Just recently bought a Walthers II Superliner Sleeper in Phase IV to use for my Mid 90’s Era Southwest Chief. The car itself is in excellent condition, but when I rolled it across my desk, it made a strange scrapping sound. It seems the wheels are scraping against the floorboard when it rolls.
This in an older Walthers release (1998-2007), so the car features shaded translucent windows without interior.
Is there any way to adjust the height of the trucks? Has anyone with these cars experienced this same problem?
Will Kadee fiber insulating washers help? if so what size do I need to get?
First, try rolling on a section of track and try to push it or have an engine pull it. See how it rolls.
FYI, I got rid of all of my Walthers Superliner cars as they do NOT roll as well as they should. Since I model Phase IV and above, I bought the Kato Superliner Cars and they roll a heck of a lot better. Then I added their coupler conversion kit so it can accept a Kadee #5 and let’s the cars run better on 24" radius and less…
I wouldn’t go that far as stating ‘all these companies’ as many of them do put out very nice products.
I haven’t bought any of their new run of Superliners. However, I did buy some of their new Horizon cars and they do run well. They did improve their trucks.
I’m sure with some work you may be able to get them to roll better. I chose to get the Kato cars instead.
This why I don’t buy Walthers-brand rolling stock. I purchased one of their Mainline 46’ RTR gondolas when I first got into MRRing seriously 20 years ago. The trucks would bind against the underside of the frame on R22" curves, which required some careful paring with an X-acto to remedy. Same thing on another Walthers car so I haven’t purchased one since. This does NOT pertain, however, to their Proto 2000 rolling stock line.
I would try the fiber washer idea, if placing the car on a piece of track yields similar results.
The Kadee gray washers are .010" thick and the red ones are .015". The gray should be enough unless your track work changes grades a lot.
The other problem with the washers may be the diameter of the post. The other Walthers passenger cars I have, would need a washer with a larger inside diameter. The Kadee’s have a .125" inside diameter. You maybe could find thin washers but with a bigger inside diameter at a hardware store. A metal washer should not cause problems for you.