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Post by catcliffedemon on Feb 13, 2018 6:21:00 GMT -8
Have you received any complaints about the new 100-ton trucks being warped? I have three of the 3800s and of the six trucks, three are warped with one sideframe rotated slightly in the vertical plane relative to the other sideframe. Because of this warp, only three of the wheels contact the rails and the cars derailed multiple times on their first trip around my layout. The warp is similar to how the old three-piece trucks that came with the original Intermountain kits behaved. I don't know if this is a tooling or cooling issue, or if it is somehow related to the tight truck holders. We've had some complaints about some trucks being warped. We've identified the issue as being caused by us painting the trucks. These 100-Ton trucks are based on the same basic design as the 70-Ton trucks on our gondola, which exhibited no such problems. However, for the 3800s we injected them in ABS to facilitate painting, whereas the gondola trucks were made from unpainted POM, that slippery engineering plastic that is difficult to paint without sandblasting (which means you lose the fine detail). The layer of paint was enough that when our assembly workers pushed the brake shoes into place on the truck in some cases this introduced a weakness that seemed to warp over time. You can twist them back and in most cases this will sort things out. However we understand if customers don't want to do that. To provide a better solution to this problem we've beefed up the truck in this area and introduced a little more wriggle room for the brake shoe part. We've asked the factory to make a load of warranty trucks and we'll be sending them out to customers that get in touch. We'll be announcing how to go about that when they arrive in a few weeks. It also should be noted that the artwork for the CN delivery scheme cars correctly showed the consolidated lube stencil for this 1975-built number series but it was somehow deleted during production. Simple enough to add on with a decal, however. When we published the artwork a number of customers got in touch and suggested that it made more sense for us to provide the models in their "as delivered" appearance - we agreed and amended the artwork. Modellers of later periods can add the necessary additional stencils from aftermarket decals. Thanks for the feedback! -Rapido Gareth |
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Post by cp6027 on Feb 13, 2018 10:24:48 GMT -8
Have you received any complaints about the new 100-ton trucks being warped? I have three of the 3800s and of the six trucks, three are warped with one sideframe rotated slightly in the vertical plane relative to the other sideframe. Because of this warp, only three of the wheels contact the rails and the cars derailed multiple times on their first trip around my layout. The warp is similar to how the old three-piece trucks that came with the original Intermountain kits behaved. I don't know if this is a tooling or cooling issue, or if it is somehow related to the tight truck holders. We've had some complaints about some trucks being warped. We've identified the issue as being caused by us painting the trucks. These 100-Ton trucks are based on the same basic design as the 70-Ton trucks on our gondola, which exhibited no such problems. However, for the 3800s we injected them in ABS to facilitate painting, whereas the gondola trucks were made from unpainted POM, that slippery engineering plastic that is difficult to paint without sandblasting (which means you lose the fine detail). The layer of paint was enough that when our assembly workers pushed the brake shoes into place on the truck in some cases this introduced a weakness that seemed to warp over time. You can twist them back and in most cases this will sort things out. However we understand if customers don't want to do that. To provide a better solution to this problem we've beefed up the truck in this area and introduced a little more wriggle room for the brake shoe part. We've asked the factory to make a load of warranty trucks and we'll be sending them out to customers that get in touch. We'll be announcing how to go about that when they arrive in a few weeks. It also should be noted that the artwork for the CN delivery scheme cars correctly showed the consolidated lube stencil for this 1975-built number series but it was somehow deleted during production. Simple enough to add on with a decal, however. When we published the artwork a number of customers got in touch and suggested that it made more sense for us to provide the models in their "as delivered" appearance - we agreed and amended the artwork. Modellers of later periods can add the necessary additional stencils from aftermarket decals. Thanks for the feedback! -Rapido Gareth Thank you for the detailed explanation about the trucks! Are the black trucks painted or are they cast in black plastic and not be subject to potential warping? I am still looking forward to the six CP and TH&B cars I have on pre-order and am hopeful the black trucks might not be subject to this problem. If they do give me trouble I will be more aggressive about trying to twist them back into shape or emailing about replacements before resorting to the body bolster surgery required to replace the trucks. |
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Post by Judge Doom on Feb 13, 2018 12:50:22 GMT -8
The layer of paint was enough that when our assembly workers pushed the brake shoes into place on the truck in some cases this introduced a weakness that seemed to warp over time. You can twist them back and in most cases this will sort things out. However we understand if customers don't want to do that. -Rapido Gareth Methinks those two protective body clips that clipped directly to the truck frames may have affected the warping more. Momentary installation of parts, versus the clips (that might not be sitting exactly straight on the trucks or in the box) clipped on for a month as the hoppers traveled from the factory to Rapido's HQ. The screws were pretty tight on my hoppers too, so there was no play for the truck to move with the clip. |
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