Re: Weekend Update 5/17/26

[samusi01]

About all that I did the last week was take a bunch of pictures of a railcar.

This is one of the few that shows more than a small fraction of the car.

[nkalanaga]

Bob:  It also depends on the pizza cutters.  The ancient Arnold/Rapido wheels wouldn't run on the early Railcraft code 55, much less code 40. 

Actually, my Arnold FA would RUN fine on the code 55.  It visibly bounced on the spikes, but it still ran better than some newer models.  Oddly, it managed to maintain contact, even though it doesn't have flywheels, so had to have at least one wheel on each side on the rail.

[robert3985]

Bob:  It also depends on the pizza cutters.  The ancient Arnold/Rapido wheels wouldn't run on the early Railcraft code 55, much less code 40. 

Actually, my Arnold FA would RUN fine on the code 55.  It visibly bounced on the spikes, but it still ran better than some newer models.  Oddly, it managed to maintain contact, even though it doesn't have flywheels, so had to have at least one wheel on each side on the rail.

Way back when, when my club decided to quit Ntrak and develop our own more realistic standards, I did extensive testing on every ancient brand of rolling stock that our extensive membership had collected specifically to see if there were going to be problems with those in the club who liked to run their European and Japanese trains, some of which definitely were "...ancient Arnold/Rapido" trains with extreme pizza cutters.

We also had interface modules which allowed us to run some of our modules in Ntrak setups in other States, with our Rail Craft (original tooling) Code55 and hand-laid Code55 PCB turnouts.  Both my testing, and having other modelers in other States run on our RC55 trackage revealed that there were ZERO problems with pizza cutters from any ancient brand, or not-so-ancient brand. 

I was the only one in the club who was running lo-pro's, creating my own N-scale RP-25 replica low-profile wheelsets using the Kadee 3-piece rib-backed wheelsets which I modified with my lathe.  Everybody else was running what would today be considered "pizza cutters" because they were all that was available, except for ultra-expensive NWSL low-pro wheelsets.

The club had a permanent location to set up in, and not once did anybody in the club have problems running any of their engines and cars on original Rail Craft Code55 flex, nor on hand-laid Code55 PCB turnouts.

Also, not once running in show setups in other States, were there any problems with anybody else having pizza cutter problems running on our Rail Craft Code55 trackage.  Not one time.  Never.

Additionally, I had hand-laid PCB Code40 trackage, and pizza cutters ran just fine on it.  Much to my regret, pizza cutters didn't run on Rail Craft Code40 flex.

So, I have serious doubts as to your contention that "...ancient Arnold/Rapido wheels wouldn't run on early Railcraft code 55...", because my early research, testing, direct experience and implementation tells me just the opposite.

However, sometime while Rail Craft was still Rail Craft, their original tooling started wearing out, creating excessive flash on their flex.  This continued after metamorphosing into Micro Engineering, and new tooling was created.  Unfortunately, the new tooling included larger and taller spikeheads which COULD have interfered with ancient Arnold/Rapido wheels.

I believe the new Micro Engineering company has created a third generation injection tool that may have reverted back to smaller spikeheads.  I haven't seen the latest offering yet (I don't have a need since I have a large stash of original Rail Craft Code55 and Code40) and, it may be a spurious rumor. If it's true, it's a good step towards improving their N-scale track products and getting back to their Rail Craft roots.

Photo (1) - Part of my Rail Craft Code55 stash:


Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[John]

About all that I did the last week was take a bunch of pictures of a railcar.

This is one of the few that shows more than a small fraction of the car.

Looks like a DOD car

[peteski]

Looks like a DOD car

Um, you mean DOW?   

[randgust]

DODX tank flat car.  6 axle.  All retired now.  Our local car shop did deck replacements for a while

[samusi01]

Looks like a DOD car

Probably started life back in June of '53 as USAX 38406, the museum has painted the DODX over and replaced it with 'USA'. When I spoke with the archive director he was only vaguely aware that the car was there and he lumped it in with the other military cars they have, which were ran in Europe. Magor built, riveted construction, as randgust notes all long since replaced by the FMC 40XXX cars, which are soon to be replaced themselves.

Autocorrect…

[nkalanaga]

Bob:  Mine may have been later track, as it was after we moved to Kentucky in 1978.  But the FA, and my Arnold GG-1, didn't like the spikes.  I have no idea where the GG-1 even is (it's somewhere here), but the stock FA still bounces.  Like I said, though, it runs very nicely, just looks funny.

