ran into a issue with my Con - Cor passenger cars. They are the smooth sided in Via Rail livery 72’ cars. Here is a link to them http://con-cor.com/instock/ho72pass.htm. First the coupler height was checked, then the axles were exchanged for P2K steel wheels,. then the screws holding the trucks to the body of the car was loosened. Problem is they still derail. A train of three passenger cars will derail all three cars on every attempt around my layout. Just prior to this I was running a 40+ car freight for an hour without incident.
Here is the question to my fellow forum members. What is your experience with these Con-Cor passenger cars? The screw that attaches the bogie to the body is not centred which seems to be the problem, how did you deal with this? How reliable are these cars on your layout?
the cars in question are HO. It is rather odd that the screws that hold the bogies to the passenger car body are not centered. I loosened the screws quite a bit to allow the bogies to have movement but still a lot of derailing.
The Con-Cor passenger cars are extremely lightweight. The non-centering screws on the trucks should not be a problem, I just think it’s the cars themselves. I went into my 72-footers and added some flat lead weights right over the portions where the screws enter the body, and it seemed to ‘center’ the trucks much better.
Also, these 72-footers seem to work much better on a minimum radius of at least 24". There’s a lot of overhang between these cars on anything smaller, and if the ends come in contact with each other, it could lift the cars off of the tracks. They’re good cars, but even the ‘shorties’ need a fairly generous radius to work well, and additional weight to make them run smooth.
I have Con-Cor HO 72’ passengers cars as well. They run very well on curves as sharp as 22" radius.
What radius curves are you running them on?
You mentioned a ‘screw’ holding on the the trucks. All of mine came with a plastic pin that holds the trucks on. I did plug the kingpin hole, and drill/tap for a 2-56 screw which now holds the trucks on. They should just swivel free. one can ‘rock’ a little bit to provide a ‘3 point suspension’. The ‘offset’ kingpin is not a problem. The ‘long’ part of the truck should face into the center of the car.
Wheel sets - Mine came with metal wheel sets, and they are in gauge.
Couplers - I body mounted Kadee #5 couplers to my cars. I do not trust truck mounted couplers when backing a train.
Car weight - As delivered, my cars weighed 3.5 oz. The NMRA RP20.1 indicates that they should weigh 6 oz. I added A-Line weights and interior to bring them up to weight. Even at the 3.5 oz weight, they ran together with no problems
My P2K E7 pulls a 4 car GN ‘Badger/Gopher’ of these cars with no problems.
I own a set of these passenger cars. I knew in advance that the Con-Cor passener cars have derailing problems, but in my desperation to get some NYC cars shorter than the Walthers 85’ cars, I went for the 72’ Con-Cor cars.
My layout has a minimum 30 inch radius on the curves, so I was initially optimistic. However, the derailments were immediate and continuous. I finally resolved the problem by replacing the off-center plastic trucks with metal trucks and ditching the truck-mounted couplers with body mounted couplers. The problem, in my opinion, is not so much the off-center mounted trucks but, rather, the light weight of the trucks. Also, the trucks are not screw mounted but pin mounted and this added to the problem because the pins allowed too much play in the trucks. What I observed was a constant lifting of the wheels right off the tracks. The truck-mounted couplers were also a real problem because every little imperfection in the track was magnified as the cars rolled over the imperfection
It cost me about $10 per car to make the changes, but they run great now and I never have any derailment problems. If you are interested in making these changes, let me know and I will post the specifics so you can purchase the right parts.
Frank, I have 10 72 foot cars in Valley Flyer colors.You have the newer ones where the trucks are held on with screw, I have both new and older style and love them. They will take a 18 inch turn with no problem.
I added weight, I think it took about 4.5 oz to get them to NMRA standards. Installed Kadee long shank couplers and coupler boxes. On the wheels, I only replaced one set rest are the stock wheels, but I did clean up the bolsters.
Only problem I have had is sometimes the screws that hold on the trucks back out. I fixed tht problem with some glue. Other than that they pull and track well.
Tip on getting the roofs off so you can add weight. Flipped over you will see 4 taps that hold the roof on. I cut them off using my rail nippers. Turn the cars up right, set a screw driver head on a stub left from the tap. Lift the car and screw driver up, then bang the handel of the screw driver down on the work bench.
Once you remove the roofs, before adding flat weights go ahead and fill the pockets in the floor with BB gun shots (Walmart sells them in small cartoons) and smother them with Elmer’s glue. Once dried, then lay flat steel weights on top of them. Your weight should be approximately 6 to 7 ounces for a 72ft. HO passenger car. Tracking will improve and the annoying “wobble” that some of these cars may exhibit should disappear.
I have a brand new Concor Superliner, its hard to explain whats wrong with it without looking at it. Ill try to explain the best I can. The screw fell out of the bottom and a metal piece that hold the screw is bouncing around inside the car. Im prolly just going to return it and get a new one unless someone lets me know how to fix it. Colin
Do their 60’ passenger cars (I think they used to make 60 ft.ers?) have these same light weight/off center truck screw issues? I’ve never heard of off center screws. Is there a “good” reason for that approach? Hope extra weight fixes the OP’s problem. An easy fix is the best fix!
Merry Christmas and thank you for all the excellent help. As so many suggested I added weight to them, but at the same time I removed the trucks. Took a 1/4 drill bit and turned it by hand a few times with only light pressure. This now took some of the plastic away from the head of the bolt that is holding the truck in place. This now allows the truck to move more freely kind of like the truck from a freight car. These two items have solved the derailing issues.