Stabilizing an Accurail Refrigerator Car
Though the title specifies that the following applies only to accurail refrigerator cars, it also applies to accurail outside braced wood boxcars. In fact, I have used the following methods with success on Accurail outside braced wood boxcars.
My Accurail Bangor & Aroostook refrigerator car had a very distinct tilt to one side when placed on the track. This tilt was very unsightly, and also made the car liable to tip over during operation. So this evening, I decided to do something about it.
I placed the car on my workbench and looked at the underframe to try to determine what exactly the problem was. I first checked to see if it was a case of the entire underframe assembly not being properly attached to the rest of the car. I have had this problem with a few other Accurail cars, and the solution to this is to simply push the underframe into the car until there is a click. Sadly, this was not the case with this car.
At first, I thought that the problem with this car was with the trucks not being attached properly. The trucks were flapping around and were rather wobbly. I tightened the trucks, and this stabilized one of the trucks. The other truck, however, was pushed even more out of line due to this. At this point, I realized that the problem was that the twin center sills of the car were not properly attached to the underframe.
To solve this problem, I cut the center sills form the underframe. Then, using a chisel blade, I scraped smooth the surface where the center sills had been attached. I then trimmed of the molded on tabs on the center sill. These tabs were meant to hold the center sills onto the underframe, but they prevented the center sills from sitting flush with the underframe.
After that, I simply glued the center sills back into place, making sure that they were flush with the underframe. I then attached the trucks back to the underframe, and then reattached the underframe assembly to the car body.
When I tested the repaired car on my layout, the car worked fine and the tilt was gone.
My Accurail Bangor & Aroostook refrigerator car had a very distinct tilt to one side when placed on the track. This tilt was very unsightly, and also made the car liable to tip over during operation. So this evening, I decided to do something about it.
I placed the car on my workbench and looked at the underframe to try to determine what exactly the problem was. I first checked to see if it was a case of the entire underframe assembly not being properly attached to the rest of the car. I have had this problem with a few other Accurail cars, and the solution to this is to simply push the underframe into the car until there is a click. Sadly, this was not the case with this car.
At first, I thought that the problem with this car was with the trucks not being attached properly. The trucks were flapping around and were rather wobbly. I tightened the trucks, and this stabilized one of the trucks. The other truck, however, was pushed even more out of line due to this. At this point, I realized that the problem was that the twin center sills of the car were not properly attached to the underframe.
To solve this problem, I cut the center sills form the underframe. Then, using a chisel blade, I scraped smooth the surface where the center sills had been attached. I then trimmed of the molded on tabs on the center sill. These tabs were meant to hold the center sills onto the underframe, but they prevented the center sills from sitting flush with the underframe.
After that, I simply glued the center sills back into place, making sure that they were flush with the underframe. I then attached the trucks back to the underframe, and then reattached the underframe assembly to the car body.
When I tested the repaired car on my layout, the car worked fine and the tilt was gone.
The car on the layout after being fixed. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the car when it still had the tilt. Sorry about the text heavy nature of this and the previous post. I will post something with more photos on the weekend.
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