Con-Cor Aerotrain

[nickelplate759]

Thanks - that should be doable without a lathe.

I'm impressed with how round the outside of your homemade washers are.

[peteski]

Thanks - that should be doable without a lathe.

I'm impressed with how round the outside of your homemade washers are.

Depending on the ID of the washer I either drill or punch the holes in a sheet of styrene, then I use a larger punch to punch the washers from the sheet.  I have couple of punch sets.  One  is from Micro-Mark.

[randgust]

Wow, the original zombie thread.

I've seen the model - once - at John Coots (N Scale of Nevada) before he passed.

But I've also been all over the one at the St. Louis Museum of Transport.  That's a must-see.   Several things struck me.   First, it was astounding how much of the car was plywood around the ends and vestibules.   Reminded me of the RAF Mosquito.    Second, inside the cars, the bus heritage was way, way, too evident.   This was, simply put, the worlds sexiest looking railbus.    Up front in the power compartment, it was really an SW1200 with a really really good nose job.   It looks way better from the outside than inside.  The museum one had an amazing amount of old papers, ticket stubs, original 'trash' on the inside, very much looking like it was trapped in amber.

The rough-ride explanation I was given was that the axle-to-axle car wheelbase between two cars was 39', which is a magic number in railroading because that's the normal length of a jointed rail.  So the harmonic rock and bounce of the train was a complete victim of any low joints, if you had any at all, it rode very rough.   That doesn't dismiss the air suspension issues, and I haven't scaled it out, but you sure don't want to build anything in railroading that hits exactly on two railjoints on the same side at the same time, it will rock off at harmonic speeds.   

[dem34]

And of course, even in areas where track was a little more forgiving, there where still the old stories of the things being left in the dust by Pennsy freight drags on the main.

[nickelplate759]

well, I went with Kato 33" wheelsets that come with their caboose and the Mikado tender (the ones on the plastic tube axle).

After a lot of judicious tapping to get the steel half-axles set in just right, it works!

Huzzah!

[nkalanaga]

Randgust:  The wheelbase lesson wasn't learned very well.  A lot of grain hoppers in the 1970s ran afoul of the same issues!

[Trnsrus]

well, I went with Kato 33" wheelsets that come with their caboose and the Mikado tender (the ones on the plastic tube axle).

After a lot of judicious tapping to get the steel half-axles set in just right, it works!

Huzzah!

Can anyone please post the Kato part numbers for these wheelsets?

[nickelplate759]

Kato part 932080

[nickelplate759]

by the way, the Kato wheels are so tight on the half-axles that neither of my gear pullers could budge them.  I had to use a hammer, which unfortunately is difficulty to control.  Lots of tapping back and forth, and measuring to see if I was close.

[Trnsrus]

Thanks for  reply. How did you prevent damage to the conical end of the half axle when repositioning the wheel?

[nickelplate759]

I used a piece of 3/32  aluminum (or aluminium if you are outside North America) between the hammer and the axle point.  The aluminum got pretty chewed up.    Even so, it's worth checking the axle points for any burrs afterwards.

[peteski]

Similar method to reduce the axle length is used for adapting Kato loco wheelsets to Atlas trucks (the Kato axles are bit too long in that application).  For some additional ideas see that thread, starting at https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=33107.msg596466#msg596466 .  If multiple axles need to be modified, it makes sense to come up with a jig to make the process easier and quicker (no more trial and error). Having small arbor press  helps, but alternatives are also mentioned in that thread.

[nickelplate759]

@peteski - that aluminum spacer gauge is genius.  I should have read (or rather, re-read) that post before I did my entire Aerotrain this past weekend.  I think I can use the same idea to lengthen the axles for my Talgo - but the ram (or hammer in my case, or maybe just a vise) will be applied to the wheel face rather than the axle point.

[peteski]

Thanks George. I just come up with the idea of how to make the repetitive task  of modifying the wheelsets quicker and easier.

In my case I had to reduce the distance the pointy half-axle protrudes from the wheel face, so I had to push on the pointy half-axle (through a soft metal cushion) inward.  I believe that you also have to do the same for the Aerotrain conversion. I can't picture just how you can accomplish this by applying force to the wheel face.

[nickelplate759]

That's because it's the Talgo that needs longer axles,  not the Aerotrain