i am having trouble trying to keep my athearn gunderson maxi iii well cars from derailing. Any suggestions on what i can do so that they stay on the track. 
athearn Maxi iii cars
- Thread starter CPRail
- Start date
I had the same problem with my Athern and Walthers Deep Wells. Both are very light, The Athern because they only use two small pieces of metal over the trucks, and the Walthers because I didn't want to glue the weight to the bottom.(Exposed framework)
What I did was glued weights to the floors of my containers. Nuts and pennies work good for this, or you can get the lead weights with the sticky backs from the Walthers catalog or your LHS might even have them. (Walthers 2004 Catalog, Pg. 956).
Just pick the containers that you keep on the bottom. I've found that weighted containers on top create a whole nother problem.
Hope this helps.
What I did was glued weights to the floors of my containers. Nuts and pennies work good for this, or you can get the lead weights with the sticky backs from the Walthers catalog or your LHS might even have them. (Walthers 2004 Catalog, Pg. 956).
Just pick the containers that you keep on the bottom. I've found that weighted containers on top create a whole nother problem.
Hope this helps.
Also be sure to check the wheel gauge-just in case..Ed has given you some very good advice on how to weigh these cars.
can't add much to 88's post but the weights can be found at auto stores stick on wheel weights for mag wheels also at golf shops they sell lead strips with stickey on back
Rather a moot point, but if you're running empty cars, try to put them at the end of a train, rather than the front or middle. That way, there won't be any heavier following cars to yank the empty ones off the track in curves, etc. I'm not completely sure, but I do beleive that even prototype railways do that...for the exact same reason.
If these are those multi-car units that use the common trucks between the cars, then you might want to use a small amout of lubricant on the plastic pins that join the units together. Just make sure that you use a lube that is safe for plastics. This will keep the units from pulling inward on curves due to tight connections.
Something else you might want to look into is metal wheels. They put a little more weight at the lowest point, and stay cleaner and overall just track better. I had the same tracking problems with the Athearn Impack cars, which are even lighter than the well cars. After putting Intermountain 22" metal wheels on them, I haven't had any problems with their staying on the track, even when empty! A friend at the local club reports the same success with his Athearn Impacks, so the metal wheels must help quite a bit. Put some weighted contaners on them as well, and you shouldn't have any tracking problems.
thanks for the tips, my layout has some pretty tight curves (24") The maxi iii always derail anywhere, not just on the curves ( i have good track work) they tend 2 bounce up. When i put some weight in the bottom of the cars, they still came of the track.
Here is part of my layout, surpringly they don't derail here
Here is part of my layout, surpringly they don't derail here
adding metal wheels will probibly help. i am pretty sure that the ends are 33" wheels and the middle trucks have 36"wheels.
also, check that the trucks are not too tight and as ren451 said, add a tiny bit of lube to the joints between cars.
also, check that the trucks are not too tight and as ren451 said, add a tiny bit of lube to the joints between cars.
Hi SD90, yeah the railfaning is pretty good here. Stucky said that Brandon's yard was one of the best yards on the Canadian Pacific. He isn't lieing either, brandon had a huge yard (now downsized) can handle alot of trains. The locomotive storage area is about 5 tracks and can handle a number of locomotives. The locomotives we see out here are SD90MAC, SD40-2, SD40-2F, AC4400CW, GP38-2. We also get 2 see a large mix different railroad motive power, including Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe. 1st street goes right over the yard, so you can get some nice views of the trains coming in on the mainline, in both directions, and also you can see some neat switching down by the yard crew. When you pass through Brandon again i could tell u some more about the prairie sub-divisions from Winnipeg all the way 2 Boardview. Did you know that this area use 2 have helpers in both directions going out of Brandon. You know the mountians are not the only place for heavy grades!!
I am not sure of the grades, all i know is that u can really hear the locomotives when they start out in both directions. Also brandon has alot of industrial area with modeling potenial. There is a big fertilizer plant here that has several tracks going in and out of it, it even has its own switchers. Also Canadian National has a small yard in brandon two.
Getting back 2 the Canadian Pacific, the yard use 2 have a large 30 stall roundhouse, and small car mantence facilities. Back in the time of steam, there use to be 3 switchers always workin the brandon yard. Some switchers included big 0-8-0s and 2-8-0s, and in the winter time the sometimes the switchers would have to give the mainline freights a running shove, to help get them started. If the train was a heavy grain train then the switcher/helper would push the train out 2 Sydney or Macgregor going to the east. Then the helper/switcher would return tie onto another train heading to brandon going west. Going out of brandon to the west the CPR crews just tied on an extra locomotive for a round trip to boardview and back to Brandon. With different trains usually.
Getting back 2 the Canadian Pacific, the yard use 2 have a large 30 stall roundhouse, and small car mantence facilities. Back in the time of steam, there use to be 3 switchers always workin the brandon yard. Some switchers included big 0-8-0s and 2-8-0s, and in the winter time the sometimes the switchers would have to give the mainline freights a running shove, to help get them started. If the train was a heavy grain train then the switcher/helper would push the train out 2 Sydney or Macgregor going to the east. Then the helper/switcher would return tie onto another train heading to brandon going west. Going out of brandon to the west the CPR crews just tied on an extra locomotive for a round trip to boardview and back to Brandon. With different trains usually.