Ho railcar trucks replacement

[jbrock27]

This adds to my confusion.  In one post, I see the words "with a little investment", in the other, I see "will take a lot of time and money".

-jb

jward

protowatchdog
View Profile  WWW  Email  Personal Message (Offline)   
   
Re: Still run your Old rolling stock?
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2009, 09:22:13 PM »   Reply with quote
the tyco and ahm stuff, like most train set equipment from the 1970s, were truly dismal performers. and yet.....i still have some around. with a little investment to replace the wheelsets and the truck mounted couplers you could make some nice running cars out of them. some of the stuff they had was truly unique, like the 60' hi cube boxcar, or its little brother, the standard height 60' boxcar. ahm had a model of a tie car, sort of a bulkhead flat with a bar cage along the sides. or the 6 dome tank car. all of these i would consider upgrading simply because of their uniqueness.
and back in the days before the bowser cabooses, the old tyco streamlined caboose could be kitbashed into a reasonable model of a pennsylvania N8 class caboose.....

metal wheels and body mounted kadees make a world of difference.
Report to moderator     Logged
Jeffery S Ward Sr
Pittsburgh, PA

[jward]

wow you're really reaching there, digging up something I wrote 5 years ago......

read the whole message to keep the context. what I stated was that in the case of unique models, such as those listed in the post, I can justify the time and expense to upgrade those cars. their unique look adds to the variety of the cars running on my layout, for much less hassle than building say a resin kit.

in the case of say a 40 foot boxcar or hopper car, those upgraded models being sold to-day are essentially the same car as those produces in the 1970s, but with all the upgrading already done for you by the manufacturer. unless there is a compelling reason to do so, I won't try to upgrade those cars.

also keep in mind that I am old enough that I can remember a time when those junk cars were the rule rather than the exception, and was forced by circumstances to do the upgrades on them. I also had access to my dad's and grandfather's tools back then, which helped greatly.

during that time, certain cars common in real life were unavailable in model form, such as 3 bay hopper cars. if you wanted them, you had to hack apart a couple of tyco or lifelike hoppers and reassemble them in the configuration you wanted.

[Doneldon]

Jim-

There is no conflict if you read carefully. I urge people NOT to update their old equipment because I, like you and several others on this site, don't think it is cost effective or a good idea generally because the old cheapies tend to have poor details, paint and lettering. However, I'm aware that people do this anyway for a variety of reasons. In that case, I strongly urge that, among the updates, replacing couplers (whether X2f or knuckles) include repositioning them to the car body rather than staying with the Talgos. It's also true that there are some cars which are worth bringing up to date, including those with a high sentimental value. For those situations, too, I strongly urge that the couplers be repositioned if the car in question has Talgos.

Keep in mind that some old cars are worth upgrading. I have purchased old wooden Silver Streak  cars with excellent finish work but, for reasons unknown to me, lousy trucks and/or couplers. (Those kits were sold without trucks and couplers.) Replacing the hardware on those with quality components is easily justified, in my opinion. The same can be said of Ambroid models, LaBelle kit cars, Walthers wood and metal heavyweight passenger equipment, a few brass models from time  to time, and Central Valley kits. Of course, the CVs usually have fabulous trucks since they were sold that way, but sometimes they have horn hook couplers or replacement trucks because the originals crystallized and disintegrated.

Would I ever upgrade an old shake-the-box plastic kit? Sure. I did exactly that with the first HO kit I ever built, a silver Athearn Western Pacific Feather River boxcar, vintage 1959. I replaced the couplers, of course, and even the all metal trucks which I had assembled decades before. (Keep in mind that Athearn trucks at that time came in pieces. They had to be assembled, including four tiny springs per truck which held the assembly together. And this was before I knew the trick of using a piece of thread to restrain an errant spring! I therefore spent a fair amount of time crawling around on the floor with a flashlight, looking for the tiny shadow caused by the minute metal coil. Yes, updating my old box car was well worth it to me after all that.)
                                                                                                                                                                                        -- D

[rogertra]

Doneldon offers good advice.

