Athearn Gunderson Maxi 3 5 platform well car

[armchair modeler]

I have recently taken delivery of an Athearn Gunderson Maxi 3 5 platform well car unit, in HO scale.

The unit came with plastic bogies (trucks) and plastic wheels. The car bodies are also plastic and as such are very light.

I would like to do one, some or all of the following subject to advice.

Add weight to the cars by obtaining some scrap flat metal from my local fabricators to place on the car bed. This will be obscured by the containers. This is optional as I may be able to “rig” some of the containers to lend weight.

One of these is an absolute must. The plastic wheels must go. These will need to be replaced by 4 axles 33” wheels and 8 axles 36” wheels.

Now the question is, do I just buy the appropriate number and size of Kadee wheels and push them into the plastic bogies?

OR

Buy replacement Kadee trucks and wheel sets? If so, which is the right pattern bogie to get? The Kadee site only seems to have 50 ton 75 ton and 100 ton, whereas the Athearn instruction leaflet refers to 130 ton.

So what do I need for the two outer bogies and what for the four intermediate bogies? I am far from a fastidious modeller so anything that looks right rather than is right will suit me.

Clearly just buying wheels will be the cheaper option but I am also considering the extra weight and better rolling qualities of the full bogie/ wheel replacement.

How easy is it to swap the Athearn bogies supplied for Kadee replacement?

Advice and comment please.

Armchair Modeller

[Adrian Wintle]

Although I model in N, I would suggest that (as long as the axle lengths are the same*), just getting the replacement wheelsets. I wouldn't worry about changing the trucks unless I had to (I do lots of that in N). I would also suggest that, if you are going to run the car with containers in it, you add weight to the lower container - you don't want to raise the container by having a weight under it.

 

You could probably use 100T trucks (Kadee ASF 100 Ton or Athearn 100T Roller Bearing) as replacements. The visual difference between a 100T and a 125/130T truck is not that great. The outer trucks on the set may only be 70T, based on the 33" wheels.

 

*HO is better than N at standardizing this, but it is alarming to see that Athearn has long- and short-axle replacement wheelsets.

 

Adrian

[trevorsmith3489]

Hi

 

I have built some of these;

I placed the weight in the bottom of a container and glued the container in place;

I just replaced the plastic wheelsets with correct sized metal ones, (packs of 30 purchased from the internet in a clear plastic bag with no manufacturers' label.)

 

With a little weathering and the use of Plano etched brass walkways they look good and run really well. The only derailments were the result of overtightening the screw that holds the bogie to the body.

[Glorious NSE]

The outer trucks will be 70t, the inner 125t.

 

The intermediate wheels on the 125t trucks should actually be 38"s, which are a bit harder to find, but are out there - using 36"s is a reasonable compromise if you can't get hold of 38"s. I would also just replace the wheelsets unless you particularly don't like the look of the Athearn truck casting (the blue-box ones are a bit dated maybe, if it's a RTR one then they look a lot better)

 

Both Walthers and Athearn containers have plastic floors that you can remove to add weight inside if you want to add a little more.

 

As with Trevor, some time tweaking and testing the running after assembly works wonders, nothing looks worse than a wobbly one of these!

 

Oh, and whilst tweaking, be careful of the 'male' articulation joints, they can break easily if you overtighten (or use the wrong) screw to add the truck.