|
|
Post by tony on Sept 7, 2024 9:52:16 GMT -8
When Athearn first released their bearing caps it was innovative and had a WOW factor.
Since then, others have copied the basic design. However, they also have the same issue of caps coming off way too easy.
I'm curious what others are using as a fix that is long lasting.
|
|
|
|
Post by riogrande on Sept 7, 2024 11:54:11 GMT -8
As I've been getting Athearn Genesis models onto the layout, some have rotating bearing caps. One of my Auto racks is missing several. I emailed Athaern and they said send us about $7 postage and we'll send you some. I'm not a big fan of the as cool as they area.
|
|
|
|
Post by soolinerr on Sept 7, 2024 12:09:43 GMT -8
The tiniest drop of CA to the axle end has worked for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by riogrande on Sept 7, 2024 12:15:03 GMT -8
The tiniest drop of CA to the axle end has worked for me. Do you take every bearing cap off and drop CA on them? |
|
|
|
Post by snootie3257 on Sept 7, 2024 12:18:50 GMT -8
The tiniest drop of CA to the axle end has worked for me. Do you take every bearing cap off and drop CA on them? I do just to insure they will stay on. I also don’t put a drop on the end. I put a drop on usually a piece of plastic and dip the end. You don’t want to get too much on the axle. Steve |
|
|
|
Post by cemr5396 on Sept 7, 2024 14:27:38 GMT -8
The tiniest drop of CA to the axle end has worked for me. yup. For freight cars, I put a tiny drop on the end of the axle, then press it into the hole in the back of the cap. Once it's dry, make sure there is no excess and then re assemble back into the truck. For locomotives, the CA goes on the back of the cap and then install. It might make disassembling the trucks later on slightly more difficult should the need arise, but with the tiny amount used it shouldn't be too hard to break the glue bond. CA has poor shear strength, especially when applied to metal (like an axle). I've never had a repeat failure with a cap I've reinstalled this way. |
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 7, 2024 19:06:05 GMT -8
I think they are dumb and there's gonna be lots of second hand rolling stock on the market with exposed axle tips in the coming years. I've learned to just accept them on nicer cars, I'm not a gimmick man and that places me in the minority in many places. Model railroading included.
Ironically I was traveling with a friend today who was explaining his method for getting them to stay on, reaming the back to slightly enlarge the hole and a small dab of canopy glue that has been air-curing for a half hour or so, remounted and left to dry.
|
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 8, 2024 4:25:58 GMT -8
When these first came out the bearing caps seemed to come off easily. Since then manufactures seemed to have lowered the tolerances to these parts as I rarely have any pop off and I never add CA to the axle ends If they ever pop off they do it is mainly when removing the wheelset or adjusting the axle length . When prepping the trucks I even scrub the trucks and wheels with soap and a toothbrush and the caps stay on. Most of my wheels now are from Tangent and they supply a sealed bag of extra caps. I now have a bunch of these still sealed bags. After a lot of service the caps are still on:  |
|
|
|
Post by NS4122 on Sept 8, 2024 15:36:03 GMT -8
Well you hate everything so no surprise here... I think they are dumb and there's gonna be lots of second hand rolling stock on the market with exposed axle tips in the coming years. I've learned to just accept them on nicer cars, I'm not a gimmick man and that places me in the minority in many places. Model railroading included. |
|
|
|
Post by 12bridge on Sept 8, 2024 15:43:15 GMT -8
I agree. I am not a huge fan of some of these gimmicky things either (gauge lights are high up on that list..). Ill admit, the rotating bearings have come a long way, and do not come off as easy as they used to (Tangent comes to mind here), but I would rather see the effort put into other things, more so on the diesel side. We can have working bearings and light up gauges, but we still have poorly rendered horns, bells, MU stands, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by raptorengineer on Sept 8, 2024 16:18:04 GMT -8
for me i have no issues with scaletrains bearing caps on there locomotives, not one has come off. but athearn sd60m bearing caps always come off i even put glue on them to hold them in place but later they come off. and tricky to fine. i have few athearn genesis cars and i think few caps have come off. i wonder if athearn make trucks for sd60m with non rotating bearing caps.
|
|
|
|
Post by mvlandsw on Sept 8, 2024 16:31:33 GMT -8
I wonder if the tolerances have been tightened enough that we will have to deal with split bearing caps along with the split gears.
|
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 8, 2024 17:10:38 GMT -8
Well you hate everything so no surprise here... I think they are dumb and there's gonna be lots of second hand rolling stock on the market with exposed axle tips in the coming years. I've learned to just accept them on nicer cars, I'm not a gimmick man and that places me in the minority in many places. Model railroading included. I'm generally a pretty positive or neutral person on this forum, this is a weird stray to be taking. |
|
|
|
Post by csxt8400 on Sept 8, 2024 19:52:44 GMT -8
I tire of the term "gimmick" being applied to innovation that visually replicates the real thing at a great level.
