ho scale amtrak passenger cars

[train263]

I have three Amtrak cars and the don't roll on track they turn when I roll them with my finger but when I put them on track they don't roll

[Doneldon]

263-

It sounds to me as though your cars may not be heavy enough to roll without the weight of your finger pressing down. HO rolling stock should weigh one ounce plus one-half ounce for every inch of length. If your AMTRAK cars are scale length they are about 12 inches. Thus, they should weigh one ounce plus 12/2 ounces, or seven ounces total. If they are less than scale (there are some 10-inch cars around) they should weigh six ounces. If you don't have a home scale which is sufficiently accurate for these take your cars to a post office and use the public scale there.

You can use anything for weight. Big, old hardware items (nuts and bolts and so on) that you'll never use are good. Pennies are good, too, and cheap. They run about 17 to the ounce so you'll never have to spend as much as a dollar. Be sure to keep them as low in the cars as possible and make certain that they can't move around. With passenger cars you can often attach them invisibly in the vestibules. If you do this, put an equal amount of weight in each end. It's important to keep the weight low in the car, and balanced end-to-end and side-to-side but, other than those considerations, where you put the weight isn't important. Some modelers will tell you to place the weight directly over the wheels but that unnecessary. Your bolsters and trucks don't know where the weight is, only how much of it there is. You'll be fine as long as your weight is low in the car and balanced.

It's possible that you have other problems as well, but adjust the weight first. Then, make sure that your wheels are in gauge and that they move freely in their journals (the ends). Micro-Mark sells a journal ream which is great for smoothing things out there. While you're at it, make sure that your axles aren't so long that they are gripped tightly by the side frames of your trucks. You probably don't need to lubricate the journals but you can use a little graphite or plastic-safe Teflon.

Please get back to us if these efforts don't fix things. There are other possibilities but it's unlikely you'll need to do anything other than working on the weight, wheels and axles. Good luck.
                                                                                                                                                                            -- D
     

[jonathan]

Train 263,

Do you have the old Silver Series Amtrak Passenger Cars?  If so, these cars are known for their sluggish rolling.  The problem is the weight of the car rests on the wheel axles.  There are no points or journals as in other passenger and freight cars.  This is necessary to maintain the prototypical look of these type of cars.

I, and others, have posted about this in the past.  I've tried filing, sanding and lubricating without much success.  These are the days when I was modeling more modern equipment.

I have switched to an older era, using the Spectrum Heavyweight passenger cars which roll better than any other passenger car on the market.  These cars do have wheel points which spin in journals with outside frame trucks.

If these are not the cars you have, then something else is going on.

Regards,

Jonathan