I have 4 sets of these little jewels but am becoming dis-enchanted them 'em. Question, what's the secret on running them thru curves without them pullng off the tracks? I am about ready to dump them.
The secret is to replace them with Alan Curtis Spine Cars Seriously, those fuel foilers are a real mess all the way around. They ride WAY too high and, as you mentioned, they are a problem on the track. Russ
Sell em on E-bay to raise funds for AC spine cars. Thats what I did and I got good money for them. I think I got about 30.00 to 35.00 for each set. For their time the fuel foilers were untouchable but that was 15 years ago Alan is doing things much better and he just keeps coming up with new products while still producing all of his lines. My only other thought if you insist on keeping them is to put extra weight in your trailers and run them on the end of the train. Bryan
Years ago I ran 4 and 5 sets at a time on my layout. They ran perfect forwards and backwards through tight radius curves too. Don't get me wrong though, I did some work to them. Mostly was just cramming lead into wherever I could and clean up with a file. Not to difficult a task for the results I got! Gary
Nscale of Nevada once made a retro kit for these cars. Extra weight and other parts. My local hobby shop had one of these kits until just recently so some should be floating around somewhere.
I added weight to the center sill using moldable lead. The paint is typically heavy so clean out the tiny loops on the metal castings so that they pivot easily. Make sure the wheel sets are good. I would recommend Atlas metal wheel sets. Mine worked fine after doing the above.
