I am thinking of modernizing my fleet with some well cars. In the past I had a set of Athearn Maxi IV cars thar kept coming apart so I was thinking of doing a 3 to 5 car lash up using some kind of drawbar between the intermediate cars. Any thoughts on how to do this?
You’re looking for an articulated well car. Here is a Walther’s 3-unit example: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-20001266
Athearn made 5-unit sets. Here’s an example: http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH92999
the only well cars that offer drawbars are these that i have seen on the market. the 3unit and single have drawbars that come with them.
You could also use a stand-alone well car, with couplers and trucks on each end. The stack train I run is a mix of stand alone and a 5 unit set. I’ve had no problem with any of them. After some test runs, I detetrmined that the 5 car unit train ran best not being coupled directly behind the loco. Sometimes you have to “tweak” the articulated car connection to make sure it fits together properly. I put it behind 3 stand alone cars, test run the train empty, and all cars ran great. I kept bringing up the speed until I was at about 80 mph scale speed, expecting problems, as there is not much weight with these cars empty. No problems. I had already replaced the wheels with 36" metal wheel sets, and Kadee whisker couplers. Some will say that unit articulated sets, the first and last wheel set are 33", but I’ve had no problems with all 36". I add weight to the bottom containers, to bring the cars close to NMRA standards, and away I went. I run a total of 15 cars and 2 locos.
Just a note, a lot of the stand alone cars will also have a 5th wheel for a semi-trailer. 40’ and 20’ containers are used for over seas shipping, and the 45’, 48’ and now the 53’ are used for domestic shipping.
Mike.
Joe323,
I just have to ask this question, because I run 8 five packs, 5 5pack spine cars and 5-89ftrs, pulled by 4 Athearn BB SD40-2’s and never had any come apart, or derail on code 83 Atlas flex, but I have a minimum of 32’’ radius curves. The cars have original trucks and plastic wheels. So what exactly do you mean they are coming apart? What radius are your curves? Where the tub cars in the five pack connect, I lightly sand the cup and hole for the pin and apply a light coat of Labelle #106 plastic compatible grease. Also a pin head amount on the needle end of the wheels axle, before I insert in truck. The containers are weighted with 3/8 barrel magnets 2 in each corner epoxied in place and a piece of sheet tin in each end of the roof of the container. I also am assuming your speaking HO-scale you did not mention scale.
Respectfully<
Frank
Same question as Frank.
How are the cars coming apart?
I have the Athearn 5 unit well cars as well. Right out of the box they do tend to come uncoupled at the coupler ends. I replaced the McHenry couplers that the cars come with with Kadee couplers. Problem solved.
My layout is 18 inch mimimum radious curves. The cars handled the curves fine I think the major problem was weight. Empty well cars only weigh about an ounce. I was thinking of putting 3 ouces of weight in the bottom comtainers to bring up to at least NMRA standards and leaving the bottom container in permently when the train is running (I could leave empties sitting in the yard If I chose). this would make the center of gravity low just like the prototype (I think). I plan on putting magnets inside the tops of the bottom containers and the bottoms of the upper containers, which will be unweighted and mobile so they can be moved around. Wheels of time makes a lift or I could use walters conerstone mi jacks (or a crane) to transfer to transfer the containers to flatbed trucks that I alrady have.
Its not prototypical at all but I have Cranky the Crane from Bachmanns Thomas Line (My wife bought me this for Fathers day last year as a Joke) and he will have a role minus his face in the yard as well. I replaced his hook with a magnet already so hes already hard at work moving containers to my wifes delight. BTW if you get rid of Cranky’s face Hes not a bad model at all of a contruction crane.
Agreed the Mchenrys are going and Kadees are coming. When I say coming apart I mean that the sets are coning apart in the middle where socket rides on the little pins possibly due to bumpy track. However none of my other cars exhibit this behavior. But then all the other cars have kadees at the correct height and are weighted to MNRA standards. The well cars are run as a set so the kadeeswill be only at the ends not in the middle of the set.
Joe,
Put the magnets in the bottom of the container, not the top. Athearn sold thin sheet tin squares, that are glued to the inside top of the container. You could also put them in the ends of the empty well/tub car, so when you put a container in the well/tub car the bottom magnets will attract the tin and stay in place, the same will happen when you double stack a container. Should you purchase the Mi-Jack container/trailer crane, the grappler arms that are shown on the model, are only used for lifting and loading trailers. When not used, they swing up and the spreader bar that the grapplers are attached to spread out to the 40ft/20ft position and hook on to the holes in the top of the container with twist locks built into the spreader bar, to load or unload a container. The Mi-Jack kit, has magnets on each end of that spreader bar, that will grab those pieces of tin that are mounted inside the container. If you don’t want to do all that and just want to run containers in the well/tub cars, fill them half full with play sand, no need to glue it in, gravity will take care of that.
Crane operator: CSX Intermodal, Bedford Pk,IL. Retired, now,14yrs.
Frank
Added weight will help. I have two 5 car sets, older BB kit form, so very light. With metal wheel sets, kadee’s and weight in bottom containers (I used clearanced fishing weights… Real cheap, in place with poster tack putty… Also cheap.) and run both behind loco, then singles, no derailments, no coming apart, even at speed. And I have 18" minimum radius… [:)]
So it will work.
Well I ordered a 3 car articulated unit from Kato (in HO) presumably the containers I have will fit. As suggested I am going to put sand in the bottom on to bring them up to mnra standards and metal/ magnets to secure the top units which will be interchangeable manually so that the unit does not look the same all the time. So the next part is painting and relaxing the units in Staten Island West Colors and SIW marks.
Sounds like a plan Joe. Those Kato cars are nice, you went pretty much top shelf. I don’t have any Kato’s, but I’ve had no problems moving containers around between Walthers, Athearn and Concor. And after I added Kadee couplers, and IM wheel sets, the cars run excellent empty, too. Best to run empty cars last on the train.
That’s funny about “Cranky the crane” ! You’ll be able to get back at her when you show her the receipt for the “Wheels of Time” lift.
Mike.
The well cars arrived last night. My wife is officially giving them to me for Easter so I just had a chance to check them quickly for damage but them seem nicely made and definately well packaged. It occured to me that since they were shipped from Kansas City and by extension Japan that they must have ridden on real well cars somewhere enroute. Full review to come.
I have the Kato articulated well cars running on 18" curves. No derailments, separations or need to add weight. Really good runners IMO.
You could buy Husky stacks and rig them as you would any other car (kadee couplers, metal wheels). In theory they should behave like normal cars and stay coupled together.
Well the Kato well cars are up and running. They came nicely packaged in a Styrofoam cradle. Upon opening them It was apparent that the cars are well made sturdier than the Athearn cars I previously had. The graphics are sharp and probably could be read under magnification. It took a couple of minutes for me to get the hang of coupling them but once coupled they stay together nicely. I ran them behind one of my Geeps both forward and backwards around several 18 inch curves with and without containers and there was no derailments or shaking. All in all I am very impressed. My only comment is that they will probably look a bit better on 22 inch or higher curves. Aside from that I highly recommend them. They cost me about $100 from Amazon without containers but I have Athearn and Walthers containers that fit fine and stayed in place without magnets even when double stacked. These cars do not need additional weight at least not on my layout.