Tangent trucks are cutting edge in all regards. Static axle tips would be a step backward from their standards.
|
|
|
|
Post by sd80mac on Sept 9, 2024 6:10:19 GMT -8
I guess put me in the camp of those who think rotating bearings are silly. Right up there with puffing smoke, "crew chatter", lit control stands in cabs, firebox flicker, waaay too bright cab lights, flexible air/MU hoses, and see-through radiator screens that look like full-scale cheese graters.
|
|
|
|
Post by lvrr325 on Sept 9, 2024 8:11:29 GMT -8
it's fine on a few cars but I don't need it on every single one.
Athearn initially came up with these what, 50 years ago on the baby Hi-Cube boxcars. Those seem to stay on okay.
|
|
|
|
Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 9, 2024 9:27:52 GMT -8
it's fine on a few cars but I don't need it on every single one. Athearn initially came up with these what, 50 years ago on the baby Hi-Cube boxcars. Those seem to stay on okay. Maybe. There was also another small company that produced a kit for, I believe, 70T roller bearing trucks. They had rotating ends, and three springs showing in each end. Yes, they were sprung. All metal, except for insulation. I MAY have some around here, somewhere: "In the garage." They didn't roll all that well. In fact, one of our club members put them under a freight car, and the wheels SLID! I don't believe he oiled them, however. Ed |
|
|
|
Post by win70rob on Sept 9, 2024 17:57:51 GMT -8
I thought they were cool at first and then the caps started falling off one of my cars, I agree that they are innovative but I personally just don’t spend enough time looking at the trucks as the train goes by. I think it’s truly awesome the more and more detail that companies are putting on but it’s also funny that after a few days of club events we can pick up handfuls of detail parts that fall off other peoples trains. With more and more detail comes higher and higher prices. I know that there is a following for under body and truck detail for those with shelf layouts but I personally don’t know anyone that has one. I do however appreciate cars with the correct dimensions and separately applied grabs and ladders that I can see when running my train. Some of the older cars just look out of place when running with cars of correct dimensions
|
|
|
|
Post by soolinerr on Sept 10, 2024 5:37:55 GMT -8
With Kato you have no choice but to install. I like painted wheels so its easier to install after painting. Recent Genesis bearings seem to be well attached. Overall I could easily live without them.
|
|
|
|
Post by alexandrianick on Sept 10, 2024 6:24:20 GMT -8
Shoot, I barely notice them on the real thing.
|
|
|
|
Post by surlyknuckle on Sept 10, 2024 7:12:02 GMT -8
I am surprised people have problems with the bearing caps coming off during use; I don't know if I have really ever had any come off outside of during shipping of the car. Since my freight car trucks get dis-assembled for painting and weathering to begin with, adding a drop of C/A to caps during that stage of truck work is built-in. I am heavily in-favor of the rotating bearing caps. The Tangent trucks are beautifully executed (whereas the Athearn ones are not), and I look forward to more designs being added. I have slowly been replacing the trucks in my fleet with Tangents (for roller bearing equipped cars). Moloco has some really nice frames that I need, but I prefer the spining caps so I have stopped buyiing those. I needed some National C-1s for my Airslides and those have been the first non-spinning roller bearing purchases in a long time. A great feature of the Tangent system is the variety of bearing caps, allowing for mix and matching on specific cars. Spend any amount of time working the ground switching the real ones, and you will notice some cars have a mix as wheelsets are swapped out. It's down-right fun to model that. I guess I am in the minority, but that won't stop me from using spinning roller bearings, .88 wheels, Sergent couplers, Moloco draftgear...etc. That's the modeling I enjoy.  Tangent Trucks by Freight Engineer, on Flickr |
|
|
|
Post by Partial_List on Sept 10, 2024 10:05:23 GMT -8
I guess I am in the minority, but that won't stop me from using spinning roller bearings, .88 wheels, Sergent couplers, Moloco draftgear...etc. That's the modeling I enjoy. Tangent Trucks by Freight Engineer, on Flickr[/quote] I’m right there with you! Where have you been purchasing your scale couplers from now that Sergent is no longer around? |
|
|
|
Post by delta767332er on Sept 10, 2024 19:08:27 GMT -8
I guess put me in the camp of those who think rotating bearings are silly. Right up there with puffing smoke, "crew chatter", lit control stands in cabs, firebox flicker, waaay too bright cab lights, flexible air/MU hoses, and see-through radiator screens that look like full-scale cheese graters. Rotating roller bearings - Realistic recreation of a real thing in scale. Puffing smoke - Unrealistic recreation of something that doesn't scale. Crew chatter - Unrealistic recreation of something that would in almost all situations be randomly out of context. Lit control stands in cabs - Realistic recreation of a real thing in scale within reasonable production limitations (once dimmed in LokProgrammer). Firebox flicker - Realistic recreation of a real thing in scale within limitations (once dimmed in LokProgrammer). Waay too bright cab lights - yep, but can be made much closer to scale brightness if desired. Flexible air/MU hoses - Pretty sure real hoses are flexible. See-through radiator screens - Poor out-of-scale recreation of the real thing. What a completely scattered and random list of things that you have an opinion on, that as a whole doesn't make a very clear or objective argument about spinning bearing caps. How can anything that more accurately represents the real thing without offsetting compromises be considered a gimmick? The compromise is that they MAY fall off someday, like every other detail that our models come with today? The use of the word "gimmick" to describe roller bearings is ignorant and nonsensical. That's like saying adding windshield wipers, cut levers, brake piping, etc. are all gimmicky. One can say they don't want to deal with having to afix them with CA or deal with them potentially falling off, to which I'd roll my eyes since the potential problem can be fixed in a couple of minutes per car, but how can you say they are a gimmick? Why isn't any other detail that we accept also a gimmick? This is all rhetorical of course. Say you don't care about your toy trains having rotating roller bearings? Fine, great, awesome. Say they're gimmicky on the hobby's best available equipment? Debate better. I've lost way more grab irons, stirrups, brake wheels and other random parts off of equipment that I have to fix at the workbench, but for some reason there's not a thread here once a month about all those things being gimmicky. (EDIT: Replace the "gimmicky" accusations with silly in response to 80mac. The rest of it is in response to the thread in general.) |
|
|
|
Post by riogrande on Sept 11, 2024 3:58:00 GMT -8
Yes, rotating bearing caps are realistic and do look cool. I haven't been running trains enough to see yet if they fall off and can be found laying around on the track or not. I do know that so far when running trains, I don't notice rotating bearing caps and my vision isn't good enough without reading glasses to notice them rotating on running freight cars, something easy to see on passing freight cars in the real world of they aren't moving fast. I suspect that the younger you are, the more likely you are favor rotating bearing caps. I haven't weathered most of my trucks/wheels so I'd guess weathering them would make rotating bearings a bit more noticable.
