1. Home
  2. Model Railroad Forum
  3. Car Wobble Fix Tip

Car Wobble Fix Tip

I notice a product somewhere surfing around the net for these inserts that slip in to the screw hole in bolsters that have a tiny raised ridge. You mount one in one bolster so the ridge runs lengthwise with your car and the other widthwise. This gives you a three point mount for the trucks. Got me to thinking. I tried this out with a wood box car I built some time ago that wobbled a little. I just made slots in the bolster and epoxyed two short bits of brass wire in the slots for each bolster so they made a very slight ridge. What a difference. If you have a car that wobbles try this. Its cheap and easy and effective. You can always take the bolster down just a tad if you think the ridges make it ride too high. In my old car it actually made the coupler height come out perfect. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger
Loading thread data ...

Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

Reply to
Keith Norgrove

Keith, Those are the ones I saw. Thanks. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

I agree. Those things look ideal for this purpose. I wish I had seen them a while back.

All of my Atlas [HO scale] cars with the push pin design had a terrible wobble on the rails: for me it was unappealing. Their 3-bay and 6-bay cylindrical cars, their cabooses, their PS2 covered hoppers, and their older, 2-bay, coal hoppers all wobbled - and quite a bit. To fix the problem, I shaved off the plastic ridge on the under carriage of the car that surrounded the push pin once you removed the pin and the truck completely from the bottom of the car. I then placed a very thin, steel washer over the opening, and I used a #2 x 1/4" screw in place of the push pin. This make shift approach works perfectly on all of these designs. The screw allows for perfect adjustment to how much or how little wobble you care to have by simply tightening or loosening the screw. The two washers have the added benefit of increasing the car weight a litle bit [and in HO scale, that "little bit" is noticable when you free roll the car with a hand push]. If the washer can be seen, a dab of car body paint will easily disguise its presence.

Atlas certainly stretched the validity of r-t-r with all of those offerings. However, the paint quality, the lettering, and the rolling quality of their metals wheels is exquisite which is why I continued to purchase more of their cars. They also accept Kadee couplers w/ minimal effort.

Reply to
Matt & Kathleen Brennan

I just drill and tap them for a 2-56 screw. Worked on all the ones I had (the cylindricals and the kaolin cars, althoguh the first run had a larger push pin in it, so I used some round styrene rod and glued it in place so I could use a 2-56 screw.) I think they've since quit using that system and use screws now, at least on the newer stuff.

Reply to
me

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.