Back in the day I myself and my friends had no problem swapping out correct but terrible brass passenger car trucks and replacing them with the IHC trucks.
I would use them again on anything. The Palace Car Co. cars need the truck replacements…
It is no good if the car doesn’t roll, and Sam needs to change his mind.
Kevin-- I have a neat New Haven I-2 Pacific that was a dual service engine class…freight and passenger, whatever was needed, in real life.
John
That’s funny about Sam! Talked with him a few times in person. The Kadee plant is here local and my dad knew the brothers that started it. So we are a familiar face at Kadee! Sam is a wealth of knowledge for sure. Too bad they won’t make trucks though. The D&G ones are very nice and they make a few years of SP passenger that are spot on!
Even though Sam told me no about both the passenger car trucks, and the code 83 track, I still had a very enjoyable conversation with him. I am a bit of a Kadee fan-boy for sure. Their 40 foot PS-1 is the main staple of my fleet, and I love their couplers and trucks.
Sam has helped me get some parts from Kadee that are not in the catalogue, and always taken the time to email me an answer when I had a question.
-Kevin
Good call on getting the silicone spray everywhere. I used just a little to see if it made a difference and it did.
So I switched to my Corrosion X I have. Learned a few things. Not only did it make my cars slicker than snot, it’s one of the best tracker cleaners I have used! Not sure how I didn’t think of using that before. Even though it’s a lubricant it is more of a cleaner and doesn’t seem to leave any film behind. Before I sell my soul on that though I’m going to do a test with the pull gauge and see how much a loco pulls on a piece of track before and after the Corrosion X. Might be too good to be true but we will see.
Back to the passenger cars. So on initial test I gave a shove and it moved roughly an inch. Not much. After I lubed the wheel sets and gave it that same shove? I got probably 2’ out of the cars! Insane! Not sure why I didn’t think about that before but we are making progress!
So the rest of this week will be dialing in the 4449 to get some traction there and then do another test this weekend to see how it does.
Also I was wrong on the axles when I said it was metal wheels with plastic axle. Upon closer look they are all metal with a plastic tube over the center. Think my eyes are going!
Anyway I’m feeling a little better now and hoping to have some more good news by this weekend!
Mike
Yes Sam is a solid guy. Kadee is just a good company all around. Really enjoy stopping in there. Their office is cool too because they have a track around the top edge with every car they have ever made…or at least a lot of them. Pretty impressive! They let me drool on stuff all the time out there! LOL
5150WS6
That’s funny about Sam! Talked with him a few times in person. Sam is a wealth of knowledge for sure.
Even though Sam told me no about both the passenger car trucks, and the code 83 track, I still had a very enjoyable conversation with him. I am a bit of a Kadee fan-boy for sure. Their 40 foot PS-1 is the main staple of my fleet, and I love their couplers and trucks.
Sam has helped me get some parts from Kadee that are not in the catalogue, and always taken the time to email me an answer when I had a question.
-Kevin
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Just don’t mix the CORROSION X with sugar, spice, and everything nice!
The results could be interesting.
-Kevin
I don’t seem to have that problem.
Most of the early Walthers cars did require some tuning and lube. Since the recent design of needle point axles in the bronze strip inside the sideframe many of the latest cars from Rapido, MTH and even Broadway Limited have very little rolling resistance.
I’ve even had fairly good luck with brass trucks. I’m presently running a 13 car Congressional Limited (Challenger) with stock trucks and wheelsets up 2% grades being pulled by a single BLI GG1.
Sure there are some real lead-sleds out there (Walthers inboard-bearing Amfleet cars) but with some tinkering and lube, sometimes changing out wheelsets, I’ve had pretty good luck.
There are a few where I’ve installed the Intermountain ball-bearing wheelsets if they are on a particular style truck that I can not find a correct replacement for.
https://www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/html/40059.htm
Good Luck, Ed
Back in the day, Central Valley trucks were the ones to get, With tuning, nearly any truck can be made to roll freely - the best would easily make a circuit of my old 8x12 donut layout and some would go twice around, but getting the right amount of force so they would stay on the track on the first curve but still have enough momentum to make a second lap was tricky. Even some 6-wheel passenger trucks could do this.
People would buy up poorly assembled or falling apart Walthers car kits just because they had Central Valley trucks on them worth more for the pair than any old car kit.
–Randy
Well looking closer I’m sort of seeing how the trucks are put together. I had to poke around a little because most of the cars I’m getting amazing results with the lube, but there’s a couple that just aren’t responding well and still roll like crap.
The wheelsets are all metal. Then the metal inserts I saw earlier are actually where the power is picked up. The end of the wheel axles are centered in that metal piece which is on both sides of all wheelsets. It then runs up and makes contact with the car light contacts.
I haven’t figured out how to pull the trucks apart yet. The wheels all have decent slop in them so it’s not a matter of them being too tight. But I’m hoping I can maybe clean up the metal on some of them to make them roll a bit more free.
For the most part I’m over the top happy with how much smoother the cars roll. So now it is onto seeing how much I can fine tune the 4449 loco to get more traction. I need to adjust some things with the Loksound program to try to make sure it’s got the right power curve as well as I think that may not be helping. But we’ll see.
Thanks for all the help and input from you guys. Definitely making me happy knowing that there has to be a way, I just haven’t found the combo yet! 
