Up until tonight, all of my Athearn BB’s freigth car kits have been perfect for the Proto 2000 wheels sets. About 3 months ago, I bought a BB kit and lo-and-behold… the wheels didnt fit. The P2K axles are now too wide. The wheels will turn, but trust me, it will not roll. I asked a few guys I knew, and they never heard of it… I wrote off the kit as a “My bad day” sorta thing. Well, I got another one, and same darn problem.
From what the folks at the LHS told me, and from the packageing, these kits are new. (atleast, newer, post 2002).
Did Athearn change truck molds or get new supplier?
I am thinking about getting one of those reamers to open up the journals, it doesnt look to be off that much… anyone else have luck?
if that doesnt work, can anyone recommend a good wheel to fit the modern Athearn trucks?
I have noticed a wide variation in how well Athearn and Roundhouse (pre-merger /buyout days) rolled with the kit supplied wheels, which is why I bought a truck tuner in the first place. Any kit or ready to roll car I buy now gets the truck tuner used on it unless it was very free rolling in the first place. Buy the truck tuner it makes a massive improvement in your rolling stock, your locomotive(s) will be able to easily pull more cars.
Some of the new BB cars are Roundhouse repackaged as BB. As part of the merger anything post WW2 is now Athearn. Roundhouse is being marketed as pre war. I don’t think you can even get a kit under the new Roundhouse brand. Anyway, your kit with the narrower truck is almost certainly a Roundhouse kit.
This sounds familiar. Are these Athearn BBs, or RTRs?
Last year I bought a pair of RTR boxcars and the P2K wheels wouldn’t fit. They were “Too Wide”.
Don Gibson cleared up my confusion. Turns out that early run units came equipped with “NEM” trucks (Europeon) which have a different contour. Anyway, I bought two pairs of Walthers trucks for $4, which solved the problem.
If you do have the standard trucks, as mentioned, the truck turner may be the way to go.
Well, all right. Nice to know that I am not alone. I admit, last night I was pretty deep in some rum and cokes. I went back to check the trucks again to make sure I wasnt missing something. …
OK, this does make me feel better. I figured it was something like this. Well, looks like I got to head back to the LHS… oh shucks.