Group I'm having a trouble with these refer cars. I have some of the first release and a some of the second release. My problem is that when the cars take the curve I can hear rubbing of some kind. Not every car as I can tell but most of them. This is any curve. Has anyone experienced anything like this, If so what was the repair? Here are some facts that I learned about this train. 1. The cars are heavy and you need at lease two engines to pull a ten car train. 2. The BLMA wheel sets appear to have low frofile flanges (could this be why the derail easily?) 3. When the cars go into the curve (even the lights curve) you hear this rubbing sound. Are the wheels rubbing on the underframe? Any help/suggestions would help. The 4-H show is bit over a week away. Peace be with you, Arthur
Arthur, The wheels are likely rubbing on the underframe. You'll need a very thin washer. I've found the BLMA trucks tend to be tight and accordingly they don't roll all that freely. I have a procedure that any new BLMA car goes through before releasing to run: Make sure the wheels spin freely in the truck. If not, spread the truck a bit until they work correctly. (If you have replaced the wheelsets with, say, FVM, the tightness is even more apparent. The width of the BLMA is, according to my micrometer, about .537 as opposed to the FVM .540. It DOES make a difference. Make sure the trucks have some wobble to them. This is a long car and each truck needs to be able to flex enough to handle the track. Make sure the wheels don't contact the underframe. Shimming may be needed. After the first releases of the BLMA fine scale wheels, tolerances were loosened a bit. The first run trucks would find a problem where it didn't exist for any other cars... Good Luck!
Jim Thank you so much for this information. I will try as you suggested. I did find that some of the wheels were not free rolling as I examine the cars further. I will do the test. The wheels are the BLMA wheel sets. Thanks again. Art
