Large Scale Central

AMS Tank on Wood Flat

Reviews
#21

Jon,

do these trucks have a little angle piece attached to the bolster? these were addins that Accucraft added at some point to all there trucks but i think the tank cars were done before they started adding at the factory, and if you got a NOS one, which you probally did as the only rerun that i am aware of was the black conoco version. these angles straigtened out the sideframes so they could equalize and not bind on the axle ends. this might be all they need. Cliff has sent me a large bag of these a while back and i have gradually aplied to all my stock. sorry to here you are having so much trouble.

#22

Al, thanks. Yes they do have that angle piece.

Cliff asked me to return the warped truck for a replacement. I removed them from the car, then tested them by rolling fast through back-to-back switches. The one truck that is square makes it through either direction multiple times with no derailment. The one that is out of square (3 treads on track in a straight with no weight on the truck) derails every time. I’ll invest the buck or two to send it back and try again.

In case anyone gets the wrong idea, I’m not slamming AMS / Accucraft at all. Just the opposite. Cliff has been quick to respond and more than willing to help, as he was when I had a glitch in my LS Shay. This particular car has probably had a hard life being toted around from show to show.

I was also thinking that 1.575" may be too narrow back-to-back for Accucraft wheels because the flanges are thin. Whats everyone using for B-B on their AMS cars?

#23

I’m using 1.575" for everything. G1MRA’s standards call for 1.575" with even thinner flanges than Accu’s, which are typically around .090". I’d look at the flangeways and see if there’s a way to shim them a bit so the wheels don’t pick the frog. Check the distance from the outside edge of the guard rail to the point of the frog (check gauge). Make sure that’s greater than the distance from the fillet of one wheel to the back of the opposite wheel. It should be, unless the flangeways are really sloppy. (Some manufacturers’ switches…)

Later,

K

#24

I’m slowly converting my AMS rolling stock with Bronson-Tate bearing conversion kits.
http://www.bronson-tate.com/parts/accucraft.shtml

#25

My AMS box car could sure use that Rodney. It will sit still on a 3% grade :o

#26
Jon Radder said:
My AMS box car could sure use that Rodney. It will sit still on a 3% grade :o
Release the brakes!
#27
Jon Radder said:
My AMS box car could sure use that Rodney. It will sit still on a 3% grade :o
The freight and passenger car bearing kit that Doug's sells, started as another one of my idea.

Rodney

#28

So I got to thinking, which in itself can be very dangerous…

I have an AMS boxcar that tracks just fine. It has the same trucks and wheels, so troubleshooting by elimination is possible. I pulled both trucks from the tank and set them aside then I pulled both trucks/wheels from the box and installed them on the tank. With these trucks/wheels (that do not have the L bracket mod) the car tracks just fine through all of my switches, in either direction :smiley:

Now I need to swap back the original trucks and wheel sets one at a time until I can make it fail. I’m pretty sure I can guess at the result, but it will be nice to prove it.

#29
Jon Radder said:
Now I need to swap back the original trucks and wheel sets one at a time until I can make it fail. I'm pretty sure I can guess at the result, but it will be nice to prove it.
All this to prove the warped truck is causing the derailments.................. You should apply for a research grant :D Ralph
#30

It’s an excuse to run an engine back & forth on the indoor loop :smiley:

#31

Jon
First thing I do is cut down the springs that are that are on the bolster screw. On one end I cut just a little
off the spring and on the other I cut it till there is i little spring pressure holding the truck.
This will help it track better. On some cars I cut a coil or 2 off of all 4 truck springs also.
Rodney

#32
Jon Radder said:
Ric Golding said:
"And Ric Golding uses aftermarket wheels of some sort on his AMS flatcars to pretty good effect."

USA’s or Bachmann’s with axle tips ground down to fit the journal boxes.


Ric -

Do you use any type of bushing to increase the shaft diameter of the axles? USA wheels are a very sloppy fit in the journal brass.


Jon,

I didn’t, I drill out the trucks a little and packed them with white teflon grease.

#33

It’s raining again today, so I decided to spend some time working on the Troublesome Tank.

It runs perfectly using the trucks/wheels from my AMS box car. These trucks do not have the little L bracket to allow equalization. The box car trucks do have a lot of drag - the car will sit still on a 3% grade! While trying to figure out the drag issue with them I found that by loosening the side-frame screw that they ran much more freely.

Thinking what is good for the goose might be good for the gander; I loosened up the side frame screws on the trucks for the tank. As soon as I did I noticed that the warp went away; when at rest all 4 wheels touch the rail. This was encouraging, so I put the original trucks back on the tank and did a few test runs through some switches. BTW - I used a little of the Loctite Blue thread locker on the side frame screws to hold them in place.

At first I thought the problem was completely solved. When being pulled, the car now tracks through the switches without derailing. Unfortunately this isn’t the case when being shoved - especially on facing point switches. Looking closely at the derailing truck/wheels I noticed a very large amount of slop inside the gauge. I can get a diagonally opposing pair of wheels almost 1/8" off the rail-head when rotating the truck. The back-to-back spacing on both sets of trucks had been previously set using G1MRA specs.

As an experiment I’m going to try setting the wheels a little further apart. News at 11.

#34

I think I still have some of the little plastic spacers that Don Winter created to solve this problem. Should I send some your way?

#35

Sure - It’s worth a try. They go between the wheel and the truck?

Setting the B-B wider actually made it worse. I set one truck to my RR standard of 1.565" just for grins, but that didn’t help either.

#36

They snap in the bottom of the truck and act as a spacer. Now I’ll have to go find them. :o

#37

Thanks - And take a picture of a truck with them installed please 'cause I’m not understanding what they do.

#38

Well, crud. I have a whole bag of these…somewhere. I just can’t find them. I’ll keep looking, they have to be somewhere.

#39

Take your time Bruce. You’ll find them in the last place you would think of looking :smiley:

#40
Jon Radder said:
Take your time Bruce. You'll find them in the last place you would think of looking :D
If you find them in the last place you look, it makes sense that at that time you would keep looking, but you can prove us all wrong if you want to. ;-) Please stop looking after a couple of hours.