I recently posted a thread about couplers and wheelsets on the Walthers Rolling Stock Passenger Cars.
Here is an update.
I have spent the last few days running 8 car consists in both directions on each of my two main line tracks, trying to fine tune these cars.
In spite of the fact that my minimum radius curves are 32" on the outer track and 30" on the inner track, I continued to experience derailments of different cars at different spots on my layout. I had already replaced the crappy Walthers couplers with Kadee #5 couplers which kept the cars close enough together to prevent spaces between the diaphragms. But, the derailments persisted. Finally, I added Kadee #146 couplers to the rear of each car, while retaining the #5 coupler on each car. That solved the problem.
I have concluded that it is not my track work - - - maybe not “bullet proof” but after years of tweaking, it is close. The wheels are all in gauge - - - checked with my NMRA gauge. The trucks are not warped, they are in square.
I have concluded that it is the diaphragms. On the curves, they touch, they bind, they twist the cars. They need to be separated. It is too bad that these diaphragms cannot give enough to avoid this problem.
Does anyone make a fabric diaphragm that would have the necessary give to prevent derailments?
I don’t know what the new one’s are made out of, but I had great success with these in the 60’s on Atheran HW’s, I don’t know if you can even get them anymore.
doctorwayne wrote the following post 4 days ago:
zstripe
…soft rubber diaphrams with metal ends, it elludes me to remember who made those then…
Frank, those diaphragms were made by MHP, in Rochester, New York. My first diesels, an A-B-B-A set of Globe F-units, in Santa Fe Warbonnet paint, were equipped with them. They looked good and worked well, too. I still have at least one pair of them.
I recently finished reworking a 6 car consist of Athearn RTR streamliners and installed body mounted Kadees, Intermountain wheels and American Limited diaphrams. They run very smoothly and I don’t have any derailment problems. The diaphrams just touch so they look like the prototypes. I have 30" radius on most of my layout with the exception of a 28" on one curve, but I don’t plan to run this train through that area. I now have another 6 car consist of Bachmann (Rivarossi) smooth side cars that I plan to do the same with. The American Limited diaphrams are all plastic but the design allows for a very flexible motion without introducing much stress/force on the cars (provided you assemble and install as per directions). I am very happy with them.
With a few exceptions, all my Walther passenger cars are stock. I have had issues with a couple of them with detailing. The issue I had was the detail parts hanging down from the body that did not allow the trucks to swivel as much as they needed to. The rest of them, I never have had an issue with them even on a 22" curve I had on my last layout.
At the risk of bumping this thread to the top of the heap, I want to add one final update.
I continue to test and fine tune all of my passenger cars, and I finally have the Walthers passenger cars all running great.
I have alternated #146 and #148 couplers on the ends of each car to provide some separartion between the diaphragms.
I have loosened the screws that hold the trucks to the underbody of each car.
One last adjustment. Those four screws on the top of each truck that make contact with the two metal strips to provide the interior lighting? They definitely catch on the metal strips in some cases when the trucks swivel. It seems that the metal strips stick instead of flexing in some instances. If you flex them a little with a small screw driver, the problem resolves itself.
Now, on to the Rapido cars. Argghhh. They have similar problems to the Walthers cars and then some.