Well, it worked, but is it worth it?
Jul 19, 2024 15:18:25 GMT
Country Joe, dennym57, and 3 more like this
Post by ron045 on Jul 19, 2024 15:18:25 GMT
There is a 2R train show in Strasburg not too far from me a few times a year. I went for the first-time last summer and purchased a freight car.
The scale 2R wheel sets will run on my MTH Scaletrax with the exception of some switches and only in some directions.
Then I started looking at 2R cars online. Many times, a 2R freight car is cheaper than a 3R counterpart. I'm not sure why that is.
Atlas is a popular 2R brand. I thought to fix the issue I would buy some Atlas 3R trucks and swap them out. The actual wheels can't be swapped out in most cases because the axels are different. But the trucks alone cost $30. That sort of defeats the reason for buying the 2R car to begin with.
Then what I was doing why buying an inexpensive Atlas 3R cars on Trainz. Anything less than $30. Swapping the trucks and then selling the "donor" cars with scale wheels and couplers. With full disclosure of what I did of course. I could sell these at or just below what I bought them for. So, it was a win for everyone.
Here are some tanks cars I did this with. The 3R versions were $99. The 2R version was $65. I broke even on the Buy, Swap and Sell on 3R cars.
A fella at the last train show told me how he used styrene strips on his switches to fix the 2R problem on 3R track. The frogs on 3R switches are cut deeper to allow a 3R flange to pass through. A 2R wheel with a small flange dips on the frog and can derail.
Adding styrene strips on the guard rail can help this issue and does not affect 3R performance.
In another case some switches have a gap issue in the gauge and the 2R wheels fall in the gauge at the points. This is fixed by adding styrene to the sides of the points themselves preventing the wheel from falling.
The challenge is these problems are not consistent from switch to switch as you can see from the above. And... I have a lot of switches. I'm not sure all of the work is worth the effort. Maybe I should just continue to swap out 2R trucks with 3R trucks.
The scale 2R wheel sets will run on my MTH Scaletrax with the exception of some switches and only in some directions.
Then I started looking at 2R cars online. Many times, a 2R freight car is cheaper than a 3R counterpart. I'm not sure why that is.
Atlas is a popular 2R brand. I thought to fix the issue I would buy some Atlas 3R trucks and swap them out. The actual wheels can't be swapped out in most cases because the axels are different. But the trucks alone cost $30. That sort of defeats the reason for buying the 2R car to begin with.
Then what I was doing why buying an inexpensive Atlas 3R cars on Trainz. Anything less than $30. Swapping the trucks and then selling the "donor" cars with scale wheels and couplers. With full disclosure of what I did of course. I could sell these at or just below what I bought them for. So, it was a win for everyone.
Here are some tanks cars I did this with. The 3R versions were $99. The 2R version was $65. I broke even on the Buy, Swap and Sell on 3R cars.
A fella at the last train show told me how he used styrene strips on his switches to fix the 2R problem on 3R track. The frogs on 3R switches are cut deeper to allow a 3R flange to pass through. A 2R wheel with a small flange dips on the frog and can derail.
Adding styrene strips on the guard rail can help this issue and does not affect 3R performance.
In another case some switches have a gap issue in the gauge and the 2R wheels fall in the gauge at the points. This is fixed by adding styrene to the sides of the points themselves preventing the wheel from falling.
The challenge is these problems are not consistent from switch to switch as you can see from the above. And... I have a lot of switches. I'm not sure all of the work is worth the effort. Maybe I should just continue to swap out 2R trucks with 3R trucks.
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