You guys must be blind. Nobody has mentioned the painted bearing caps and stenciling on the trucks. Painted trucks on this model are a first for N scale I believe.
Whoever maintains one of mine has been sampling the beer. It definately won't cool the box very well. Opened the box and the first one on top the refredgeration unit is upside down, NO big deal just amusing.
Just glad I didnt find a small parts packet of refrigeration unit parts to assemble, the spine cars drove me nuts.
If everything is scaled down 160 times then these things must operate at a temperature close to absolute zero.
As others suggested, after filling the fuel tanks and setting the temp controls, the air conditioning units seem to run fine. Almost too well. They are just so quiet - darn near silent. Guess its my ears. The brake system is giving me problems however. What P.S.I. do you guys usually keep your train's systems at?
Stupid Trinity Reefer question - but in prototype application, are the refrigeration units all oriented the same way on the train, or does it not matter?
I think it is important to welcome Trinity Reefers of all orientations in our trains - left or right tanked. The ones I have purchased all arrive left tanked in their boxes. Does one have to special order them with the tanks on the right?
What are you trying to tell us, George? Mine were/are a bit stiff out of the box; not horrible but hardly super rollers. I had an email from someone who asked essentially the same question, said his were really tight. I happen to be on vacation at the moment so can't go to the basement and research, but I know BLMA's stand alone trucks are excellent, and I'm assuming those are BLMA trucks under there... I recall being a bit surprised they were not more free rolling. But a pair of ACes easily took my 24 around the Sub...
I'm the guy that e-mailed Jim. I got all 24 and they would not roll out of the box. Put them on the track, attached 8- 57' Red Caboose Reefers, and hooked up 3 Kato SD70 Aces. No go. I then worked all the trucks over, prying each truck away from the wheels and they rolled better--however, still takes 6 Aces to pull them up my 2% grade with a U in it. (I should mention that the Aces are brand new so may need some braking in also). My normal train is 35-40 50'+ cars and 3 Kato SD 70 Macs will pull them up with no slipping. I think the metal wheels don't fit the BLMA trucks very well. I believe these have the same trucks that the BLMA hoppers had, however, the hoppers had MT wheels (I think). I put MT wheels in one of my reefers and it rolled very good, just like the hopper. Plan to run them for a while and see if the running not only improves the reefers but also the engines. My experience--your's may be different. I believe these are the one of the best if not the best cars to date I have in my collection. I just hope I don't have to replace all the wheels. I love the wheels so don't want to change them out if I don't have to. I guess a nice reason to model modern is you just keep adding horsepower until it works!!! I believe Craig will address this issue on the next run.
I noticed they aren't very free rolling as well. I only have 2, and I'll only run 1 in a 5-6 car train so it doesn't affect me at all. But I could see how stringing 24 together could cause issues. A positive from this should be reduced slinky effect, correct?
Ahh, ain't forums great? A few posters don't bother reading the original post that is clearly tongue-in-cheek, and now have hijacked the topic with an apparently real issue that should have had its own stand-alone topic started. Next up? Complaining because nobody responds from the manufacturer. Awesome!
My cars came in yesterday! Bought 4 of 'em. Serious reply to this thread: - Rolling: Not bad, but not nearly as awesome as the spine cars coast. - Cars could use a little more weight. Even my 57' reefers weigh a little heavier. However, I've put the BLMA cars on the front of the train and had no problems at any speed (even full throttile), and I even have a 3% grade on my layout. - Cars are a bit of a problem to put on the track, probably due to their low height - Which is a GOOD problem to have! I actually have to whip out the Rix Rerailer for these. - My biggest beef are the couplers. No, not the fact they're body-mounted (I LOVE THAT!) but that they seem kinda "sticky" and have been de-coupling at times (especially after going forward after backing up). Maybe some Kadee Grease-Em graphite might help, but I need to guide both couplers with a stick/toothpick just to get them to couple.
Haha. Anyway, I watched some prototype videos of the cars on ChooChooTube and it looks like it doesn't matter which side the refig units are.
The trucks under the Reefers are the same as our PS-4000's and one pair packs (#9005). For some reason, the Reefers have a little drag and it's simply due to this production being a few thousandths different than the other production runs. I have noted the drag issue with our factory and expect the second run (and any of our products) to roll with ease. The simple solution is to remove the wheel sets, spread the sideframes apart gently and re-position the wheels. This should eliminate most of the resistance. That said, I ran 36 Reefers right out of the box two weeks ago at the East Valley Lines club in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, with no problems over grades and through various S curves, etc. Stay tuned as I'll have the video from this day posted in the next week or two... Thanks for the support everyone!
Doesn't matter... even in unit train operation. The doors are centered between the couplers, not the body of the car.
