Who else has Walthers heavyweight passenger cars? What minimum radius have you found is needed? I'm having trouble getting them around 30" radius curves. I'm thinking of trimming some of the underbody detail to get more clearance.
Gene
Gene,
It may have more to do with coupler swing, weight, tension on the coupler system, and stiff diaphargm tension (even though they don't touch all the time) than truck clearance.
I don't have any, but I know several modelers who do. They are running them on 30" and above. I will take a look at one or two and get back to you, but, just based on memory and looking at them before, I would consider changing the coupler and diaphragm system for best operation on your curves.
More to follow, let me do some checking....
Sheldon
Sheldon,
You raise some good points. My IHC cars do fine, but they don't have diaphrams. I haven't tested my Bachmann heavyweights yet. I think this brings out, again, the fact that many cars are offered today that many home modelers can't run on the average layout.
Gene
Gene,
I have done much research into the subject of passenger car diaphragms, car spacing, and couplers vs radius, and run working, touching diaphragms on all my passenger equipment. I have Branchline, Bachmann, Athearn and Con Cor cars, all of which run fine on 30" radius (even though my curves are bigger).
I will look at several Wathers cars and see what may be needed.
Sheldon
I have the Coach and Observation(Birthday present from a good friend). The Coach tracks fine around 22" and even 20" curves. The Observation is not very fond of 24" and usually7 begs for 28". Did you put Kadees on your cars? I think Kadees have a closer couple than the stock Walthers couplers.
No. If I do, I might go with the long shank. They do seem to couple very closely. It is sometimes necessary to weigh prototype vs performance.
Gene
Does Walthers heavyweight passenger cars have body mounted couplers? I have found that Body mounted and truck mounted couplers do not like each other. They will work together on shorter cars but not on long cars.
Walthers are body mounted and my IHC cars are body mounted in the VT&P shops.
Gene
Gene,
Just tried several of the Walthers Classic Heavyweights Pullman cars. They did OK out of the box on 24" radius but that is the reliable minimum. They are more prototypical looking on radii over 33".
Gene,
I work partime at a train store and over the past four or five years, we have seen numerous customers dealing with the same problem. What has been found is that the diaphrams can be the culprit. One easy fix is to put a long shank coupler on one end and a medium shank coupler on the other. Make sure you couple a long and medium shank coupler together to minimize the distance between the cars. This has been the most successful and popular fix that we have seen. I am not sure what type of minimum radius this will give you, but with those cars, I would think you would not want to get down below 26 in radius.
There goes my plan to get some walthers heavyweights for my layout...
Stupid 22" radius curves!