ScaleTrains GP40s are being shipped.

[Iain]

Oh, trust me, we are in communication. They are not taking me seriously.

-Mark

please make this review incredibly spicy.

[packers#1]

please make this review incredibly spicy.

I’m already getting my popcorn ready for when it’s published!

[GaryHinshaw]

It sure looks like the journal bearing is not centred on the wheel face:



The photo perspective may be affecting this slightly, but the truck frame is definitely lower than it should be.  Also, what's the deal with the "F" (front) marker on the sill?  It appears to be prototypical, but why did CNW make it so elongated?

[dem34]

Decided the gong bell didn't make them special enough.

[kiwi_bnsf]

It sure looks like the journal bearing is not centred on the wheel face:

The photo perspective may be affecting this slightly, but the truck frame is definitely lower than it should be.

@GaryHinshaw — I think you are on the money here. The truck side frame looks to be at an angle and sitting low, which is in turn causing the ATS shoe to foul below the top of the rail. You can also see that the copper axle pickup appears to be more visible on the affected side (meaning they are probably not held in tightly)…




Unfortunately, I have also encountered the same problem with truck side frames on later runs of the Scale Trains AC4400CWs and Dash 9s in N scale.

The frames have a noticeable droop towards the front axle. You can see the issue on my disassembled truck, and also on the Scale Trains hero images from their website (sorry: once you see it, you can't unseen it):










I had some communications with Scale Trains support, and they were aware of a mould ejection issue that was leading to the warping of the side frames. They were very helpful, and offered to swap or refund. However, given the efforts associated with shipping to New Zealand, I was not keen.

In the end (at the suggestion of Scale Trains support), I was able to re-move 95% of the warp by placing the truck side frame in just-boiled water, bending it, and then quenching it in cold water. The trucks must be a thermoplastic (like ABS) or some easily deformable Delrin.

I now can't visually see which ones were warped, so I'm happy.

I wonder if the same fix would apply to this GP30?

(Obviously this is not great from a QC perspective, and will not be an option that is acceptable to everyone, but I've lost track of how many N scale locos I've ended up modifying to get them to run properly — and this applies to many manufacturers)

Cheers

[GaryHinshaw]

Unfortunately, I have also encountered the same problem with truck side frames on later runs of the Scale Trains AC4400CWs and Dash 9s in N scale.

The frames have a noticeable droop towards the front axle. You can see the issue on my disassembled truck, and also on the Scale Trains hero images from their website (sorry: once you see it, you can't unseen it):

Wow, that's pretty awful.  This kind of thing triggers my OCD and reinforces my OG Kato Fanboy membership.   

(To be fair, the Kato SD70ACe had a similar truck tilt, due to the way the sprung axle cups were designed.  But the fix for that is straightforward.)

[spookshow]

Here's the underside of the offending truck. From this perspective it's super obvious that the plastic side frame with the shoe is much farther away from the wheels than on the other side, making the axle wiper very visible. The whole thing just looks warped and weird.



-Mark

[peteski]

I don't like where these new N scale mechanism designs are going.  They should have stuck with the proven Kato-like design. Not perfect but close. Better than the new Chinese-designed stuff.  This is yet another one (with similar design used in Atlas, Athearn and others) where instead of pointy axle ends and cups they have blunt axle ends going all the way through their bearings.

Also with centered gears the worm gear has straight molded teeth meshing with the worm. While it will take some time, that type of meshing will eventually wear the straight teeth unevenly. If they wanted the center gear design they should have at least used helical gears all around, but those are likely more difficult to mold. SO they took a shortcut.

[MRLX1020]

@GaryHinshaw   "Also, what's the deal with the "F" (front) marker on the sill?  It appears to be prototypical, but why did CNW make it so elongated?"

EMD had these cast and they were screwed to the sill of the locomotive.  I've also seen this style on F and SW units from that same era...

[spookshow]

I got my D&RGW GP40 today and so far it's running great, so I'm foreseeing a shell swap in my future. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any feedback at all on my trouble reports to scaletrains re the problematic C&NW trucks, so I have no idea where things stand on all that

-Mark