Well my first passenger cars arrived back on the 31st, and I had my first chance to open and run them last night. Of the 4 that I opened, 3 had trucks that fell to the floor the moment I lifted the cars out of the packaging. On the tracks, the cars lean and wobble horribly. I read that on larger cars you need a 3-point suspension that means one truck will allow the car to sway. I figured slightly, but this is crazy. My observation car wobbles horrendously even on the straights. On the curves some lean as far as 30 - 35 degrees outward. When they are sitting by themselves on the tracks I can use a finger to cause them to lean side to side 30 degrees. As these are my first passenger cars I thought I would ask if this is normal??? If not, how do I shim up where the trucks connect to the frame to take out this looseness. On another note, these are the IHC Heavyweight Passenger Cars. The appearance is great and they track extremely well. In fact, I was running them on 18" radius last night with no derailments (though they did look funny). I am reluctant to do much to take out the sway only to find out the cars can no longer track on some of my tighter radius curves. Thanks in advance for any help,
You really don't want to shim them, that would affect the coupler mating. The problem with IHC and Rivorossi cars is that they use a friction pin to hold the trucks in place. These tend to pop out and don't hold the trucks firmly. You may want to replace the pin with a screw and nut arangement. That way you could adjust the tightness. Also, there was an article in the near past (MRR or RMC) where someone did some modifications on a IHC passenger car. They did something with the trucks and how they are attached but I don't remember exactly what. You might check that out.
I'm going to to disagree with this Curve thing and athearn cars. Not only Athearn will work on a less than 30" turn. I have 13 Athearns that will run along 18" curves Plus the 85 ConCor Car on the end with any troubles, anlong with My Proto 2000 E7s and E8 or SDs or 4-8-4s or 2-8-8-2 or anything else I put on the head end, If the track work is done right, IHC should have no trouble running a 22" curve, Olny thing is they Hamh over the track inthe curve so far, looks pretty Unreal.
Almost all the manufacturers have chosen to make their cars and engines to negotiate an 18" radius, simply because when HO started out in the 1930's, the 18" radius was the only one available where it had been used in Europe. Flex track wasn't even made. If they make the cars the full scale length, then the trucks and couplers have to swing way out of scale to remain together. We have come to live with it. A few years ago, a "Design for Assembly" edict was handed down to the manufacturing industry to allow for robotic assembly of products as part of cutting the cost of assembling all American products. If it took a man to put in a screw, then we were to design the assembly to eliminate the man, and allow a robot to press in a plastic pin, to 'snap' the two items together. It spread over the world. Central Valley came up with an idea to use a ball and socket as the pivot to snap the trucks in place, which allowed them to rotate, as well as ossilate for unlevel track. Some manufacturers now press a plastic pin through the truck into the car underframe to mount the trucks. The use of a washer must not be between the truck and car, or indeed it will raise the car. To make your Ready-to-run cars, ready to run: yes, do use a three point suspension. Snug up the pivot on one truck so it will swivel freely, but has almost no slack side to side for tilt. Loosen the pin or screw on the other truck so the truck can ossilate (tilt) only as much as is needed to follow your worst piece of track. Of course this assumes your wheels are round, with no flash, and will spin true to center. Also, do not leave your cars with plastic wheels sitting on a flat surface very long or the flanges will flatten, causing the car to lope along or derail. If your cars lean over on a curve, you are going too fast and you may not have elevated curves. Keep in mind that most engines, especially diesels will run about a scale 250 miles an hour wide open, and an 18" radius is not even used in real life except for trolly cars. So of course they will derail! That's like trying to go around a city street corner at 100 miles an hour! Even the 30" radius curve mentioned is sharper than the minimum 20 degree curve in real life, which would be about 54" radius in HO. In real life the coupler on a freight car is designed to swing 9 degrees to either side on a 40 foot car length. A passenger coupler must swing 11 degrees for a 65 foot length. We just have to give up some realism because of the only space we have to enjoy our trains in. It doesn't hurt so bad when you understand how it is, see?
Not very scientific but when I use to have IHCs,I used cotton fibers from Q-tips or cotton balls to snug up those D---trucks.
