Large Scale Central

Aristo Heavyweight Passenger Cars

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

My Dad recently fell in love with a set of the Heavyweight type passenger cars…specifically these Southern cars…

but i know they won’t run on his LGB R1 4’ curves… so i’m trying to convince him to step up to the LGB R3 8’ curve… Has anyone used these cars on an 8’ curve?? With LGB type Hook-and-Loop Couplers?? I’m not afraid to mess with the distance between the cars (modifying the coupler attatchment so the cars are farther apart) if that’s what it might take to get them to negotiate the curve… the space he is working in is just about 10’ x 20’ ,and i’m trying to fit a modified Oval ,someting like what a “Nascar Fan” might recognize as a “Tri-Oval” …

#2

I have had success with them on 8 foot curves. They look better on larger curves but if it’s all you got they look OK. I also did that with body mounted Kadee 830’s.

#3

Thanks ,Mike…i hadn’t even thought about something body mounted…that is ,i’m guessing the cars have thier couplers mounted right to the trucks…

as you can tell ,i don’t have the cars in front of me :slight_smile: just brainstorming…

#4

Thanks ,Mike…i hadn’t even thought about something body mounted…that is ,i’m guessing the cars have thier couplers mounted right to the trucks…

as you can tell ,i don’t have the cars in front of me :slight_smile: just brainstorming…

#5

I think–I think–they will run on R1 curves if you take the center wheel out, or go to two wheel trucks. I got a set of these used a few years ago, and converted to two-axle trucks. It made a huge difference in the drag. Thye won’t look too good on R1 curves, but they will track. They are nice cars–I eventually added ball bearing wheels to mine, but they did fine with regular steel wheels. They look really great with people in them. USA Trains sells two sets of seated figures, and the ebay seller “everydaygoodz” sells figueres in 1:30 that work quite well. The everydaygoodz figures are not all seated, but I just cut the legs off them and glued them down

(http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/magic/westover/images/shades4lg.jpg)

I painted the seats, made headrests out of athletic tape and added window shades made of masking tape. But adding people makes the biggest difference. For at it’s worth, lots of heavyweights, probably most, had three axles per truck. But the PRR and the Southern tended to run trains with two axle trucks. Mine run just fne with truck mounted couplers. Since they normally dont run on anything smaller than eight feet, I shortened the tangs to make them couple more closely

#6

Boy are you a life-saver ,Mike :slight_smile:

i was just working on another thread (track planning) and was having issues with an 8’ curve ,simply because i thought 8’ would need to be my minimum for these cars…

knowing i might be able to step down to a 6.5’ curve is going to make a big difference…

Thank you very very much…

and thank you too ,for the picture…those cars really do look sharp with the people in them…i’ll definitely keep your hints in mind when we finally get to run ours…

Rich…

one more thing?? where did the 2 axle trucks come from?? aristo ,as well??

#7

Rich as Mike O said, you can also just remove the center wheelset on each truck. Save money and no one will notice the wheelset missing

#8

Yes Aristo will sell you two axle trucks, or you can just take the center wheel out

It’s kind of important to lube them well–the spindle the truck fits on as well as the bolster, the thing the truck rest on/bears against when it turns. They are heavy, long cars. The problem on tight curves is really the overhang

George Schreyer has a fantastic page of tips on heavyweight cars:

http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips2/hw_tips.html

#9

Thank you ,David…and you too ,Mike…

i read George’s page ,and found it very very helpful…

anything that’ll save me a buck ,and make things run smoother ,is fine by me