These seem like they would be too cool. Anyone who has these, do they require attention and adjustment to work well, or are they pretty much “put 'em on the track and forget about 'em”?
I installed about 20 pair on my rolling stock when I removed all my plasic wheels. I trusted Kato to have the wheels in gauge. They were not, resulting in a lot of derailments. I tried to adjust the wheel gauge but when I did the wheels would drag on the frame. I got tired of fooling with them and ended up replacing all of them with Walthers Proto spung trucks.
And, the little bearing caps fall off and get lost.
I had some of them years ago–it’s been a long time since they were released, and I did not have any difficulty with them. Perhaps the above poster got a bad batch?
John
Edit: just realized OP is about KATO rotating bearing caps. I didn’t actually know they made them; only rotating cap bearings I was aware of are those that came with some of the earlier Athearn Genesis freight cars.
I have some of the Athern spinners too. Still in their wrappers. They look to be identical to the Kato spinners. Probably made by Kato for Athern. I don’t have the Athern spinners handy, but I believe the bearing caps are already installed on the axles. You must install the bearing caps on the Kato axles. Real pain in the rump.
And worth considering: How sharp is your eyesight? I had a couple Athearn pairs. Could hardly see 'em, and that was before I needed glasses. Some caps fell off those too, and they do add to rolling resistance since they are not needle point bearings. Can’t say about Kato’s for sure, but just a thought.
This thread reminded me that I had a HO model freight car some years (decades?) back with rotating roller bearing caps. Searching around, they most likely were Front Range products, with apparently so-so rolling quality (that I do recall). Also, apparently you need to CA the caps on to prevent them from falling off “in transit”, but that seems like it would make maintanence a PITA…
Eh, skip the rolling bearing gimmick in sub-O scales (unless you’re going for a contest quality model), paint the molded-on caps blue and grime and dust them up a bit - they’ll look fine…
Actually Athearn itself had roller bearing freight car truck models with spinning end caps going way back to Irv Athearn’s time, and somewhere on the shelf I have a car or two equipped with them. In my 1982 Walthers catalog they are 140-90398, Timken (as opposed to their Hyatt roller bearing trucks which were “normal”).
Athearn charged ten cents more for the Timkens! If memory serves, they rolled considerably less well than the usual Athearn trucks, which rolled very well. And yes, it would take quite a pair of eyes to notice the rotating caps in actual operation. In short, something of a gimmick.
What I no longer recall is whether those Athearn trucks were pure after-market items, or whether they offered car kits where those were standard issue.
Dave Nelson
Quite a few years have passed since installing Kato HO scale rotating bearing cap trucks on some Roundhouse tank cars. Do recall having to gauge a few of the wheelsets and install the caps, but they are still rolling plenty free with all caps intact.
The rotating caps are a novelty, but when getting my bespectacled old eyes up close during operations on my tall benchwork ISL they add a little bit more realism and fun. They look extra cool when shooting close-up videos of slow switching moves.
Recently acquired some Athearn Genesis boxcars with rotating bearing cap trucks with caps factory installed. Haven’t run them much, but the trucks appear similar in construction to the Kato, so hope they end up as reliable.
Have fun and regards, Peter
hi all
Not Really the kind of thing that interests me however the can’t see them coments
Made me think the real ones I have seen often have a white bolt on them or white stripe to make life easy for the train examiners to see if a bearing isn’t turning when the train leaves the yard.
might be a solution to the can’t see it turning to do the same in model form.
regards John
I believe that the trucks on these cars are made differently than usual to accomodate the rotating bearing style wheel sets. So if an individual would want to change the wheel sets to the normal pointed end style the trucks would have to also be replaced.
Dave,
I know for sure they were standard on the 40’ high cube appliance box cars. From what I recall, they weren’t available on any other cars and didn’t stay on the market very long due to their poor running quality.
John Timm
The Kato sets that I had would not accept different wheel sets. It was spinners only.
I have no experience with the Kato trucks, but Athearn and Red Caboose both have trucks with rotating bearing caps, and all the examples I have of both roll very well, and the wheelsets are in gauge.
I did precisely that on the few Katos that I’ve bothered to install. Take a pin with a tiny dot of white paint and apply it to one of the bolts. It may take a few tries to get the proper amount, and you may have to clean off the bearing cap and do it over. It looks cool, but frankly, you have to squint to see it and anyone looking at your train probably won’t notice it.
John Timm