About 15 years ago I was gifted a 4-6-2 Pacific engine in ACL (Atlantic Coast Lines) livery. I then purchased 4 passenger cars (Athearn blue box kits) and an REA Express head end car for it. About 6 years agoI wanted to add a couple more cars to the consist but the pullman green cars by Athearn were not produced anymore so I did find two Walthers cars at a hobby shop. The club that I belonged to was using 22" rad. curves and the cars would not operate together with the Athearns in those curves and also it looked odd because the Walthers cars were longer then the Athearns and have body mounted couplers where the Atherns are truck mounted. Has anyone replaced the trucks on the Walthers with ones with the couplers mounted on the trucks? My home layout that I started this past winter also has 22" rad. curves because of limited space. These are Walthers Classic Heavyweights. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Ken
Walthers passenger cars generally are designed for a 24" minimum radius, where the Athearn cars were designed for 18" radius. I know some folks on this forum have talked about modifying the Walthers cars so that they will go around tighter curves, so maybe you could search on that in the forums.
The Athearn heavyweight RPO, Baggage, and Coach cars are based on real cars that were 70’ or shorter, so are “full length”. However their Diner, Sleeper, and Observation cars are based on 80’ long cars that Athearn shortened to 72’ so the model cars would fit tight model layout curves. The Walthers cars are going to all be full-length cars, based on the prototype, so their Diners, Sleepers, Observation and other cars will be 80’ long.
I’ve altered a few Walthers passenger cars, but they weren’t the heavy weights. I remounted the couplers by moving them forward, and did some dremel tool work on the under frame so the wheels would have clearance.
It’s not pretty, and prototype modelers would cringe at what I did to the bottom of the car, but it worked, and you don’t see it.
Mike.
I have altered all my Walthers cars (and all my Branchline cars too!) to run on 22" radius!
The streamlined type nees nothing modified, but instead, all you gotta do is just lub the trucks so they swing more freely.
The Pullman Heavywieght cars are a little more tricker. You have to make sure that the trucks swing in a broader radius, and to do so, you’ll have to clip the 2 center support beams to make them shorter. Then, just tweak around with the trucks, do what ever you have to in oder for them to swing and run freely and smoothly.
That’s it! Both of mine (I need to buy more, wish Walthers could make them again) run smoothly on my 22" radius layout!
Hope this helps [:D]
Charles
Thanks all for your help here. I think I’ll take them back to the hobby shop next time I go and see if they will let me trade them for something else. If not then I’ll put them on ebay. I don’t really want to chop them up and then still not work for me and be ruined. Ken
I also believe a long shank will help, especially coupling a short Athearn to the longer Walther’s. Not pretty, but the added spacing is the least of the asthetics of them running around the 22 radius anyway.
The Walthers passenger cars from the 1990s were designed to run on 22” curves. They had body mounted couplers were the mount was designed to swivel so they could go around tighter curves. There is a kit available. I would go with something like that before trying to convert to truck mounted couplers.
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