MTL Horse car 1/1/16!

[Joetrain59]

I assume 36" dia. wheels on this car? If so, I need to order some.
 Looks like Z905's might be an easy install, if they work OK on curves.
 Joe D

[jmlaboda]

Definitely 36" wheels.  Has been the standard for over a Century...

[Joetrain59]

Thanks Jerry. Just wanted confirm on that, as battery in my caliper went kaput.
 Joe D

 So, I'm looking at FVM 3601's, but BLW site, http://www.blwnscale.com/fvm-wheelsets.htm, says they will not fit MT passenger trucks. These are fine tread wheels. Is this true?

[reinhardtjh]

If I remember correctly, the 36" wheels hit the brake shoes on the MTL passenger trucks.  I think the solution was to bend them out a bit.

Found the thread:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=20925.msg194548#msg194548

Or apparently cut the brake shoes off.

[Mark5]

If I remember correctly, the 36" wheels hit the brake shoes on the MTL passenger trucks.  I think the solution was to bend them out a bit.

Found the thread:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=20925.msg194548#msg194548

Or apparently cut the brake shoes off.

Yeah only on the old 1970s Kadee/MTL passenger trucks with couplers.

The trucks on the MTL Heavyweights were tooled for and come with 36" wheels.

Mark

[reinhardtjh]

Make sense.  I think that old post was referring to the (then) current MTL 6-wheel trucks, not the current trucks on the new heavyweight models.  I would think the new MTL horse car should already have 36" wheels so @Joetrain59 shouldn't have to change them.

[Joetrain59]

Thanks Guys for that info. Just want to change over to metal wheeelsets.
 Joe D

[Sokramiketes]

Just to put this to bed, the official explanation from Ben at MTL, who talked to Joe, is that this car is a generic 70' car made to fit the series, and is most closest to a NYC car.  Since they are doing an NYC scheme, here's the proto photo that corresponds:





You can draw your own conclusions from there.  There was no comment about the previous comment regarding the car in AZ.

[arbomambo]

Pity,
it was 'mess up', plain and simple....
the ball was dropped somewhere along the line (none of their previous heavyweights have been a 'generic' car)
won't stop me from acquiring one, as the combination of length and end door makes it a perfect core car for certain 'end door' heavyweight baggage cars.
Bruce

[jmlaboda]

I'm glad to see that they went with a plain clerestory instead of trying to put a lot of vents on the thing... definitely adds to the generic feel of the car.

[thomasjmdavis]

the combination of length and end door makes it a perfect core car for certain 'end door' heavyweight baggage cars.

Yep, ironically, because they made a mistake, I will end up buying more cars to use for cores and kitbashes, than I would have had they done an exact model of the original car.  May play to our benefit, since once the WoT car comes out, these might go on sale in some places. 

They may have made a mistake on this one, and they may be having problems getting a single window coach out of the molds cleanly, but MT has produced a great series of heavyweight cars.  By rough count I have at least 27 in various styles (hope I am doing my part to support the effort), not counting troop cars.  And most are packed up to move in a couple weeks, so I may have missed one or two being used as cores, or some such.

[Joetrain59]

Popped the roof off mine to add some weight over the trucks. They have "glazing" inserts at the end of this car, but no end windows. Strange.
 Joe D

[peteski]

I suspect that the molds for this car are the universal set used by other HW cars from MT (which have end doors), or maybe that indicates that there will be other versions made later using these molds which will have end doors.