If you’re thinking about buying them, don’t bother… especially if you want to run longer intermodal trains. They are way too light and the quality control is poor. I have 2 of 6 cars that derail often because of crooked truck mounts. On the positive side, the McHenry knuckle couplers work well. I’ve coupled them to Micro-trains, Kato, Accumates and each other and they don’t uncouple unexpectedly (so far) over a magnet. Only Micro-trains have that track-record til now!
Anyway, I’m debating whether or not to send them all back or try some Fox Valley Models brass wheelsets in an attempt to weight them a little… just not sure how much that would actually help. Any ideas? The 2 with crooked mounts are going back though. It’s too bad Athearn wasted money on new packaging instead of trying to design a decent product… (minus the 30K tankers). I’m pretty disappointed since I’ve been waiting for these cars for a while now. It may be a while til I try another Athearn again.
i picked up several 3 car sets of katos double stacks a few months ago. they ran well but i had a derailment problen with one car. i ended up swapping it with a car from another set and cured the problem. if quality control is the problem send them back. micro trains couplers are the best.
Here we go again with some Athearn bashing!!! Get off it!!! Most RTR cars are NOT RTR!!! A little fudging around is almost always necessary for a new car. Weight is another thing that usually has to be adjusted. I suppose you think the price is too high also!![:-,]
I can’t speak for N scale, but I can tell you that most RTR HO scale cars I’ve bought have needed a little work–usually replacing wheelsets, couplers, and in some cases adjusting trucks that have been fitted improperly at the factory.
I’ve found that even “RTR” needs fiddling. Sometimes, a LOT of it. But I’ve always been able to cure the problems with time and patience. It sounds as if possibly your truck problems could be cured by a little loosening and re-balancing of the truck screws. Did the cars come with the ‘stackers’ or are they just the car frames? Possibly getting into the ‘stackers’ and adding a little weight might help, also. But the fact that they don’t run perfectly out of the box shouldn’t mean that there isn’t a cure for them with a little ‘fiddling’.
I believe you’ll find pretty much every Intermodal car on the market to be too light, even the die cast ones. There just isn’t enough room for weight unless you want to compromise looks. Just add some weight inside the containers.
Ivanhen, if you can tell me how to add weight to a husky stack I’d be willing to listen! I know RTR is not RTR… I just replaced steel weights and Pizza-cutter wheels on some LBF boxcars. Intermodal cars MUST be made of metal. These ones are all plastic. There is nowhere to add weight! Why does Kato and Deluxe Innovations get it right and Athearn, a company not new to the game, stupidly manufacture a model despite what they probably know? The crooked truck is due to poor adherence of car body parts put together during assembly, not a bad truck or bolster or wheelset. There is no fix to this… trust me, for the rediculous price I paid for the car I was sure so scrutinize it! (haha… price joke on athearn!)
PS, I want to run them without containers from time-to-time
Even in HO scale, intermodal well cars are very light. I put weight inside the bottom container because there’s no place on the well car itself where weight can be added…
Are you sure the N scale version has plastic wheels? On the HO scale RTR cars, the wheels are metal. I have two 5-car sets and they can be ran at the back of my 30-car double stack train empty without derailing, but I wouldn’t try putting them up front.
I really don’t mean to stir the pot here! I’m just saying that they’re made of plastic and that people who are considering buying them should know that they may not work well… and there is no good fix. I don’t want to just weight containers or always have to run them at the end of the train. I have 300+ pieces of rolling stock… I can run any of it anywhere in the train, empty or full. I guess I’m just venting frustration here… I probably wouldn’t be as upset if they were Con-cor or Bachman, but Athearn… c’mon! They know how to make rolling stock! In my original post I WAS trying to think out the problem… I was wondering if brass wheelsets would help at all. I’ve never messed with brass but I’d consider keeping the cars if it would help.
Now you thinking with your head and not your keyboard…[tup] Metal wheels should help by putting the weight where it belongs on the rail head.Try adding small pieces of weight in the nooks and crannies.
They say in N you can use small dabs of clay to add weight-I seen it done but,never tried it because I don’t add weight to my cars.I never did and never will.
I have a N Scale George Roberts printing company with severely warp walls…Does that make all Walthers buildings junk? I shall overcome this problem by old fashion modeling.
Those 48’ Husky Stacks are beautiful cars…I seen them at the club and the guy didn’t have problems…Of course he added metal wheels and weight to the bottom containers…That’s his standard though for ANY brand of intermodal car.
Now you know why the prototypes run empties at the rear of the train for the same reason [swg]
Seriously, thanks for the report. These are great looking cars at the LHS and I probably will be picking some up although what you have reported is pretty much what I have suspected with regards to performance (except for the two defective cars which I am sure will be replaced). I will be running with either weighted containers or light at the end of train, but I will keep your info in mind when I am blocking these cars. Jamie
EDIT: By the way if you are not meaning to stir the pot, you may want to reconsider your choice of words for your thread titles.
I’ve seen several comments to the effect of “RTR usually is not RTR.” Am I just really lucky, because I rarely have to do anything to a new car for it to run good? I do often have to replace the wheels on Athearn cars for them to run good, and occasionally on Atlas, but I never have to do anything to a Kato, Intermountain, Deluxe Innovations, or Micro-Trains car to get it to run good(unless it is replace a wheel that fell out in the package).
RTR usually mean the adding of KD couplers in HO or Micro-Trains truck/couplers in N.So,in theory they are not RTR…I been using the Atlas(N Scale) cars as they come and have had good results on my 20-25 car trains at the club…I am not the only one using the Atlas/Accumate at the club with good results.
According to the reports on the Atlas forum some GS4s and GG1s has thrown their traction tires…The NW2 is on the noisy side supposedly because of the 3 pole motor and the drive shaft between the trucks…
I was just kidding ,Larry. I guess there’s bound to be a few flawed products in any brand, esp. when they are mass produced. The bad thing is I usually seem to wind up with it !
jkroft, If you would actually read the posts, I was not the one who mentioned putting weight on a container car, onequiknova did. Read the other posts and you will see your opinion of Athearn and RTR in general is not the rule.