>> Armand Premo wrote
>> Which brings
up another issue.......................rolling quality.I would like to
hear what members of this list do in the
>> attempt to
standardize the rolling quality of their freight car fleet
.
No attempt to
"standardize". I simply roll test each car.
I have a sloped, straight test track, 12 feet long -- The first 4-5 feet
is a grade and from there it is flat runout.
I let the car go at the top and each 12" is marked off. If the car
doesn't make it to the 5 foot mark on its own,
then it's back to the workbench.
Tahoe equipped cars almost always make it to the 7-8 mark and many of
them go all the way (12 feet). They
are consistently better than other truck + wheelset
combinations.
The new Kadee HGC trucks are also reliable free runners, as are most
Proto 2000 trucks. I've had poor
results with Accurail trucks -- even with Reboxx wheels. Not all
"Delrin" is alike, it seems.
If you paint your wheels as I do, be careful not to paint the journals.
It will cause performance to degrade.
And if you paint or grit blast sideframes, do not paint the interior of
the journal boxes. Same thing -- paint
(and/or grit blasting) causes friction.
Tim O'Connor
