2-railing some Atlas 3-rail trucks

[bobcom52]

Hi, don't know how others do it but I came up with this idea the other day.
I have a couple of Atlas 3-rail trucks from under their iron ore hoppers.
I believe I can make use of them under a scratchbuilt NSWGR wagon at some point in the future.
I had some NMRA standard wheels in stock ( Atlas 2-rail).

I opened the holes out a little with a triangular file of suitable size then held the wheelsets in with pins inserted into holes drilled with a 0.7mm drill bit.

P1010344s.JPG (158.31 KiB) Viewed 3822 times

They run very nicely and the pins are hard to see when running, should be all but invisible when painted.
cheers
Bob Comerford

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

Bob,

Did you use a pin-vise or a motor tool (Dremel)?

I put some 2-rail in the trucks you and Brian sent and they are a bit tight. They turn by hand but I don't think they will when on the track. Being they're 1-piece trucks more or less the sideframes would be hard to drill to deepen/enlarge the holes for the axles. I do have a 90 degree adapter for my Dremel which may enable me to attempt the mod.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Being they're 1-piece trucks more or less the sideframes would be hard to drill to deepen/enlarge the holes for the axles. I do have a 90 degree adapter for my Dremel which may enable me to attempt the mod.

Might be easier to reduce the diameter of the axle ends?

[bob turner]

Pretty sure the old wheels just pop in and out. Chuck them in a drill, take those flanges down a notch, and pop them back in. Plastic is a crappy wheel material, but so is plated brass. Opinion.

I did have three or four of these cars - all since converted to Athearn plastic trucks. Excuse for keeping them was that they made nice zero-load trains for break-in. Truth be known, they were pretty good looking if you like plastic.

[bobcom52]

Bob, I used a triangular file out of a cheap Asian pack of files commonly available at the discount stores to open out the bearing holes slightly.
I found using a drill bit to be too easy to overdo it even by hand.
I do each one until I am satisfied with the running
The pin holes are drilled with a drill similar to a Dremel.

P1010346 s.JPG (271.5 KiB) Viewed 3750 times

This photo shows the file in relation to the trucks, an Athearn 33" wheel is also shown for comparison.

As for the commenter about liking plastic; I like plastic, cardboard and a variety of other materials. A coat of paint hides a multitude of tins!
I know in some of the smaller scales that plastic wheels rapidly build up a coating on the wheel treads making them unsuitable for task, however I have found the slippery engineering plastic used to make the Athearn wheels to be fine after many miles of running on my outdoor layout.

cheers
BobC

[sarge]

BobC

Good of you to join us!

Years ago I made a tool for that very task, since those were some of the prettier trucks in the day before Intermountain, what with the brakeshoes et al.

I used a piece of brass rod with a couple flats ground in it to make rudimentary flutes, then soldered a piece of tube up the shank a little as a stop so you didn't go through the journal box. I made it short enough to spin a small wirenut for my fingers to turn on the other end of the tube/rod. it worked pretty well, but lord knows where that little dingus has gotten off to after all these years!

[rex desilets]

Years ago I bought a little tool from MicroMark that deepens/opens up the axle box. Says it's HO, but it works forO.

[bobcom52]

Hi Brian, if you had a likely repetitive task then making up a tool to do the job is a very sensible idea.
In my case I will probably only have a small number to modify, if that changes I will keep your idea in mind.
I didn't mention that I also move them out to a 29mm BTB as that would be largely irrelevant to most on this forum.

Rex, interesting that your truck tuner works too. I'm not sure if I have mine still but will try it if I have.
cheers
BobC

[jwmathews]

Spent some time Sunday 1-21 looking over the various threads & got down to this one. FWIW, Atlas used to offer 2R wheelsets for their 1970s plastic trucks. They had plated brass wheels iirc, which I do not like, and had pointed axles as do the original plastic wheelsets. There is a problem with that original design, however. The plastic sideframes are SOFT!

The 1970s Atlas freight cars weigh about 8 oz.; the short ore cars only 4 oz. Imo, this is too light for good tracking, even moreso when such cars are mixed in a train of older cars weighing from 14 oz. up to over a pound (old Walthers cars with cast pot metal ends & doors). I weight my cars & filled the Atlas gon with roofing granules (aka ballast) After several hours' running, I noticed white dust on the wheels & upon close inspection saw that the bottom of the sideframe was lowered, lowering the height of the car itself. The extra weight caused the axle tips to wear their journal holes in the sideframes into vertical slots!

As noted in a post above, the detail of those 1970s Atlas sideframes included brake shoes. Imo, they were/are decent-looking and worth fixing. I had some steel wheelsets with stub axle tips, so I drilled out the journals from the inside, sort of twisting the truck a bit to align the drill as close to a "straight shot" as I could get. I think I used a 1/8" drill & then inserted 1/8" brass tube into the journal box & sliced it off with a Dremel disc.

This method converts the sideframe journals from soft plastic to long-lasting metal bearings. I didn't bother making a drill-stop device, just working by touch. As I recall, I slipped on one hole & went through the outside of the box. This damage was easily repaired by gluing a thin strip of styrene as a "replacement" journal box lid. I think this method overall is perhaps less tedious than drilling small holes crosswise through the journals to retain shorter axles. Also, that other method does not address the problem of wearing down the soft sideframe material.

I hope the above may be of interest & possible use to modelers wanting to make use of those 1970s Atlas trucks.