Mike
The Truck Tuner from MicroMark is invaluable for getting trucks to be free rolling.
Anyone know how to get the 2004-era Walthers Heavyweights’ trucks apart?
I resorted to auto transmission fluid early, back in 2006. All my truck bearings and steamers’ outer gear and driver’s boxes get ATF, and they work really well. I lightened my Walthers heavies by removing the lighting mechanism inside and I removed the floor weights. They’re still hefty cars and they track marvelously…I NEVER get derailments on my various passenger cars. Well…ok…when backing in tight yard curves, mebbe. But that’s with diaphragms, and I don’t expect it to happen on my smarter new yard when I get around to it.
I only use The Tool from Micro Mark on plastic trucks. It does a pretty darned good job if I do say so. Then, lube with ATF.
You might want to investigate Intermountain ball bearing wheelsets. Also, if you don’t do much switching with the train, have only a couple of cars with wipers and run wires disguised as steam lines to the other cars. If the lights are LED this should not be a problem.
I do the same as Michael, I use a flexible pig tail between cars and the only car with wheel wipers is the baggage car behind the locomotive.
The pig tails are hidden in the diaraphams.
The baggage car is a power unit for all of the passenger cars.
I use a AA size Lithium battery and a Lithium charging board to keep the battery charged from track power. I added a function decoder so that I can turn the passenger light on and off.
Nice! Thank you for all the replies guys. Really stoked to get my Daylight running and running well. So here’s what I’ve decided to do.
Since I used the Corrosion X in the passsenger cars they are running fairly smooth. Might be some room for some improvement. But for now I’ll leave them as is. If I need I will look at removing some of the pick ups and do the plug between the cars like you guys have.
I’m really going to focus on getting the 4-8-4 running solid. I’ve taken out the lead weight in the boiler section. I ordered some tungston this weekend. A couple blocks I can machine for a nice fit and also a lot of tungston putty used in pinewood derby cars.
I’ll fit the tungston metal in there first and then pack the putty in around it to hold it in place. I can also use the putty in small places since I can mold and shape it so I’m going to add some to the front 4 wheels as they seem to be one of the biggest issues.
The factory lead was about 8.5oz’s. So I’m hoping to get close to a full pound of weight in the loco. I went with tungston since its quite a bit heavier than lead and safer too.
More importantly, I’m going to balance the loco. The weight is important I feel but from what I’ve read it seems more important to have it balanced on the drivers. So that will be my main concern.
As a back up plan, I’ll remove the wipers as I mentioned and also have some bullfrog snot. That’s if all this doesn’t work.
Should have everything in a few days. I’m hoping to get this all done before I tear down my current layout as a move is looming over us this year and I’ll be without a layout for a little while. 
I’ll keep you posted how it goes!
Mike
Be sure you have the right tools, equipment, and PPE to ‘machine’ the tungsten you have…
While I don’t use lights in any of my passenger cars (or on locomotives, either), I’d suggest that you ditch the wipers on the passenger cars’ trucks, and power the LEDs from a battery in a baggage car.
I have a Bachmann 2-6-6-2 which I modified with wipers on the tender and an auxilliary tender, also with wipers - with a combined 28 wipers, electrical, pick-up is never an issue, but I have an 0-6-0 that can pull way more cars than that articulated.
I use Kadee 36" wheels in the trucks of my Rivarossi passenger cars - it requires a slight trimming of the moulded-on brake shoes for better clearance.
While the Rivarossi 6-wheel passenger trucks look pretty decent, I added weight to a number of my Rivarossi cars (anywhere between 12 and 15 oz. of lead for each).
While they rolled beautifully - no jiggling or rocking - it didn’t take long for the axle tips to wear the bearing pockets in the sideframes so badly that picking up the car left most of the wheelsets on the track. Those sideframes are ordinary styrene, not long-lasting Delrin or an equivalent.
I’ll eventually replace the trucks using ones from Walthers.
I do not own a locomotive to which I’ve not added weight. My best pullers by far were three of these Athearn Blue Box U-boats…
…each weighing 33oz., and with a measured drawbar pull of 8.3oz each.
I put one on a 48 car coal train, but it was unable to pull the entire train up the 2.8% grade…roughly 16’ long, and mostly on an “S”-bend. The trailing train was about 21’ long and only 5&#
My personal standard for free rolling is with the car on its roof, the wheels should spin for 30 seconds or more when spun with my thumb.
As far as balance goes, you might also need to adjust the tension on the lead and trailing trucks.
Your prototype ran at a max of about 75mph in practice; both the E units and PAs that followed were geared right in this range. I don’t think that’s an artifact of the 1947 ICC order restricting non-ATC consists to 79mph, either.
Designing for optimal power at 55 smph might not be a poor idea on a typical pike with non-‘scale’ curvature, but you’d be safe going up a bit…
I agree with the careful tuning and drag reduction on the consist… do the same for the locomotive running gear. Carefully check quarter, gear fit and lash, motor bearings, etc. to ensure first the chassis and then the powered locomotive is free-running. I am tempted to tell you to get one of those cheap Chinese volt/amp displays from eBay and temporarily wire it in so you can read actual electrical conditions at the motor.
If you are on DCC you could provide those Stantons under one or more of the cars as ‘boosters’ to get the train under way or over tetchy parts of the trackwork… [:-^]