Hi, I’m new to the forum, but I am seeking advice, or trouble shooting on an issue I am having with Walthers trinity ethanol 4 bay covered hoppers. I bought 12 of these for my ethanol train I’m building, and I tried to run them last night at our local club, but they seem to be too heavy for my Athearn sd60i with tsunami and my rtr dcc sd40-2, when I roll the cars, they will not roll long before stopping, I’m scared to try to start tearing these cars apart to remove weights because they are almost 40 bucks a piece, has anyone else had this issue?
First are the wheels metal or plastic? If they’re plastic change them.
Second, you should pick up a truck tuner. It should fix your problem with rolling resistance.
Your loco’s should have absolutely no problem pulling those cars unless up a 4 inch grade.
Here’s a link to the truck tuner. Many LHS carry them.
Probably the weight is OK; if the club has a digital scale check the weight per NMRA standards. Usually, light weight is the issue on freight cars.
Two things you need to do:
First, get an NMRA standards gage. The club should have one, but you should have this basic tool. Use the gage to see if the wheels are in gage.
Walthers: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/98-1
Second, spin the wheels to see if they roll freely. My best guess is they do not due to molding flash or something where the axle fits into the truck . MicroMark has a tool called a Truck Tuner. It’s a small cutter that reams and reshapes the cone shaped indenataion in the truck that the axle fits into.
http://www.micromark.com/HO-Truck-Tuner,8241.html
Ooops, And welcome to the forums [#welcome]
The wheels are metal, but the trucks are plastic, they are the platinum line, I took off a truck with wheels and it rolled pretty well alone, I have about 30 athearn procor tank cars that I run on this train and that whole line of cars is very light and free rolling, and my locos don’t have any trouble with them, but when I add these few hoppers it spins and struggles. I will check into the truck tuner, or possibly switch to metal trucks, when I pull the line of hoppers with my finger, they seem to be about 4 pounds of resistance lol
You’ve been given excellent advice. Welcome to the forum![#welcome]
I just got some of those same exact ethanol hoppers. I’ve also run into this same issue with other Walthers rolling stock (autoracks). I ended up using the truck tuner and it helped a little bit, but still wasn’t satisfied with the roll, so I ended up replacing the wheelsets with Reeboxx.
You would think that as expensive as they are, they would roll freely out of the box.
If the OP has rolling stock with different wheels try swapping them. I like the proto 2000, but there are others such as intermountain and others as Motley noted.
I have 15 of these hoppers the OP is describing. They are 2.7 ounces over the recommended NMRA weight standard. I have fixed this myself. The top will come off where the walkways are mounted. Refer to the exploded parts diagram.
Take a small chisel or a no.17 chisel blade and gently pry off the top part. It will be tricky. There are four weights inside held in with screws. Remove the two inner ones. Replace top cover.
Also, I replace the wheels with Intermountain 36 inch wheels and have had no problems.
I have tons of their Goldline 50’ Bulkheads and woodchip cars in HO. You have to drag these things down hill out of the box - no lie I parked one on a 3% grade!
The above mentioned truck tuner will solve about 90% of the problem
http://www.micromark.com/HO-Truck-Tuner,8241.html
It’s a good practice to use this on all trucks anyway. A little graphite could help but not enough for me to use it. The weight is fine and their wheels are acceptable (to me anyway). I upgraded the couplers but that’s mostly due to wanting one coupler style on all of my cars
ratled
ratled
Wow 2.7 oz. over weight. Ole Walthers must have gotten carried away on those cars as usually they are lacking weight.
Believe those guys that tell you about “Micro-Mark” Truck Tuner as it is a winner.
Good luck. [B]
Also check out reboxx.com
Their Exxact Socket is identical tool and reboxx was selling them long before the other guy. Our HO modular club had two and we cleaned up all our rolling stock trucks with them. My 2 cents.
…papasmurf
I don’t think I’ve ever had a Walthers freight car kit in which I didn’t have to change out the wheelsets. And this has been going on for years. Worst rolling freight cars on the market, IMO. And yes, a Truck Tuner is almost a necessity for them.
Tom
Well thank you guys for all the help, I will look into that tool, and if it doesnt work out I will try swapping out the wheelsets. Yeah I figured they were a little heavy, I might try to take out some weight too.
OK so it seems to be a consensus that Walthers freight car wheels are poorly made. Now what about their passenger wheelsets. I have a lot of Walthers passenger cars and they roll beautifully. Well, once I add a little lube to them.
What’s up with that?
Mike:
The Walthers passenger car trucks are metal to metal to allow for installation of interior lighting pickup, so they need lubing as a matter of course. Once they’re lubed, they’re pretty free rolling (though not nearly as free rolling as the BLI Zephyr or MTH Daylight cars). But as a matter of course, I give the mounting screws a 1/4 turn to make them a little ‘looser’. They come from the factory pretty tight on the car.
Also, check the screws that hold the trucks together. Sometimes there can be ‘burrs’ left on the screw-heads that interfere and catch on the bottom of the car. A couple of swipes with a file usually cures this.
And I’d definitely replace those sloppy Walthers couplers with Kadees.
And believe me, when Walthers reccommends a 24" minimum radius for the cars, they MEAN it. Generally, they work the best on about a 30" minimum radius.
They’re good cars, but they’re hardly RTR.
Tom
They’re RTR if you are pulling 6 cars around an oval. I take the time to tune every piece of rolling stock I add to the layout. This includes wheels if needed and coupler conversions to Kadee. The time consumed is minimal if you do it each time you pick them up.