B&O Caboose and 3rd Rail Wheels with Scaletrax Switches

I had problems with the couplers today. They are real tight when coupled to some of my other rolling stock.

 

These are really works of art. Scott hit another home run with these babies! The detail is just great.

 

Bill Cavanaugh

Hi Bill, yes my couplers are very tight as well and practically speakimg can't be opened without removing the car from the track.

Jeff, I'm sure that Scott will address this coupler issue. I have a lot of his rolling stock and this is the first product with a coupler problem. I'll send him a email today to inform him of this problem. The problem appears to be that the cam that is internal to the coupler is too big and sticks out, interfereing with the mating coupler. Is that the same on yours?

 

But........They are just BEAUTIFUL cars!!!!

 

Bill

Received my B&O cabooses this afternoon and they are beautiful.  Wow!  They're my first brass cabooses.  I run on RealTrax and the one caboose I ran seemed to track well.  My switches although made by MTH are not indented at the switchpoint like on ScaleTrax switches. 

 

The couplers are tight.  I applied a little light oil and that seemed to help a bit, but they are still pretty tight.  I am hoping that over time they may loosen up a bit.  I didn't pay attention to the make of car that I mated it up with at the end of the train (I believe it was an old K-Line hopper).  It coupled up, but there was vitually no play between the couplers.  In the limited time I ran the train I did not detect any operational problems regarding the couplers performance.  Need to do some more running with cars from some of the different manufactures.  Overall, I'm very pleased with the fit and finish of both cabooses.  Bo   

 

Please visit my website Bo's Trains at http://www.bostrains.com     

It may be that the 3rd rail wheels have a slightly narrower tread or a slightly rounded wheel face which would cause them to drop into that wider area. Had a similar problem with some Weaver trucks years ago where the wheels were set too far in -- they'd either pick the guard rails and bounce or the backs of the wheels would pick the open point.

Hi Matt, yes, the 3rd Rail wheels are slightly narrower.  From the outer end of one wheel to the outer end of the opposite wheel, they are about 1 and 7/16 inches across, versus 1.5 inches for the more common 3 rail wheelset like on mth and lionel.  

 

It is the wheels themselves that are narrower, the space between the inner surface of one flange to the inner surface of the other flange seems to be pretty much the same compared to the mth/lionel wheel sets.

 

This situation is just one of those flukey things.  The wheels are just narrow enough and certain MTH scaltrax switches have just enough space that the wheels fall in.  It isn't even every switch.  Its a shame too because the 3rd Rail wheels are really nice wheels.  

 

 

Hi Bill,

 

Yes, I see what you mean about the part on the inside of the coupler.  That doesn't seem to be causing me any trouble, but I haven't tried it behind a variety of different cars yet.  

 

More so what I don't like is that the couplers are very tight and you have to use so much force on the mechanism to open it that it may as well be a permanently closed coupler.  It looks like the couplers were really meant for a different truck, since they have a centering cavity, whereas the truck does not have the corresponding lobe to fit the cavity (it is just flat).  So the coupler arms need to be screwed in pretty tight to keep it in place.  I will try simply loosening the sprung coupler screw, which should loosen the coupler arm and probably free up the uncoupling mechanism too.  However, I think this might cause the coupler arms to sag down too low.

 

In any event, this isn't a huge issue for me since I don't care too much about needing the coupler to uncouple automatically for the most part, and finding an authentic looking B&O caboose is not easy.  For me it is worth the tradeoff, and this seems to be just one of those kinds of things that come up with limited run brass stuff.

 

While I don't have any advice to give regarding the original post, the caboose really turned out nice!

 

Wish I could have afforded to pre-order one, but, I tied up my money with the T-3 engine (still love the enormous Vandy tender) and the Columbian passenger car pre-order. 

 

Jim

Jeff

 

I have run several Atlas and MTH 2 rail freight cars on a large ScaleTrax layout without the problem you are experiencing.  

 

As you put it "this seems to be just one of those kinds of things that come up with limited run brass stuff."

My new Sunset/3rd Rail C&O steel side caboose runs just fine on my Atlas O layout. I can't speak to the coupler issue, as the first thing I did was remove the lobster claws and up-grade to Kadee couplers.

Good input guys. I will discuss it with the factory. Seems that either track requirements are changing or wheel profiles are changing at this factory. It is difficult to know. We use Lionel Tubular track and switches for all testing purposes at the factories, as it is the most difficult track to traverse, with huge frogs and gaps, it usually shows any problems with wheels or gauge.

 

I was shown that a very difficult piece to traverse was a 30 degree cross over. Most manufacturers short on these, but for some reason ours did not. There are so many different tracks out there, it is hard to know which one to design for.

 

As for the coupler, I will look into a fix to loosen it up. Maybe just some touch up work is needed with a file, or a weaker spring on the locking device or back to the factory for a replacement. It is likely we will not use this factory again for brass cars since they have priced themselves out of the market, so don't look for a repeat production or a repeat of these problems.

 

Regards,

 

Scott Mann

Hello Scott Mann........

 

does your company make a brass "santa fe" off-set caboose ? I would like to add that behind my #5021 SMILE.  If the wheel sets are the problem, i can replace them with the lionel type wheels myself as i have a handful of them at home (i can fix couplers too).

 

the woman who loves toy trains

Tiffany

 

Interesting.  In the thread I linked to in the original post, I show that I converted a Division Point 2 rail caboose to 3rail.  The reason I had to change the wheels is because the two rail wheels derailed on all my MCH scaletrax switches.  That was my only experience with 2 rail wheels on scaletrax. Good to know atlas 2 rail and mth 2 rail work better on scaletrax.  I think though that I am a very long way from going that route, I barely have time tbe work on my layout.

Scott, thanks for replying.  Your involvement on the forum is great.  Much appreciated.