And I also turned the flanges on my 3-piece KD/MT wheels, in my case by hand, with a Dremel.  Take them apart, stick each wheel on a custom-turned rod, and file away.  I had a lot of spare time at work in the late 80s, waiting for the computer to finish printing bank statement files.  I still have some of those wheels, under MOW cars, and they work fine.

[robert3985]

Bob:  Mine may have been later track, as it was after we moved to Kentucky in 1978.  But the FA, and my Arnold GG-1, didn't like the spikes.  I have no idea where the GG-1 even is (it's somewhere here), but the stock FA still bounces.  Like I said, though, it runs very nicely, just looks funny.

HAHAHA! I have an early Kato Blue-box F3A that did the same thing on the second-run ME Code40 flex!  Caused me to file down the inside spikeheads on a short section of UP center siding I've got on an adapter module.  I actually like the look of the filed-down spikeheads better than the outside spikeheads which remain original.  Luckily, it runs okay on original Rail Craft Code40 flex because of the much smaller spikeheads on that old track.

Photo (1) - Sanded down inside spikeheads on 2nd run Micro Engineering Code40 UP center siding on one my adapter modules:


Conveniently, this photo shows pretty graphically the difference in the size of original-run Rail Craft flex's spikeheads and their (as Micro Engineering) 2nd run spikehead size...which is evident in the photo because I used original Rail Craft Code55 for the two mainlines, and 2nd run Micro Engineering Code40 for the center siding trackage.

I posted this problem here at TRW years ago, and DKS promptly informed me that the 2nd run ME flex has much larger spikeheads than the original Rail Craft's.  I was highly disillusioned, and I immediately went to the big shipping tube my flex was stored in and segregated all of my original run Rail Craft flex from my 2nd run Micro Engineering bundles so I wouldn't mix them up again.  Luckily, I had only purchased one or two bundles of the 2nd run ME trackage.

And I also turned the flanges on my 3-piece KD/MT wheels, in my case by hand, with a Dremel.  Take them apart, stick each wheel on a custom-turned rod, and file away.  I had a lot of spare time at work in the late 80s, waiting for the computer to finish printing bank statement files.  I still have some of those wheels, under MOW cars, and they work fine.

I also have several cars that still run great wearing my turned-down Kadee lo-pros.  I had enough rolling stock that is was worth it to me to grind a dedicated tool and create both a mounting mandrel (for the chuck) and a retaining/keeper mandrel (for the tail stock) so it only took a couple of movements with my lathe to easily make as many virtually identical modified wheels as I wanted...without having to think about it much.

Now, I'm still in the relatively expensive process of replacing all of my freight car wheelsets with narrow low-pro metal wheelsets, while my not-yet-converted cars are still mostly equipped with plastic MTL lo-pro single-piece wheelsets with a few of my turned-down versions remaining in the mix.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Iain]

About all that I did the last week was take a bunch of pictures of a railcar.

This is one of the few that shows more than a small fraction of the car.

if you do these as kits i'd be interested; Beaufort and Morehead had a couple for MOW service.

[Dupesy]

DODX tank flat car.  6 axle.  All retired now.  Our local car shop did deck replacements for a while

MBTA has a couple similar cars still in commuter rail work train service.  I can't say if they're identical or not.

[randgust]

Those are generically referred to as the 53' Magor cars.   Not like the MT flats.   Not sure about the Deluxe Innovations one, Spookshows shot is too high an angle.   The riveted tapered sideframe is the spotting feature.   They were liquidated cheap after Vietnam and some are in museums.   My favorite one was STWX 1001, ex-DODX, (Struthers Wells) painted baby blue, they only had one of them for heavy heat exchanger moves.   I think it was scrapped when the plant closed.

Rapido makes them in HO.   As they tended to be one of those 'multiple car' applications for military trains up until about the 80's when they were replaced with longer cars, you'd think there would be an N market as well.....

I thought N Scale Kits did one, but guess not.

[samusi01]

Not sure about the Deluxe Innovations one

The DI car is the same as the MTL car, the early/mid 1980s FMC built cars that are currently used for armored vehicle transport.

Pullman-Standard also built some superficially similar cars that are in the 39000 series whereas the Magor flats were 38000 series. Both Magor and P-S built their cars in the early 1950s. At least one P-S car remains, and it'd be more challenging to model as it'll require custom designed trucks.

[Iain]

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This the same car?

Sorry for the photo quality, this was taken on one of those digital cameras that took floppy drives around 1999 or so.

[samusi01]

This the same car?

That’s one of the Magor built DODX née-USAX flats.