Wobbly wagons

[cornish trains jez]

Hi everyone,

 

Just wondering if anyone can help me with my wobbly wagons.

The problem seems to be with my Roco 4 wheel vans. I can’t seem to work out if it’s the wheel axles that are not running well or the wagon just being old and not weighty enough. Perhaps it’s the weight that’s loose in the wagon.

Does anyone else have this issue and is there a solution?

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

 

[Gottardo]

Hi Jeremy.

Are the metal plates that hold the axles free to move slightly?  These allow the axle/wheels to "steer" around curves. If they are seized the axles might not be parallel and could be causing the wobble. 

If the weight in the wagon is not seated properly in its recess it could be stopping the axle plates from moving freely.

I find these wagons normally run very smoothly without any additional weight and if your curves will allow, shorter couplings improve their looks.

[Frutigen]

These wagons are frustrating. They can look really good in a train and are so typical of the Swiss scene, especially once they’ve been weathered, but the couplings can be a floppy nightmare and the wobbly running on random wagons just looks bad. 

 

For me, the most common cause of the wobble was small deposits of dirt on the wheels, I don’t know if this design is particularly prone to picking up muck or if my second hand ones all just had a very high mileage. A good clean seems to have sorted the problem for some time now. I’ve also regauged some wheelsets using a back to back gauge but I’m not sure how much difference this made other than going over Unitrack point frogs. 
 

@Gottardo’s comments on the metal plates are something I must look at.
 

Also, I’ve been looking for suitable couplings for ages since I saw it described yonks ago on his earlier web site. However, I’ve yet to find a source of couplings that are shorter than the originals but not normal short (which is too short, because the coupling boxes are set far back on these wagons). I did experiment with Micro Trains knuckle couplers, which worked well but I didn’t want to convert all my stock this way so I went back to the originals. I then tried the Dapol NEM boxes but (a) my gluing technique wasn’t clean enough and (b) there wasn’t enough sideways play, so the wagons often derailed when going over S curves on points in the yard, especially when being pushed. 
 

I’ll be interested to hear how others have got on with these wagons. 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Frutigen

[Gottardo]

For my purposes I found that the coupling used on the old Minitrix Ae 6/6 was ideal. It reduces the gap between the buffers to about 2-3 mm but still enables the wagons to be propelled around 9" radius curves. When I bought mine the Minitrix part number was 40 0623 00 but I notice this later changed to 12 0628 00 and I'm not sure if the spec remained the same.

It's been such a long time since I last purchased any of these couplings that these comments probably won't be much help especially as the Trix website now shows them as out of stock.