# AMS Freight Car Truck Solution



## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

I will probably get a lot of derision about this but here is how I have solved the truck problem with at least one of my AMS Box cars.

I have been very frustrated with the rolling characteristics of these beautiful cars. They will not roll down a 6% grade. They derail on my Wide Aristo Switches. In other words, they just do not perform very well.

So today, out of frustration, I removed the trucks from one of my box cars and (horrors) I replaced it with some Bachmann trucks with metal wheels.

I put the car back on the track and guess what? It now rolls perfectly. It will roll down a very slight grade. It does not derail on my switches. In other words, it now performs much better than before, in fact, almost flawlessly.

I had an extra set of Bachmann freight car trucks and thought, what the heck? Now I am thinking of buying a bunch more of these trucks and retrofitting all my AMS cars. I tried to sell them here on MLS but no one was interested, so if I am stuck with them, then at least I want them to run.

Now I have an extra set of AMS trucks, i guess I will use them for a load on a flat car!

After the change, the couplers still line up correctly with cars that have not been altered.

John


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## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

John,

Check the trucks you removed, look on the bottom at the screws that hold the bolster to the truck sides. See if there are brass angels screwed in place, these hold the sides of the truck so they cant bind the axels. if your trucks dont have them, call accucraft, they will send you what you need, this will make the cars roll better.

I just recently bought 4 of the cars, 3 had the brackets installed, 1 had the L shaped brackets in a little bag I have to install them.

Hope this helps.

Chuck


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## David Buckingham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi John 
Rolling is as Chuck said helped by the L brackets. 

Point trouble on LGB Aristo etc is the nearer to scale flange and no radius 

Backmann wheels if they will go in the Accucraft truck sides would help dont know the size of the bearings. 

My track on the hand made sections all OK and that is made to take LGB. 

On the LGB points I only have set routes only going straight on the facing points and anyway on the trailing points. 

I run tripple head C&S No 60s with 27 foot long train all Accucraft with this system all OK 

Dave


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## chuckger (Jan 2, 2008)

J B

Please email me at [email protected]

Chuck


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

John, Before I would attempt to replace the Accu trucks with Bachmann, I would use Phil Dippel's ball-bearing system (Phil'd Narrow Gauge). Or get the ball-bearing wheelsets that Accu now has available. The NEW wheel sets have a whole new tire profile with a radius st the flange. BIG DIFFERENCE in rolling characteristics! PNG dite: http://www.philsnarrowgauge.com/services1.htm

If you have an older AMS box car, then you will have NO radius at the flange, just sharp. The PNG bearing work is $25 per CAR, the Accu wheelsets are about $39 per car, PNG was my first choice and he has done seven cars for me.

Hope this helps.


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## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

25 or 39 dollars a car is quite a bit to fix a problem that Accucraft should have recognized when the cars were designed.

I love the detail on the cars -- I just hate the way they perform. 

In fact, until I made this modification to one of my AMS cars, I had decided to go back to the cheap 1:22 Bachmann cars which have adequate detail for me and perform very reliably on my track.

Now that I had such success changing the trucks on the Accucraft car, I am almost having second thoughts. Should I continue to buy them or not? Only time will tell.

Actually, I have a couple of the Bachmann 1:20 box cars. These cars seem to roll easily and track well. I guess I should try putting some Bachmann 1:20 trucks on my AMS cars. Only problem I have not seen these 1:20 trucks advertised as parts.

My fix (replaceing the AMS trucks with Bachmann trucks) will only cost about 13 dollars a car.

I just recently bought a bunch of 1:22 cars so now I have a large selection. I really do like the way they operate and the other nice thing is that I have never had a friend come over and question the detail or accuracy of these cars while they are running on the railroad. Most people are not familiar enough or picky enough to recognize the out of scale components of these cars. Besides, I can buy 203 1:22 box cars for about the price of 1 AMS boxcar.

John


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

John,

The point I was trying to make is that the newer AMS cars have the improved wheel sets in place now. I am going to pickup two flat cars and one OLD gondola from Jonathan on Tuesday. The flats have the improved wheel sets on them, the gondola has the old sets. In fact, I bought a new J&S coach from Jonathan a couple of weeks ago. This car does, indeed, have the new wheel sets on the trucks and they roll beautifully!

Buy 203 1:22 box cars for the price of ONE AMS box car!!??? Huh?


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## MarkJ (Dec 9, 2020)

jbwilcox said:


> I will probably get a lot of derision about this but here is how I have solved the truck problem with at least one of my AMS Box cars.
> 
> I have been very frustrated with the rolling characteristics of these beautiful cars. They will not roll down a 6% grade. They derail on my Wide Aristo Switches. In other words, they just do not perform very well.
> 
> ...


Hi John,
One of my AMS cars has a truck that was ruined. Any chance you would sell me one of the trucks you removed?
Mark


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

John, another issue I have had with my AMS cars is the spring supplied for the cars tend to be too stiff. They will not allow the truck to articulate with the track. I got some of the flat car springs. Accucraft uses three different springs, one for the flats, one for the tanks, and one for the box cars. Stiffest for the box, softest for the flat. Once I got the truck to articulate all tracking issues went away.

My cars all came with the little 'L' bracket, but they did not all fit the same. I spent several evenings adjusting the brackets to fit right and I no longer have any rolling or tracking issues. And all my wheel sets are the near 0 fillet radius between tread and flange.

As a point of interest I also modify Bachmann and USAT plastic trucks so they articulate and have 0 tracking issues regardless of whose wheel sets are in the truck.


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## MarkJ (Dec 9, 2020)

MarkJ said:


> Hi John,
> One of my AMS cars has a truck that was ruined. Any chance you would sell me one of the trucks you removed?
> Mark


John,
I guess this means you won't sell me an ASM truck......
Mark


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## David Leech (Dec 9, 2008)

Mark,
You do realize that this thread was from 12 years ago, and the last time John was on this forum was 2016, so doubtful if he will see your message, or even that he has the truck anymore.
Cheers,
David Leech, Delta, Canada


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