Auto Racks

[D&J RailRoad]

I installed 28" wheels on most of these then splashed the wheel sockets with graphite. There are still 12 of them with 33" wheels. The wheels rub on the bottom of some of the chassis kind of acting as brakes and causing a drag on the train. They roll much better now. The next problem was the coupler heights. Quite a bit of variance between makes of the models. Lots of shims and now they are all spot on.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Like you said, "Spot on", Looks good!

 

[beiland]

Change of wheel size pretty much solved all of your problems?

Have you ever considered a slight over-weighting of these cars?
I recently read a very long subject thread on this idea, and almost everyone who had tried it was pleased.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

I don't think adding or removing weight from the car would work. I could see on the undercarriage where the wheel was rubbing.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

I don't think adding or removing weight from the car would work. I could see on the undercarriage where the wheel was rubbing.

That pretty much defined the problem!

 

[beiland]

What radius track was it trying to negotiate? A tight radius certainly contributes to wheel interference with frame members.

 

[beiland]

These cars sit tall on the tracks, and that makes them prone to wobbling. What do you do about that?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

My empire has a minimum 48" radius curves.
These cars wobble if there's to much play in the trucks. It's a very fine adjustment, sometimes a few degrees of turn on the screw to get it just right. This fleet of 30 autoracks require constant attention when running.
A video will be here shortly. Getting ready to upload it to YouTube.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

 

[beiland]

48" radius curves sure make a difference I'm sure. I have much smaller radius turns in my train shed layout, so i am really CHALLENGED to fine tune things,...both track and cars.