In the interest of keeping my intermodal equipment current (or at least what I see going by the grade crossing, I have accumulated several of the 89’ TOFC Walthers cars. The original plan was to put 2 together with the drawbar to haul 53’ trailers. I finally got the first two together, ran up to the layout, only to find that as built, they tend to sag in the middle (probably prototypical). Unfortunately, this won’t go thru a turnout worth a hoot. Has anyone had this problem before? Any easy fixes?
When I assembled several, I found that the underframe truck mounting pins and the connection in the flat car body are improperly cast. In order to connect the two pieces I had to create a false arc in the car. This will cause extensive problems in the operation of the car. To remedy the problem I cut the bolster free from the underframe and cemented it to the weight. I then shortened the ends of the underframe to fit. This worked well for me and corrected many of the operational problems that I was having.