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slag42
USA
62 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2004 : 00:01:07
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I have recieved my first wheelsets to start converting my MTH cars to 2 Rail. Mike refuses to make anything compatible with anyone else. I think he hates scale modelers. MTH axles are shorter than anybody else's. MTH cars use needle point bearings and bronze bushings (this is a good thing). My question is does anybody have replacement wheelsets ? If not where can I get a flat end mill that size? Or a bevel bit to deepen the needle points?
Thanks
S. Corbin
$$C |
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Phil1361
USA
272 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 00:25:20
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Slag42,
Have you tried North West Shore Line. I called the up and gave them the directions for my MTH RailKing tender. They then sent me two different wheelsets to try on. One of them fit. I sent the other back and received a full set of wheelsets. I don't know who else to try unless you want to change the entire truck. What kind of car are you working on?
Happy Railroading
Phil |
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ctxm
304 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 00:36:42
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Hi S. Yeah, it seems like he does hate all modelers, he'll make a nice car but build it a foot too narrow or 5 feet too short, always something wrong that could be fixed with a little more care, now he's even trying to claim that he owns DCC although he's copied almost every car ever built by anyone else.
Have you tried NWSL for wheel sets, they make wheels for almost every project worth doing. Since I have a big box of athearn wheel sets I just use them for my 2 rail conversions and ream the plastic bearing inserts out a bit till they fit, I've got an old cone shaped reamer that matches the axel end angle. I'd recommend buying the correct replacements though if you don't already have some extra wheels, that way you can reverse the process if you ever decide to sell the car, I do too much to my cars to ever return them to 3 rail cars so the wheels don't matter to me.
Mikes attitude toward scale compatability is one reason why folks are reluctant to recommend 2 rail conversions on the MTH locos....dave
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jasoncdickie
52 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 04:50:58
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I've used InterMountain, Athearn, PSC and NWSL wheelsets. I've found that Atlas is the odd one out with long axles, followed by Lionel.
As Dave does, open out the plastic inserts a little for the cone ends on the wheelsets - I used a new countersink bit. The IM axles are a bit shorter than Athearn and I ease the plastic inserts out for a snug fit then put a drop of gap-filling superglue to lock them in place
Jason
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slag42
USA
62 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 16:18:59
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Thanks for the insight Guys
I can start to work now I think the countersink will do nicely for starters on a couple of the wheel sets (trucks)
Phil,
I have six slag cars, and four bottle cars, three crane cars, four passenger cars and three lionel slag cars for starters. The MTH slag cars are the beginning. Thanks again for the info.
Dave,
The DCC thing on Mikes part is so laughable it hurts. Mike is going have to sue NASA. WE used PCM telemetry back in the Sixties on missle development. servo feedback was invented back in WW-II by the US government. During the entire development of whatever Mike built
he was oblivious of what the DCC was on the market then or now. He had some winnies research the current patent office documents and found no out standing patents on certain DCC sections. They found
that "Back EMF speed control" was not currently patented so he pantened it. Now he claims he and his friends invented it.
The people at Goddard Spaceflight Center call it Servo feedback and have been using it for 40 + years. Teletype cooperation was using it on their syncronous motors back in the Thirties. I don't think the Little General's law suit is gonna fly!
Besides the first work DCC/CITT for model RRs I saw was by Mr. Guterrez from Texas instruments Inc. Back in the late seventies. PCM ( pulse code modulation )Telemetry started in the missle business at White Sands New Mexico way back in the fifties. The people in the patent office are overpaid bureaucrats, they are not too hot on history. You have to forgive me for the outbust about MTH above but I have been dying to say this to somebody since I first heard about his performance at a recent train show! I don't have to worry about a retraction because what I said is all true and documented!!Thanks for the input
Phil
thanks for the counter-sink idea it works!!!
S. Corbin
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Steven Rotenberg
495 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 21:34:18
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My current favorite MTH frustration was the relaese of the Cn Autotrain car carrier. The car is a CN prototype but to call the paint scheme autehentic, would be like calling an Acid trip lucid reality. Autotrain purchesed the cars from CN, but Cn never painted them like MTH did. I don't think CN painted anything like that, ever. I also agree he will make something and do it less than autheinticly , which means that it is unlikely anyone else will make it. Further, his cars are a bear to 2 rail, or repaint. I remove the trucks and use replacvement bolsters and trucks and NWSL wheelsets.
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Tom Thorpe
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 22:35:05
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Concerning MTH 70' Amfleet cars.
If you just hafta have the MTH Amfleet style 70' shorties behind your 2-rail Atlas Aem7 just call N.W.S.L.
They have done about 36 pair of them for us over the years.
Remove the detail parts, FedEx the trucks, they press out the three rail sets and press in their own two rail, super job-rolls great.
Atlas makes the best pass car but some guys want the Amfleet style cars.
TT
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Steven Rotenberg
495 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2004 : 23:12:07
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I'd love to get a 4 pack of amfleet 1 cars from my "maple leaf" butonly if they were scale length and had the proper gasketed windows
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Tom Thorpe
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2004 : 19:25:30
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I just sold a set of trade-in Amfleet scale length cars. Looked nice overall, wish Atlas would consider doing them along with a GG-1.
I believe they were made by Mac Shops of Florida.
Not sure of Mac Shops business status as of recent.
TT
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Lisa Marie Tahtaras
211 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2004 : 04:19:05
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Has anyone, made a set of scale Amafleet cars. I have not found any, that I trust to really be scale length. I am not saying they have not been made, I just don't know. Lionel and MTH don't seem to have a concept of the term "Scale". Some of the K-line 85 foot cars, are longer, than scale. Lionel, uses the expression, "Scale Size". I have found this only indicates, that the product, will look OK, with scale equipment. Maybe, the uniqueness of each railroads passenger cars, makes them to expensive to manufacture. 
Lisa Marie |
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Lisa Marie Tahtaras
211 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2004 : 04:32:41
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I have only two railed a couple of MTH cars. I did the Railking crane car. On that one, Intermountain wheel sets fit right in. On the GS4 tender I used K-line Wheel sets, that they sell for two railing their heavy weight passenger cars. The trucks with shorter axles are probably closer to scale, than the trucks that use longer axles. Intermountain, wheel sets, are less expensive, than NWSL sets. I am gradually replacing all of my plastic two rail wheel sets, with metal sets, because they are helpful, in keeping the track clean.
Lisa Marie |
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betsy662
1104 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2004 : 06:41:55
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Clark Benson made the full scale Amfleet cars, he's no longer with us, as he has gone onto his reward, but it wasn't all that long ago that he had made them, maybe in the mid 90's??????????
 We got winners, we got losers, we got chain smokers and boozers at the Sinkhole Lounge, http://www.kbdixon.com/gary/gary.htm
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az2rail
91 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2004 : 12:11:24
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I am currently converting 3 of MTH's airslides over to 2-rail. I'm adding Precision Scale bolsters to the bottom, and using Weaver trucks with 36" wheels Then add a styrene platform to mount Kadee's too. With a .030 shim every thing sits at the right height. Bruce
B. Hendrickson "The Southern Pacific will rise again!" |
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