Anybody come up w/ improving Lowell Smith cars?

[OldEastRR]

i mean other than putting the right color (KATO) trucks on them, or modifying the skirts, ort adding Easy-Peasy lighting kits (I know how to do all that).  Obviously rearranging the interiors to prototypes ... what am I missing?

[btrain]

I’ve had mixed luck with his cars. The smooth side baggage car I have glides along, no problem, but the two of his fluted Pullman coaches I own, give me constant grief and were under weight.

[thomasjmdavis]

The couple observations I have comparing my recently delivered Railsmith "12-4"/10-6 to an original issue Walthers 10-6.

The weight is identical- 1.5 ounces. I also weighed a random Kato coach (streamline 44 seat) and it weighed in at 1.3. So Lowell seems to be in line with "industry practice". One other thing I did notice in weighing the cars- the Walthers and Railsmith cars stayed put on the scale, while the Kato car wanted to roll off- which indicates to me that the Kato is more free rolling, at least on a glass topped kitchen scale.

The Railsmith has a coupler that looks the same as Walthers- an 'Accumate" (I think) or clone, but is much stiffer than the one on the original Walthers car, which itself is stiffer than a MTL coupler.  Granted, it is an older car that has run on a layout, but it's run time was extremely limited, and it has lived almost all its life as a "shelf queen." I had some issues with the Walthers cars generally on curves on my last layout (15" min radius), while Kato cars rolled through the same curves with no issues whatsoever, so I am inclined to think that the stiffer couplers, less free rolling wheels, and maybe the rigid diaphragm (the cars do couple close) combined to cause the problems.

The molding on the trucks on the Railsmith was a bit cleaner than the Walthers car I compared to- so he may have re-tooled (or the Chinese manufacturer of the trucks may have re-tooled). Both are the same almost generic inside swing hanger truck that is usually identified as a GSC-41-N. I will defer to the UP and Wabash experts, but I think the 12-4's were probably delivered with a 41-CS-11 or 41-CUS-11, which were somewhat similar later developments.

My intention if I ever get around to it (not much point in investing hundreds of dollars in upgrading stand in cars until there is a layout to run them on) is to replace the trucks with Kato's and see if that makes a difference. Since we are talking about it, I may do one car, and do some testing.




 

[nkalanaga]

I have quite a few Railsmith cars, and most of mine roll as well as the Kato cars.  My minimum radius is 17 inches, on one curve, with everything else being 18 or larger, so that might be a factor.

The diaphragms haven't been a problem, as all of my Kato, Walthers, and old ConCor cars also have rigid diaphragms, and couple at similar distances.  The Kato, Walthers, and Railsmith couplers also work well with body-mounted 1015s on the ConCor cars, although one might want to use 1016s for even better results. 

The couplers don't seem to be much, if any, stiffer than the Kato couplers, but they are different, so might be a factor on some layouts.  If one switches their passenger trains, coupler type may be another matter.  Mine just run, staging to staging, with any rearranging done by hand.

My main issue with the trucks is that many of the NP/GN cars were delivered with disc brakes, so I need to cut the brake shoes off!  Not hard to do.  They should also have a different style truck, but that isn't commonly available, so I'll run what I have.

[altohorn25]

A few thoughts:

-Put a drop of oil in journal boxes just like the real railroads did (between the brass pickups and the needle of the axle).  I've found this dramatically improves the rolling qualities of the trucks

-the "accumate" clone couplers are garbage.  These are my biggest gripe about the trucks.  I'm constantly tweeking the height by bending the piece that mounts the coupler to the truck.  I've often thought about cutting them off and body mounting MT 1015's to the cars.......grrrrr.......

-I've been carefully cutting off the very top of the brake cylinder so that it is flush with the top of the truck frame so that it doesn't impeed the swivel of the trucks on uneven track.  Again, this has dramatically improved the tracking qualities of the cars as a whole.

Those are my fixes.  I have probably 30 or so of his cars now and I've done this to all of them.  I have no trouble running them on either the Modutrak layout or any of the  N scale FreeMon layouts that I've run the cars on.  Haven't tried them on Ntrak or Ttrak since I don't run on those type of layouts anymore.

No trouble on my home layout either (Atlas code 55 - minimum 22" radius or so).

[thomasjmdavis]

-I've been carefully cutting off the very top of the brake cylinder so that it is flush with the top of the truck frame so that it doesn't impeed the swivel of the trucks on uneven track.  Again, this has dramatically improved the tracking qualities of the cars as a whole.

Thanks Nate- that was something I had not thought of. I will also take a look at some other cars I have with various tracking issues- this might be a fix for some of those as well.

[nkalanaga]

Oddly I've never had any problems with the trucks or couplers.  I don't have perfect track, but apparently have different imperfections than others here.

As for the oil, Walthers actually called for oiling the trucks, in an instruction sheet included with their cars.  Railsmith doesn't have that sheet, but it couldn't hurt.  I don't know that they'll roll any better, as mine roll fine, but they'll probably last longer if used regularly.  It seems that the Kato cars would need the same treatment.

[CBQ Fan]

A few thoughts:

-Put a drop of oil in journal boxes just like the real railroads did (between the brass pickups and the needle of the axle).  I've found this dramatically improves the rolling qualities of the trucks

-the "accumate" clone couplers are garbage.  These are my biggest gripe about the trucks.  I'm constantly tweeking the height by bending the piece that mounts the coupler to the truck.  I've often thought about cutting them off and body mounting MT 1015's to the cars.......grrrrr.......

-I've been carefully cutting off the very top of the brake cylinder so that it is flush with the top of the truck frame so that it doesn't impeed the swivel of the trucks on uneven track.  Again, this has dramatically improved the tracking qualities of the cars as a whole.

Those are my fixes.  I have probably 30 or so of his cars now and I've done this to all of them.  I have no trouble running them on either the Modutrak layout or any of the  N scale FreeMon layouts that I've run the cars on.  Haven't tried them on Ntrak or Ttrak since I don't run on those type of layouts anymore.

No trouble on my home layout either (Atlas code 55 - minimum 22" radius or so).

I haven’t tried the oil, but my experience otherwise mirrors yours including fixes.  I am not sure of my total car count but I have GN, NP, SPS, RI, SP & IC plus a bunch of misc other cars.