1)  Stay away from Talgos.

2)  Body mount all couplers.

3)  Fortunately, I have few of the poor quality cars, I gave the less detailed ones away.

4)  In my case though, I usually do not replace the trucks but everything now has metal wheels.  I'm a little less concerned about freight car details as I am about locomotive and caboose details.  After all, most people generally look and the front and rear of a train, not at the consist.  I consider freight cars as part of the "Big Picture" and providing they do not stand out but blend in, that's good enough for me.

Cheers.

Roger.

[jward]

doneldon,

I do agree with you about the older athearn cars. most of them came with rp25 wheels and body mounted couplers. so it doesn't take much to bring them up to good running standards. all I usually do to them is put kadee couplers on them, and add a bit of weight to them.. the same goes with roundhouse cars.

does the lack of detail on the older cars bother me? not really.     my cars get a lot of handling, and fragile detail parts tend to break off under heavy use. if it's just going to break off anyway, I'd prefer they leave the parts off and lower the price of the car to reflect this. for me the most important thing is that they run well.

[electrical whiz kid]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to take about fifteen minutes with the proprietor of a good hobby shop-who is well-versed on model railroading.  If he is any kind of professional, he will give you some sound advice, sending you in the right direction.  Like a lot of the others, I would not buy what I like to call "junkers".  But then I am more into resin kits now; just the way I have evolved.  We all evolve differently here.  My advice is to look at Intermountain, Bachmann, et al.  These are a pretty good class of quality-and they will tend to leave you alone until you have established yourself in this hobby and become somewhat well-versed in it.  Good luck.
Rich C.

[jbrock27]

Jeff, there may be more recent posts, but that was the first I came across, so I stopped my search there. 

I think we all, are in agreement on most aspects of this and much has been repeated.  Here's the points I have been trying to make, from the beginning:

-the individual needs to decide whether a car is worth updating, based on age of car, availability, quality etc, etc and cost of parts to do that-the parts including, knuckle couplers with metal coil springs, draft boxes, rp25 wheelsets and trucks (non-talgo obviously)
- the cost of the parts are not as high as it could be or thought to be, especially if one shops around.  while metal (rp25) wheels and Kadee couplers are better, they are not required.  you can have a fine running car with delrin rp25 wheels and EZ Mate Mark II or McHenry (both metal coil spring) couplers.  the new trucks can be delrin, as opposed to having to be metal

Now, as I said before, I would not spend $10 in parts to upgrade a candy colored old Bachmann car, in fact, I can say I would not spend any $$ to do so.  But someone may actually want to.  Just 'cause I don't, doesn't mean someone else might not want to.  Would I spend a couple of bucks to upgrade an AHM, Gilbert, Life Like, IHC, TYCO, Walthers or Athearn car?  Yes, and I have and it has not been cost prohibitive bc I did the cost/benefit analysis before doing so, which included some price shopping as well.  Plus, it was fun!  Do I also buy Silver Series and other cars that don't require any upgrading?  Sure do and I  like those cars as well.

Rich, I wish I could walk into the LHS and get some good advice, but I am not sure the owner would be able to tell a horn hook coupler from a knuckle coupler   Radio control is his bag.

Peace out my brothers!

[electrical whiz kid]

Brock;
you know; as a kid, I grew up in the Greater Boston area, and could open the phone book and find about twelve hobby shops-including Hobbytown of Boston-and do very well.  One in particular stands out:  Eric Fuch's.  I am sure the old timers can remember that name.  it is too bad how things have evolved, and what one might accurately describe as total indifference to the hobby-on the part of the personnel seems to be the rule now.  This is one of the things that has lead most guys towards on-line shopping.

Rich C.

[jbrock27]

I agree with you Rich.