HO heavy weight passenger car trucks side frames.

[Tenwheeler01]

What are the newer Heavy weight and light weight passenger car truck side frames mad out of? 

I have 9 old spectrum heavy weights and most of them have an issue with the truck side frames having zinc rot.

I am very hesitant to purchase any of the newer Bachmann passenger cars.

Thank you.   

[trainman203]

At one time Walthers offered a variety of trucks appropriate to these cars.

I have four of the newer heavyweight cars, if you call new being acquired new in the last six years or so, And I've had no problem with the trucks.  Of course I haven't run them much lately so I need to look and see, but the trucks seemed fine last time they were out.  They are beautiful cars and if for any reason the Bach Man's trucks deteriorate, I'll have no qualms about replacing them with Walthers.

I just realized, the truck frames may be plastic.  I am out of town right now but when I get back home next week, I'll pull those cars out and check for you.

[Tenwheeler01]

I believe all the ones I have are 15+ years or older. And I think Bachmann may have fixed the issue by going with plastic side frames on the newer ones. I would just like to confirm it before buying any of the new ones. 

I have replaced two sets so far. But it's quite a bit of time and work to replace them.

[trainman203]

I just looked at my heavyweight coach, item 13708.  I have two of these coaches and two of the combines.  Bought all of them maybe around five or six years ago and they were new .  I was surprised to see I looked today that the trucks appear to still be die cast zinc alloy. I did not expect that.

[Tenwheeler01]

Thank you for checking.    I will take that they are still Cast zinc alloy. 

Not sure about there smooth side cars or corrugated cars. 

The ones I am having issues with all came from the Spectrum trains set they use to sale. The set had a 2-8-0 and 3 Heavyweight cars. The ATSF set has 6 wheel trucks on the combine, coach and observation. The NYC set the combine and coach have 4 wheel trucks.  But all of the trucks are falling apart.  One of the trucks just fell a part in a hand when I touch it after checking it because the car derailed.

Now I am afraid my old locomotive of the same age might start to get zinc rot also.   

[trainman203]

I have at least 30 or 40 Bachmann HO scale steam locomotives of nearly every Spectrum type but excepting the 1880 4-4-0, the 0-6-0/0-6-0 clones and the EM-1, some of them for close to 20 years. I've never had any metal deterioration of any kind on any of them.  Of course that would mostly be confined to the frame and tender floor, but still, I haven't seen anything start to degrade.  I have also heard some folks complain about elements of the drive system aging and degrading too. But I've never had that. These steam engines are about the quietest and smoothest running pieces I've ever seen.  In my opinion, these engines can last with care as long as the die cast zinc lumps of lead that looked sort of like steam engines that we had 50 years ago...... And, incidentally, some of those things, heavyweights in their own way, that survive to this day are having the same cancer-like problem that you are having with your trucks.

[Tenwheeler01]

I guess Bachmann is not going to answer may question about what material they are using for the truck side frames on there latest runs of passenger cars. 

As for locos issues. I have a few first run Spectrums and I have only had a few issue.  A 2-10-0 motor froze (not self reparable used the warranty). And my 4-8-2 lights is get belt noises (lube).  They do pull 6 Heavy weights or 12 freight car trains around a layout with a 2.8% grade.   

Out of all my very old locos I have only seen the zinc rot issue with the 1969 Atlas(Rivarossi made) N scale 4-6-2 that I had. The frames started to break up.     

[Yard Master]

Hi Tenwheeler,

We didn't make any modifications to the trucks on the heavyweight cars for the most recent production. Zinc rot is unfortunately an issue that only becomes apparent years after production, depending on if there are impurities in the material during manufacturing, and is difficult to detect or resolve at the outset. It is less a matter of age and more how pure the alloy initially is.

[Tenwheeler01]

Thank you for the response.