Any help for Williams passenger car trucks from 1990's

[cmaffet]

I have 2 sets of Williams passenger cars from the 1990's that have never run well.  One is a 5 car aluminum SP Daylight set with 2 add-ons(7 cars in all).  The other is a 6 car GN heavyweight set.  I have tried a variety of lubricants to allow these to roll easier without success.  A steady Postwar Lionel Berkshire can barely pull 4 of these cars on a level track.  They were this way new out of the box and I have talked with others that share the same problem  Does anyone know what up with these or had success in improving these or something similar?  I'd be grateful for any helpful input.

                       Chris

[671]

Hi cmaffet,

              Have you checked the center roller electrical pick-up? I have found that if you use the wrong oil, they build up a carbon deposit very quickly. The center roller becomes resistant to rolling or locks in one position. This added drag increases the rolling resistance of the car. I have also noticed that the springs on some of the center roller pick-ups are quite stiff. This stiffness makes a great amount of the cars weight roll on the roller itself. This does not allow the truck's wheels to support most of the weight. The rollers should just be an electrical contact, not a center "wheel" for the cars truck system.

              Conductive or synthetic lubricant is a must for the pick-up rollers. Check the spring tension/load. That may be the cause. If the trucks wheels roll freely, it could be the rollers creating the excess drag.

                                                                671

[phillyreading]

Have you taken the axle assemblies out and cleaned everything & lubed it, and then put it all back together? You could have a rust problem from being stored so long and not know it.
Or are these passenger cars from the Crown Edition line? If so you may have some problems with them.
I have a set of six passenger cars that I think I may have to replace the truck assemblies on them, Crown Edition "Reading Company King Coal." These have three sets of wheels on each truck and free wheel like Lionel post war wheel sets, and a set of plastic non-flanged wheels in the center and fixed knuckle couplers.

Lee Fritz

[WKT58]

The tips about lubricating the center roller are very helpful information.  I own several sets of 1970's/early 80's Madison passenger sets with the old style free-spinning wheels and center pickup rollers that are mounted on a plastic bracket that snaps onto two of the three axles.  The Southern Pacific Madison cars are so hard to pull that my MTH RailKing Daylight 4-8-4 had trouble pulling them (the traction tires might need replacing), so I used a Williams SP Daylight GP9 (a stronger puller).

My local hobby shop sells fast angle wheel sets, but these are not compatible with the center roller design that snaps onto two of the axles of the 6-wheel trucks, because they require a static (not rolling) axle.

[phillyreading]

Post war Lionel wheels & axles will work with the older Williams trucks, at least they do for me. I substituted them because they looked nearly the same and it works.

The fast angle wheelsets are mainly for use with either Lionel or MTH modern rolling stock. Won't do well with Williams or WBB trucks as the sockets in the truck assembly are a different style. I tried to cut the needle off just a little but then the wheelset fell out after a few feet.

Lee F.