Model Railroading > The Auto Racks From Intermountain Made Me Popular

The New Intermountain Auto Racks Made Me The Most Popular Person At The Train Club Tuesday Night. Yes they did, and not because of how great they look, nor how well they roll on the track. I bought 28 of them. All four numbers of all the roads offered. So why was I so popular? One of the Union Pacific beauties had two, not one but two, non-insulated wheels that shorted out a good chunk of the layout. Car by car, we had to take four trains off the layout to find the short. Check your wheels everybody. There was a bad apple in the bunch I bought.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/13 07:22 by Olympian-Hiawatha.

Stuff like this happens now and then. I am sure all of the manufacturers would rather it be otherwise.

Most of us here at the T-bird club in Phoenix have made it a point to check for shorts when we first put a new unit on the track Locomotives and rolling stock! That way you do not have to search a whole train to find the bad unit.

One thing I will say about Intermountain wheel sets is that out of the thousands that I have installed over the years, I have never had a bad set. Ever!

KR

I agree, in fact, I have a stretch of track away from the layout, that is used for programming diesels, and with a flip of a switch can be used to check rolling stock for shorts, tracking through a switch(s), etc. anything new goes directly to this test area before meeting the layout.

Bob

Bob Miller
Kansas City, KS

Interesting!. I've installed hundreds and hundreds of IM wheelsets on my equipment and have never come across a shorted out axle. I'm thinking this must be a very rare issue. With dcc you can usually hear a faint buzzing sound at the source of the short if you still have good hearing.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Olympian-Hiawatha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The New Intermountain Auto Racks Made Me The Most
> Popular Person At The Train Club Tuesday Night.
> Yes they did, and not because of how great they
> look, nor how well they roll on the track. I
> bought 28 of them. All four numbers of all the
> roads offered. So why was I so popular? One of
> the Union Pacific beauties had two, not one but
> two, non-insulated wheels that shorted out a good
> chunk of the layout. Car by car, we had to take
> four trains off the layout to find the short.
> Check your wheels everybody. There was a bad
> apple in the bunch I bought.

Not popular in a good way it sounds. 28 of those must have set you back quite abit!

So how were they in terms of finish? I've ready a lot of complaints about the side panels being bowed. Out of the 28 you bought, how many has "finish" or QAQC issues?

Cheers, Jim Fitch

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting!. I've installed hundreds and hundreds
> of IM wheelsets on my equipment and have never
> come across a shorted out axle. I'm thinking this
> must be a very rare issue. With dcc you can
> usually hear a faint buzzing sound at the source
> of the short if you still have good hearing.


You hit the nail on the head. I can't hear the short. I set the cars up on Sunday afternoon and no one else was at the club. I could not hear the short. I, like you, have hundreds of Intermountain wheel sets on my cars. I have not had this problem until now. What concerned me was not one bad wheel on the car, but two.

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Olympian-Hiawatha Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The New Intermountain Auto Racks Made Me The
> Most
> > Popular Person At The Train Club Tuesday Night.
>
> > Yes they did, and not because of how great they
> > look, nor how well they roll on the track. I
> > bought 28 of them. All four numbers of all the
> > roads offered. So why was I so popular? One
> of
> > the Union Pacific beauties had two, not one but
> > two, non-insulated wheels that shorted out a
> good
> > chunk of the layout. Car by car, we had to
> take
> > four trains off the layout to find the short.
> > Check your wheels everybody. There was a bad
> > apple in the bunch I bought.
>
> Not popular in a good way it sounds. 28 of those
> must have set you back quite abit!
>
> So how were they in terms of finish? I've ready a
> lot of complaints about the side panels being
> bowed. Out of the 28 you bought, how many has
> "finish" or QAQC issues?
>
> Cheers, Jim Fitch


Yes, the panels are bowed on most cars. That being said, if you stand back three feet you hardly notice it. It all boils down to what your standard of acceptance is. I want to say that for me this was a great looking train. If you focus on the panels you may notice a problem. If you focus on the train in it's entirety you will not notice the indivigul panels.

Two wheels???? I thought it was just the one axle. I guess you found another axle when you put the replaced the axle and put the car back on the track. At least it all was on one car. Was interesting when I took the axle out and the wheel just fell off the axle due to the insulator not being there.

And yes, he was the most popular at the club when all the others could not run their trains out of the staging yard.

Jeff Smith
Lakewood, CA
RailMaster Hobbies

UPJeff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Two wheels???? I thought it was just the one
> axle. I guess you found another axle when you put
> the replaced the axle and put the car back on the
> track. At least it all was on one car. Was
> interesting when I took the axle out and the wheel
> just fell off the axle due to the insulator not
> being there.
>
> And yes, he was the most popular at the club when
> all the others could not run their trains out of
> the staging yard.


I replaced the wheel and we put the car on the track and the layout shorted again. There was another bad wheel on the car. I'm glad I brought more than one wheel last night.

I am still stuck on the "... I bought 28...!" That's nearly two grand for this train! That's dedication and a serious love for autoracks!

I have had several Intermountain wheel sets that were shorted, and so has a friend of mine. Between the 2 of us I think the total of shorted wheelsets is about 10 out of several hundred. I also had one wheel set that would not stay in gauge - one wheel was so loose on the axle it would not stay in place.

Ted

What, NO Photos at all of all them together??
Cheers Brian..