-par search terms). OK, so most cars have diaphrams which obsure the end doors to a degree, but only to a degree. I THINK in general heavyweight coaches have end-doors, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
Question, then:
– Why no end doors in the kit? That dark chasm at the end looks ridiculous, and if I light up the coaches it will look beyond silly.
– Were they going for an open vestibule type of affair? You’d still need end doors (and a wall) on the interior side of the vestibule, none of which is in the kit either.
–Presuming that people have modeled end-doors for this kit, what style and design did you end up using?
There were not usually doors on the car ends, but in the vestibules. It’s easy to make vestibule walls with a non-operating windowed-door, using sheet styrene. This is best done inside the body shell, but can also be built onto the floor casting.
This is a Rivarossi car (formerly a diner), but it illustrates the set-up.
I modelled the upper part of the vestibule’s side Dutch doors open, and you could probably cut those on Athearn cars, if you wanted the same effect. You’d likely need to scratchbuild the open upper portion, though, as cutting the original won’t leave enough useable material.
I need to find a standing LPC (Little Plastic Conductor) leaning on the sill, having a smoke.
As Wayne explained, heavyweight cars did not have outer doors on vestibule ends, but rather had retractable metal gates, or sometimes just chains - Cal Scale sells gates to be added to your passenger fleet.
Non vestibule ends had doors - the Athearn baggage and RPO/baggage cars have doors…
Not the best picture, but here is one of my upgraded Athearn cars:
After reviewing the info that Dr Wayne and Atlantic Central provided, and in turn defining the search terms, I found at least a dozen prototype samples that agreed with their description of no exterior end door, but the one in the interior vestibule wall (there was one or two counterexamples).
I’m going with fabricating an interior vestibule walls with a simple door for each vestibule - looks like Athearn designed for this possibility, as the floor casting has no ridges or struts in the areas where such walls would go. The last end door will get a photoetched gate, as suggested above.