As it turns out I will have to replace bearing caps on one of my autoracks - the Athearn Genesis Southern autorack with the side shields couplers were too high per my KD height gauge. Since the bolsters are metal, the most practical way I could get the couplers close to correct was to remove the wheels from the truck and file the bolster down a good amount. It was when I took the wheels off, the bearing caps popped off and went into the time vortex. I only found one of the ones that popped off and they are very tiny when looking on the work table or floor. The good news is Athearn went ahead and sent me a pack of 16, so I can replace the ones that are missing. I did learn a method to keep the caps from popping off when removing the wheels for the future so hopefully it will minimize them coming off if I have to remove the wheelsets.
|
|
|
|
Post by Baikal on Sept 11, 2024 6:33:01 GMT -8
...I guess I am in the minority, but that won't stop me from using spinning roller bearings, .88 wheels, Sergent couplers, Moloco draftgear...etc. That's the modeling I enjoy. Tangent Trucks by Freight Engineer, on Flickr
That truck looks very nice. Lighting sure helps- exposes the faults and the qualities. Sunlight I'm guessing? The subtle color variations & textures are right on. Bearing caps look realistic. The opposite of gimmicky. |
|
|
|
Post by locochris on Sept 11, 2024 7:25:29 GMT -8
I've done a poll on this before and it's about half and half. No point trying to convince each other. I prefer no rotating caps myself, and I appreciate Moloco, Walthers, Intermountain, Atlas and Rapido for not using them.
|
|
ADK
Junior Member
Posts: 78
|
Post by ADK on Sept 17, 2024 16:33:43 GMT -8
I’m right there with you! Where have you been purchasing your scale couplers from now that Sergent is no longer around? Prototypecouplers.com has the original sergent molds. Inventive models also has scale couplers: m.facebook.com/groups/invmod/ |
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 17, 2024 19:43:38 GMT -8
I think we need working solid bearings, every pair of trucks has a brass that needs to be changed or lubed occasionally, iowa scale engineering can make a working hot box detector. If you fall behind on lubrication you need to bust out the fire extinguisher. maximum realism.
|
|
|
|
Post by delta767332er on Sept 22, 2024 9:28:58 GMT -8
I think we need working solid bearings, every pair of trucks has a brass that needs to be changed or lubed occasionally, iowa scale engineering can make a working hot box detector. If you fall behind on lubrication you need to bust out the fire extinguisher. maximum realism. I prefer to think this is an attempt at a funny joke instead of an analogous argument as to why spinning roller bearings are a silly gimmick. Because if the latter……that’s such an enormous logical fallacy that I don’t even know how to respond to it. |
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 22, 2024 14:08:42 GMT -8
I think we need working solid bearings, every pair of trucks has a brass that needs to be changed or lubed occasionally, iowa scale engineering can make a working hot box detector. If you fall behind on lubrication you need to bust out the fire extinguisher. maximum realism. I prefer to think this is an attempt at a funny joke instead of an analogous argument as to why spinning roller bearings are a silly gimmick. Because if the latter……that’s such an enormous logical fallacy that I don’t even know how to respond to it. I don't like them because its a new failure point introduced, I've staged many a session for a large layout and also maintained its car fleet, last thing I need is a new potential fire to put out for something that amounts to "oh that looks cool" as the train goes by. I'm happy with the ones on my Tangent cars at the very least. Detail part attrition is just part of the game, i've found the RTR stuff that's come out since i've re-entered the hobby is much, much more durable than the branchline or P2K cars I remember from 15 years ago, but like I said, my goals are a solid looking operations fleet. I'm not big on gizmos that become a thing to maintain later. |
|
