Todd,
The parts turned out really nice.
Thank you,
-Ted
Thanks Ted,
I found that I will need to get the 1/4-20 bolts in the right length, some nylock nuts, as well as the little screws that hold the bolsters to the body. The original bolsters are countersunk and because my bolsters are two piece, they are thicker through that area and the original screws don’t reach. I’ll probably have to use little sheet metal screws.
This shows the difference between the stock bolsters and the replacements. The car body drops ~0.2" and looks a whole lot better.
Stock side:
Replacement side:
Looks good!
Did that fix the tracking issue?
Won’t know until I get screws and wire them up. The one truck is only sitting in place to show the difference.
But, it addresses the five primary flaws:
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It lets the car now rock side to side,
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It lowers the center of gravity both at the car due to a lower body, but also below the trucks from the metal bolt/nut combination and heavier materials,
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It addresses the issue of unbalanced torque about the centerline of rotation. This may not be an issue with body mount couplers. But on truck mounted couplers (like I use), as the cars go through a turn, the tangs are forced outwards which forces the inner axles inwards by a greater amount potentially adding to derailments.
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They are much stronger than the plastic originals which are prone to crack at the mounting towers, like several of mine have done.
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Improves the looks by reducing the gap at the trucks.
Can’t really see how they can’t help.
BTW, if anyone wants to duplicate what I’ve done because you have access to a laser cutter or 3D printer, you are welcome to the .dwg files.
It seems logical, but I have changed my views on logic after dealing with a water feature! (I USED to think that water would NEVER flow uphill!)
Bruce Chandler said:
It seems logical, but I have changed my views on logic after dealing with a water feature! (I USED to think that water would NEVER flow uphill!)
I have water that flows uphill through “wicking.” It does this under my waterfall that the trains pass behind and drips on the track. I had to epoxy an “L” bracket as a dam under the waterfall to stop this problem.
Todd Brody said:
Bruce Chandler said:
It seems logical, but I have changed my views on logic after dealing with a water feature! (I USED to think that water would NEVER flow uphill!)
I have water that flows uphill through “wicking.” It does this under my waterfall that the trains pass behind and drips on the track. I had to epoxy an “L” bracket as a dam under the waterfall to stop this problem.
Well, if you define “wicking” as flowing in the most illogical direction that will baffle you the most, then I agree. (Just remember I USED to think that water always flowed “downhill” - silly me)
One down and two to go.
Still clears the rails.
Stock. Note that the bottom of the air tank is at the bottom of the brake assembly.
Modified. Note the bottom of the air tank is well below the bottom of the brake assembly.
Done. Will have to try to get in some testing this weekend.
Proof of the Pudding…
On June 26th I was trying to run the three streamliners behind the FA/FB for open house the following day. For the life of me, even spending well over an hour “adjusting” track, I could not get the consist to reliably run a single lap without the stramliners derailing in one place of another. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)
Today, with no track changes since June 26th, other than regular watering, deterioration, and settling, I put the trio behind my battery/track powered FA so I could try them out without much effort. I figured they would probably still have some problems to address as prototypes often do.
NOPE!!! The FA pulled them through the loop, lap after lap, without a single derailment! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)Was even better than I could have hoped for, though they do swing a hair wider and I did move a rock a fraction of an inch for clearance!
It will be nice to be able to run them after all these years.