Class One Model Works GSC Heavy Duty Depressed Center Flat

[simulatortrain]

Ditto on the rolling quality. I spent about an hour working over various spots with graphite while I had the trucks apart to paint the wheels. It helped some, especially with the rolling noise. It would be a cool gimmick if it didn't so often result in cars that roll like you forgot to raise the anchor. Hoping I can get some spare bearing caps as mine came lacking two.

But, the (Frisco) car itself is pretty nice overall. The printed lettering on the trucks is impressive! I'm definitely going to replace the stirrups and brake wheel/shaft, they look very coarse in yellow. Likely the air hoses and cut levers too, the Frisco car had different cut levers.

[ambluco]

Did you break it in like the little paper says too?

[simulatortrain]

I didn't see a little paper. What does it suggest?

[fishbelly]

I can vouch for the model I received and there is no little piece of paper in the box.

[fr8kar]

I bought one of the large transformer load for my Walthers depressed center flatcar and it arrived yesterday. It's really nice, but it's too wide for me to use as a load (1.93"). I don't have wide enough clearances for it. So I've listed it on ebay. Hopefully I get some of my money back because these loads aren't cheap.

[ambluco]

It's actually 8.5x5.5 and is a thank you note for purchasing the car. Printed in black. It goes on to describe the process.


It says the car needs breaking in to roll freely and for the operating bearings to seat properly.

TO QUICKEN THE PROCESS, place it on the track, lightly press down on the center of the deck and roll the car back and forth a few times.

It would seem the pressing down is key.

[ChessieFan1978]

I got my Erie Lackawanna and Southern cars the other day. Every wheel was out of gauge and forget about trying to twist the wheel set to gauge them. Had to completely disassemble the trucks and use 2 pairs of pliers to be able to adjust the wheels. (Be careful the Rollerbearing caps will go astray and there are no extras) Then reassemble them. The ends were also slightly bowed up but I was able to bend it carefully so it matched the Kadee Coupler height gauge. I hope they track well as the clearances are very tight between the truck and carbody. Overall a very nice car, I also bought the Wheel Load and Modern Transformer. That Modern Transformer is HUGE, It almost looks to big for this Depressed Center Flat. Might look better on the Walthers 81' Depressed Flatcars.

[simulatortrain]

Aug 18, 2023 3:34:54 GMT -8 ambluco said:

It's actually 8.5x5.5 and is a thank you note for purchasing the car. Printed in black. It goes on to describe the process.


It says the car needs breaking in to roll freely and for the operating bearings to seat properly.

TO QUICKEN THE PROCESS, place it on the track, lightly press down on the center of the deck and roll the car back and forth a few times.

It would seem the pressing down is key.

Thank you, I'll give that a shot once I get the trucks back on.

[five83]

Just as a heads up, complaints are showing up on Facebook that the cars are arriving warped. Might want to check your cars.

[fishbelly]

Aug 18, 2023 11:38:07 GMT -8 five83 said:

Just as a heads up, complaints are showing up on Facebook that the cars are arriving warped. Might want to check your cars.

Thanks for the heads up. I just checked mine and it is straight as an arrow. All 12 wheels ride the rails without any rocking. So My order is good to go.

[wictl]

Aug 18, 2023 11:38:07 GMT -8 five83 said:

Just as a heads up, complaints are showing up on Facebook that the cars are arriving warped. Might want to check your cars.

Both of my cars have sloping end platforms. The ends are sloping toward the center. One of my cars have a slight twist. This may have an effect on the coupler height as both of mine are high compared to a Kadee coupler gauge.

I have called Class One Model Works on this and hopefully a cause and solution can be found. A friend of mine is also looking into the problem and a possible solution.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Anybody take a photo or two yet?

[champagnetrail]

My EL flat had a small problem with one of the wheel bearings. There's some flash on some of the roller bearing end caps that was binding one of the journals, so much that the axle would not even turn. Some minor surgery to clear up the flash on the roller bearing cap seems to have taken care of that. My flat might have a slight sag, but not enough to cause coupler height issues. I changed the couplers out for Kadee "scale head" whisker couplers and the height is within my tolerance.

[simulatortrain]

Just a quick one when I first unboxed it.

[txcavgr]

I preordered and received my three cars.
1) slight bow to middle but I can live with it. Rolled like crap but the push-down-and-roll greatly improved it. All wheels in gauge.
2) both ends bent downward and warped sideways, 1 coupler high, all wheels in gauge.
3) both ends bent down, warped sideways both ends, 1 coupler high, all wheels in guage.

Nice looking cars that I was looking forward to receiving. I am going to email them and see about returning the two for 2 new ones. I don't have a pic posting site, I should probably figure that out.

Problems aside these are pretty cool cars, they look good and the loads they did are really nice.

[gevohogger]

Aug 18, 2023 11:38:07 GMT -8 five83 said:

Just as a heads up, complaints are showing up on Facebook that the cars are arriving warped.

Mine didn't arrive warped, but it did have a bit of an attitude.

[12bridge]

From one of the SOO groups..

[edgecrusher]

Yikes, is that main body a casting? Seems like maybe the bolsters were drilled and tapped crooked.

[edwardsutorik]

I just received my two cars. I was inspired by the above to get them out immediately.

Both cars are warped. And NOT to a negligible degree.

They are unacceptable, unless Class One can come up with a fix.


If you're going to sell direct, your reputation is incredibly important. This mess might well sink the company.


As it stands, I will not be ordering anything else from Class One.


UPDATE:

I called Class One and got Stephen Priest on the phone. He's aware of the problem, and said he'd post a fix soon (He's traveling to some convention as I write, and he needs to pay attention to his driving.).

So.

