picked up a concor 85' crescent passenger car this weekend. first thing first. replaced rapido couplers with mt trucks and couplers, adjusted the couplers and trip pins them trimmed the trip pins. the !@#$% car derails to the inside on one frog with the trailing truck. nothing i can see wrong the turnout. runs fine (most of the time) with nothing behind it or only one car. put a string of cars behind it and 90% of the timre it jumps the frog. i picked this up to test longer cars before ballasting. i worked on this for 2 hours. someone tell me the secret. thanks david
----------------------------------------------------- oh, i forgot atlas code 80 flex with peco #6 insulfrog. david
Davido: I am not familiar with that. Probably could use shimming. With MT wheels, I would say that the guage of the wheels is correct. Maybe others can speak out here. Also, may be an earlier thread on this. No binding in the trucks on the king pins? I mean no binding at all. What is the track radius?
davido: I have a set of Con-Cor Crescent passenger cars. I changed the trucks to MT trucks and couplers as well. I had a similar problem and it isn't your track work. When you removed the shell of the passenger car to install your couplers, the problem with derailments occurs because the frame isn't properly seated on the shell. It might not be completely seating in one small section. Check that first. Also check that you properly seated and screwed the MT truck in position. The Con-Cor cars are a real pain in the and must constantly be adjusted. Stay cool and run steam...
I once had problems with many of my Con-Cor passenger cars. I solved it by selling them and buying Kato passenger cars! Couldn't be happier.
JimBeer: You had the right idea. The Southern Crescent set of passenger cars are the only Con-Cor cars I own. Due to the constant maintenance they are run infrequently. I also find that running two or three presents less problems than running the entire string. Stay cool and run steam....
I have about 200 Concor passenger cars and the only tracking problem I have ever had is from out-of-gauge wheels. Since you have replaced the trucks wth MTL, that shouldn't be a problem. Thus I would suspect the track. While Peco switches are great they are not perfect. Check the straight side with a straight edge, they tend to be bowed. It also could be that the tolerances in the switch and the truck are out just enough to cause this. Incidently, did you try the car in the other direction, if the same truck does it, than it is the truck/wheels. If it is always the rear truck I would say it is the switch. And for the record which car is this? The lightweight smooth side car, the Budd car or the heavyweight car. Concor has all three in Southern Crescent. Each style has their own problems
Larry: None of my other passenger cars, rolling stock and loco's derail. It isn't the track. Kato Unitrack is superb. The JJJ&E has been operational for 4+ years now. Stay cool and run steam....
I have a few concor budd passenger cars. I will try to make sure the shell and trucks are seated properly. Should help... Thanks..... Loco1999
hey guys, just getting settled back in from the trip to the rvia trade show in louisville, ky. thanks for all of the tips. 1. i did turn the car around thinking it might be just one trcuk, no such luck. 2. will check the turnout again, the car makes it thru all of the others on my layout. so frustrated i didn't think of turning the train around either. 3. i do not like the way the trucks fit the bolster on the body. upside down they turn 170 degrees. had the expert at lhs look at it, said that is the way it is. 4. i really want to run the crescent. if i could find the cars i would do an ic "city of miami" also. have the loco. 5. they do seem a little light and the weight of the rest of the train could be the problem. waiting on an e8. i am amazed my little ar cow (atsf, soon to be repainted to local fantasy swithcer) will pull 13 cars up a short 3% grade. 6. anyone else making the crescent green passenger cars? respectfully david
well, i gvie up. the con cor car just does not want to make the turn with the trailing truck. looks like my road will run the kato corrageted southern passenger cars instead of my beloved crescent. on the good side i now own a kato e8/9 southern. wow david
I had similar problems with my Con-Cor Bi-levels. I also replaced the trucks with MT's, but they still derailed like crazy. I solved the problem by weighting the heck out of them. I think at 1.25-1.5x the NMRA standard worked pretty well. The cars are light out of the box, but the weight seems to take care of the problem. A pack of fishing weights is a lot cheaper than a set of Kato passenger cars!
I totally disagree. I have over 30 Concor passenger cars, smooth sides as well as the Budds they run flawlessly. In your rush to MT everything you could geet your hands on, you threw the baby out with the bath water. Now here is what I did. First I used the Concor truck frames. I got rid of the Rapido coupler and the Concor wheel sets. Next I replaced the coupler with the Kato 11-702 coupler [10 pairs for $6.00] Then I replaced the wheelsets with IM 36" plastic wheels [100 sets for about $10-$12] (Do not use the IM 33" wheelsets as these are worse than the Concor wheelsets.) The result a smooth rolling car with semi automatic coupling. My cars will out roll a MT equiped car by at least 4 inches. And it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to convert them. They do not derail either. I have pushed and pulled them through Atlas No.4 switches as well as Peco short , medium and long turnouts. Some of the Peco turnouts do need a .01 shim on the guard rails but I thought this applied only to the code 80 not the code 55. another thing you might want to check is if there is any binding between cars. Running 85 foot cars through small radius curves produces excessive overhang. If the couplers are not extended far enough then the car ends will interfere with each other.
How do you keep the truck from unscrewing from the interior nut (the black tapped post)? I keep having that happen. I also noticed that a few cars are wobbling, but I think that is due to the truck being too loose. (If you tighten them all the way, the trucks won't pivot at all). My Con-cor's came with a dummy coupler (not a rapido). But I agree, the shell has to fit on the frame just right in order to run at all.
ok inkaneer, i'll try your fix. as for my peco #6 code 80 turnouts i have no other problem with any another car. if not in my last post i have added weights. the trailing truck wil make the turn 4 or 5 times, then it won't. i have pushed it thru many, many times. most of the time it wants to go straight, no binding. david
Did you replace the Con-Cor split kingpins when you converted? These are the bane of my consists, no matter what couplers/trucks I use. They worked well with rapidos; they don't work with with anything else. Car to car spacing is also an issue if your curves are tight,
------------------------------------------- pete, i did replace the king pins, 15" min rad for passenger service. it's just that one #6 (peco code 80) turnout that i have problems with. i have been running a 12 car mixed freight headded up with a kato e8 every day making laps thru the passing siding for an hour or so for two weeks , not one problem. that rear truck on the concor just wants to go straight insteading of diverging. thanks david
I don't know if this will help. Have you changed the wheels on the bad truck? I put atlas metal wheels on my buds and they are rolling pretty good now. Loco1999
