I recently wrote a post concerning the above passenger coaches and received to great adivse so I decided to do some things.
I loosened the trucks on both passenger cars as well as add lubrication the journals and needle points and guess what, both the Rapido and Walthers did much better in the curves. I added a little weight as well. I notice that the couplers tend to decouple with some and not on others, I guess it is how the couplers adjust to the trackage. I do have a few areas that need leveling, which I am sure will help.
Thus far the diaphrams work, not well on sharper curves. Some of the coaches pass through turn outs fine while I have two that just won’t pass thorugh without derailing. I will check on the wheel settings and make sure they are to NMRA standards, which may be the problem. Also, may need to work on the points of the turn out.
Robert Sylvester
WTRR
If your diaphragms are touching, you should also look for flash on them. They have to be perfectly smooth or they will bind on turnouts (or other s curve situations).
David B
Thanks for all the tips. (I have the Walthers cars). I have 24" curves, so what I had to do is replace the couplers with longer shanks. I got the Kadee #26s.
They all work just fine now, but they are squeaky little buggers, so I need to lub the wheels like you said.
I’m not actually sure why you have the title Rapido vs Walthers Passenger Cars, For me it’s the price, see I usually buy the passengers on sale, Then I repaint the cars into silver with read letterboard.
Rapido is just too expensive for me. and I also have a couple of Rivarossit Duplex Sleepers, one is painted two tone gray and the other one is silver w/ red letterboard. to simulate either the lark or Cascade, Or an excursion train
As to diaphrams I check each one and any flash I have and smooth with a fine emeryboard, I have a friend of mine that has a layout, or rather is rebuilding a multi-layered layout in his garage, and it’ll be all DCC, once we get my diesels wired. and so I was able to do some testing of the cars and they preformed beautifully., I’ll post pics later.
Dale D.
SPRR
I’ve got both. Like both, but the Walthers brand has been more difficult for me to get them to track right over my 27" RADIUS curves. I got the Walthers on sale at M.B. Klein for only $14.98 a piece as opposed to their retail price of $60? I can live with that.
The Rapido has a lot more do dads on it and looks more museum quality, however I paid dearly for them.
You have already done some of the work on those Walther’s cars, however, I’m not sure of the “other” thread as to what advice you received. Lubing the journals and just loosening the trucks won’t solve all the derailing troubles. Of my 12 Walther’s cars, 2 really gave me fits at first. I had done all the so called normal fixes and thought I checked them out. The one car that derailed constantly was found to have a twisted/ skewed truck. Upon sighting the truck/ axle alignment with the car upside down, I found the twist. Apparently the side frames where secured to that flat bolster was the trouble. A couple of the screws where cocked and caused the twist. This also was affecting the overall riding of the truck where those screw heads contact the metal strips on the underframe. Once this was noted on this one particular car, I checked out all others. A few of the remaining cars ( ones that didn’t derail) also had a slight twist and they were corrected.
Another issue is that many of the cars have the coupler cover glued at spots and care is neede to remove as not to break the locating pins when changing couplers. I don’t think that they were iontentially glued, rather some CA had run under them when assembled.
I realize that my cars run on a club layout that has quite broad curves ( non less than 36" ) and if I experienced problems others must be having fits on the tighter turns. The Walther’s car is fairly decent in overall construction and detail, however they are still not cheap, by any means, These truck troubles, lighting issues and just the crazy way you need to remove the roof are really unexcepible for a car of this caliber. Rapidos are rather fantastic, they just don’t have my specific road for all the cars. Branchline is too much a PITA.