I'm gonna give him a couple of days to properly present what he's figured out. If I can fix it, it doesn't matter lots to me whether I do it in 2 days or a week. I just want to end up with a fixed car.

Hopefully, this can all be worked out. I did talk to The Man, and that's always a good sign.




Ed

[ChessieFan1978]

Aug 23, 2023 12:45:35 GMT -8 edwardsutorik said:

I just received my two cars. I was inspired by the above to get them out immediately.

Both cars are warped. And NOT to a negligible degree.

They are unacceptable, unless Class One can come up with a fix.


If you're going to sell direct, your reputation is incredibly important. This mess might well sink the company.


As it stands, I will not be ordering anything else from Class One.


UPDATE:

I called Class One and got Stephen Priest on the phone. He's aware of the problem, and said he'd post a fix soon (He's traveling to some convention as I write, and he needs to pay attention to his driving.).

So.

I'm gonna give him a couple of days to properly present what he's figured out. If I can fix it, it doesn't matter lots to me whether I do it in 2 days or a week. I just want to end up with a fixed car.

Hopefully, this can all be worked out. I did talk to The Man, and that's always a good sign.




Ed

Ed,

   I was able to bend the bowed ends slightly with the trucks removed.  All is good now.  I have yet to test them on the layout to see how they track.  I do know the wheels on my 2 were all out of gauge. I had to completely disassemble the trucks to be able to gauge the wheels.

[mvlandsw]

My Conrail model arrived warped enough to affect the coupler height. I was able to straighten it with some gentle bending.

Overall it's a nice car but it has flaws that should not be present on high priced models.

The etched metal plates on the end decks all have sprue nubs left in place.

The hand brake shafts are molded plastic and are oversized and delicate. I use the leads from LEDs for them. They are the right size for the square shaft used on the prototype.

The air hoses are too short to couple to another car.

Couplers without a trip pin are useless for me. I use the trip pin to uncouple. It's easy for anyone who doesn't want them to cut them off. Scale head Kadee couplers should be installed by the factory.

The spinning bearings will never roll very well. It may not matter much for this car but for longer trains more motive power will be required because of this not very noticeable in HO feature.

   Has nobody noticed the magnetic closures on the box flap?

[wictl]

One of the things I have found with my Soo Line car is that the brake lines are not properly placed, causing the plastic body to not fit onto the die-cast chassis. Mine had the line to the retainer on the B-End way off. I have yet to take the car apart to correctly align all the brake lines to their proper place.

Wictl

[redfish]

I was looking forward to picking up a Conrail at my lhs. I would like to support these small companies that introduce new products to the hobby but yowza a warped deck flat car not so good.

[wagnersteve]

Restarting about 4:46 p.m. on August 24, since I appear to have deleted what I wanted to post a few minutes ago.

My Erie depressed center flatcar and an older style (pre-1960's) transformer to use with it reached my home on the afternoon of the 22nd. My first impressions of the car's detail, paint and lettering were very favorable. I don't think the transformer load will need painting. After reading comments in this thread, this morning, despite the press of other activities, I set the car down on a track with Code 100 rails on my very messy, not currently operating layout. The car does not appear to be warped. It rolls, though not very freely. The paper with the instructions about pressing down on the car to help improve the car's rolling qualities wasn't in my package, so I appreciate ambluco's having posted its message. The couplers seem just a bit high according to my Kadee coupler height gauge (painted bright orange to remind me not to leave if on the rails when the power is on.) I will probably do what champagnetrail did with regard to the couplers. I haven't yet tried to disassemble the trucks to paint parts of the wheelsets and perhaps their sideframes. I appreciate Class One Model Works' free shipping on orders totaling $100 or more, as mine did, since that's more than I've ever paid for a single freight car.

I am looking forward to the firm's producing a car replicating D&H 15169, the Delaware & Hudson's only car of this type, which its CEO said in an online session August 6 it would do either in its second run of these cars next year or in a third run he said it would do.  I think I'd prefer it in black with white lettering that the D&H most likely applied when it build it using GSC parts in June 1958, though the later  bright red with yellow lettering that it was wearing by February 1982 would also be nice.

Like the Erie, the D&H's Susquehanna Division was originally built to 6-foot gauge, yielding generous side clearances that made it a good route for wide loads, for instance from the General Electric factory in Schenectady, NY.

I would really like to see HO counterparts of the superb assembled mostly styrene models of GSC well-hole flatcars made by Eastern Seaboard Models in N scale.  D&H, NYC and numerous other railroads had some of these.  This is the sort of a car probably only a few modelers would probably buy many of, but many probably would buy one or two.  ESM has clearly done the necessary research for these models.  Perhaps  Class One Model Works could make a deal with them.

[kcjones]

Chris Palmieri, owner of Homeshops is personally inspecting each and every car before they leave the shop. He is making all necessary adjustments and repairing any issues he finds. Having three freelance roads on this first run, he isn't taking any chances. If they don't pass inspection, they go back.

[riogrande]

I had thought of maybe ordering one of the ClassOne flatcars, but the warping issue has given me pause.

[hudsonyard]

Kinda bummed about this, i don't have any reason to own more than one depressed flat and these seemed like they would fill that niche. now i gotta add class one to the list of companies to be wary of.

[tony]

Darn it - after months of build up and hours of video recordings 😞

Is the GP40 project is toast - Rapido already done did theirs ?

[tony]

If I recall the video, the body is diecast. I suspect if you attempt to press it into shape the body will crack and you'll need a flat car for your flat car.

I wanted a Rock Island car and that is suppose to be in the next run, if there is one. Maybe they need to cool off more before ejection - as in premature ejection. Or maybe someone forgot to turn the water on.

[tony]

If this was a medical device company, they would have to issue an emergency stop ship order. Probably not going to happen for this.