I'm now the lucky owner of two sets of Kato CSX bethgons. Unfortunately (but as I was expecting, since it's a known issue), the one coupled to the locomotive tends to derail on curves. The Kato couplers have too much tension/not enough give, and the lead truck gets pushed off the rails by the locomotive coupler. Replacing the Kato trucks with MT 1035s solves the issue. However, I was hoping to replace the plastic MT wheels with the nice metal wheels from the Kato trucks, but no. The Kato axles are wider than the MT axles, so they don't fit properly into the MT trucks :angry:
is possible to make one car a transition car by body mounting the 1035 to one end of one car? that way you keep the truck with the metal wheels and all the other cars remain original.
Yes, but I'm pathological when it comes to things like that. It would bug me to no end if one car had a different set of trucks from all the others.
Chris just wondering...what radius curve is this happening on? thanks! respectfully Gary L Lake Dillensnyder
I have used a few other ore hoppers with truck mounted couplers in front the Kato BethGons and have had no issues on 11" radii. Add a few MY or Atlas cars between the locomotive and the Bethgons and you will have no problems.
Can you ream out some plastic from the insides of the journals on the MT trucks so the Kato axles will fit?
no i mean you keep the kato truck but remove the coupler. and mount the 1035 from the mt truck on to the body just at one end. that would be your transition car. this way all your cars will have the kato trucks.
I just use a couple of LBF or Hubert or DI cars between the engine and the Kato cars and don't have any issue running long strings of 80 plus cars.
Yeah, I tried that and it works fine. I just don't like how it puts a blight on the look of my unit coal train. 16 gleaming (for now) bethgons, plus one odd man out. Hmmm.
Along those lines, I was thinking of body mounting 2003s after clipping the couplers off the Kato trucks. But I would still have to do it for all of them (because that's just how I am) and that would mean assembling 32 2003s. Yuck. I guess I can live with the plastic trucks, and one upside is that I wouldn't have to worry about whether the return loop on my (yet to be built) layout is big enough to fit an entire train of metal-wheeled cars.
chris i was a sold a 20 pack of m/t's with pizza cutter wheels! man i was PO'ed well needless to say i did the same thing i took my NS bethgon wheels and reemed a m/t truck to fit them. no more derails and it dont look to bad
That's prototype. They come in grey, black, bare aluminum. Mix 'em up. [video=youtube;k6I6EPqLlwg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6I6EPqLlwg[/video]
The metal wheels shouldn't cause any issues with a return loop. Also the MT 1035 truck is a 70 ton truck, not a 100 ton that should be under the car. As for the cars, I know in BN, there isn't much of a difference between the DI, LBF and E&C cars to Kato. So I run them all together.
I had read that cars with metal wheels can cause a short on DCC wired layouts if the return loop isn't long enough to fit the whole train (http://www.thewhistlepost.com/forums/n-scale/11620-wiring-reverse-loop-dcc-n-scale.html#post89925) Argh!
Get the Atlas Accumate trucks. They have a correct 100 ton truck. The Kato wheels may even fit. I don't know if they will or not but if not there are metal wheels available that will fit. You could even swap out the Accumate coupler for an MT but with only 16 cars the Accumate should hold. I would like to add here that consistency goes a long way in N scale. Standardizing on one coupler, one type of wheel set, etc. adds a lot to reliable operation.
This is only a factor with cars that have metal wheels with pickups and bus strips like the Kato Passenger cars. I have outfitted hundreds of box cars and other rolling stock with metal wheels and never had an issue. Only when a Kato passenger car stops and straddles the return loop boundary is there ever an issue.
I had the exact same issue with a batch of Atlas coal hoppers. Changing the first car to body mount solved all the issues. Hard part is they all look alike so it is hard to make sure I have the right car at the head end of the train. I need to graffiti it or something. Other than that it is impossible to tell by looking unless you turn it upside down.
Heck yes, mix 'em up! Even back in steam days, the C&O hauled coal to Presque Isle and Toledo for N&W, Virginian and Clinchfield. A lot of people don't really understand that rolling stock interchange between railroads is the norm, not the exception. They were actually designed to facilitate easy and large scale interchange traffic. My 2 cents...:cute:
