MTL Circus Car Problems

[rslaserkits]

 Get in touch with Joe and he will do all in his power to do you right. He is one great guy and a heck of a modeler to boot.
rich

[Frisco Larry]

First, those HW trucks are all wrong for the train.  Why they put HW trucks on them is a mystery to me.  I replaced them all with Kato El Capitan trucks (two or three axle depending on each car type), which are the correct style (with truck mounted couplers).  Second I have over 100 HW passenger cars, nearly all of which have MTL HW trucks.  I don't have problems with them as a rule.  So. I can't picture what could be the problem.  In fact I have reused some of these very trucks on some HW cars and have had no problems, (I do replace the wheels with FVM wheels).

[SkipGear]

I'd still like to know why MTL decided not to make a white train (Blue Unit) pie (diner) car. That in itself is a betrayal, since those of us spending all this money on these trains reasonable expected MTL would make a white pie car after it made a silver (Blue Unit) pie car.

I'm not 100% sure on this but did you ever think that for that era train, there wasn't a Pie Car in the consist. The blue train is not just the compliment to the red train but modeling a different era with different paint and lettering.

[Denver Road Doug]

While part of me agrees with some of the points here in respect that there is an issue with the couplers on these cars and that it should have been corrected, I would also say that there are solutions available to make this train run, and run well. 

We are model railroaders.  Use your skills, experiment, and use the solutions of others on forums such as these make your equipment run in the manner in which you would like.  If all you want to do is shake the box and put your trains on the layout without ever doing any work on your equipment, then I have other issues with you.

Of all the train shows that I have been at (mostly in the Midwest), I have never seen a train of these cars running on a layout with the exception of mine.  I guess part of me enjoys the fact that I have taken the time to correct the issues and have a rather unique train that not many others have.  Again, what I have done to the cars is not all that difficult, it just takes some creative solutions and a little time (both of which I find an enjoyable part of the hobby).

Nate, I completely agree that they can be made to run well.  And you may recall some discussions we had about these cars and I was fully planning to follow your lead with regards to the skirting and some of the other mods.   But I also have a pile of other projects, and these cars were not cheap to begin with, especially for ancient Con-Cor crap.   I guess I just felt like MTL was playing us a little by having us buy another set of truck from them, more couplers, etc.   There's no reason that--at the price point these cars were fetching--that we should be having to deal with the basics.   I took these to a buddy's layout to run and it was an embarassing failure and that was yet another slap in the face.  I just really felt like they put inferior parts on these for display use only, and when I heard that comment this morning, it seemed to validate that for me.  So I probably got a little too fired up about it.

Anyway, I'll concede that I should have tried harder to beat a good product out of Micro-Trains, and/or completely redo them.   

[CBQ Fan]

I have always found MT customer service to be excellent and I have always been completely satisfied with the resolution in my couple interactions.  Experience has shown me that should be the route before bringing it to the land of forums.

[tom mann]

Cool everything is taken care of so I'll lock this thread!

[John]

Good idea