Atlas O Disintegrating Metal Bolsters

I have a couple of Reefers that bolsters just came apart.

Here we go....another round of 'pest'.......I  hate pest....

Yes,I have had bolsters and ladders fail on one reefer that was new in the box. Atlas gladly provided replacements. I have not seen any issues on any of the the remaining Atlas rolling stock I own. 

I have found that this happens on the later issued cars.  I have 88 of the original Ballantine cars and didn't have one with that problem  When they issued the last two numbers along with the Pabst Blue Ribbon reefers I have had this happen to all 6 cars in that issue

Yes,

 

I have an Atlas 40ft steel reefer with a broken stud on the bolster that is used for mounting the truck. Since Atlas lost access to its molds and tooling for the 40 steel reefer they have not been able to provide any replacement bolsters.

 

I have been asking Bill at Atlas about this problem, but he has no resolution at this time. I even pleaded with him to "look through his desk for a bolster for me !

 

Richard

The last 2 coal hoppers I purchased had the the bolster disinegrate where the truck mounted. Removed the trucks to install Kadee's and they just boke apart. Both were older stock. A bit of work but they are repaired. I filed flush the broken threaded truck mount. Drilled the hole out bigger to accept a 2/56 blind nut from Dubro With the pointed side cut   flush and epoxied in place. I had to fabricate a spacer for the truck and drill the truck mounts hole slightly larger but they ar back on the rails.

 

I have nearly a dozen trucks crumbling to pieces on Atlas rolling stock. I've narrowed it down to items I purchased in the 2010 time frame plus or minus a year or two. I won't get into the details of my correspondence with their service dept. But the end result is I've stopped pre ordering from them and only buy on the secondary market now.

I THINK, CentralFan1976 (Mario) was 3D printing those... could be wrong or a different part...but give him a shout.

From what I'm seeing, and not being an expert in metallurgy, my guess is there are defects in the castings and/or the metal itself for it to crumble apart. These cars aren't cheap. I wonder what Atlas's thoughts are?    

I have had the same problem, not fun.

All the best,

Miketg

I haven't had any problem yet - but I have an awful lot of Atlas that's never been out of the box, so I could have a hidden problem. Jim Z's posting that his problems seem to come from around 2010 is helpful - maybe I'll pull a few cars out of the boxes just to see if the trucks and chassis bolsters are OK. 

 

The problem is zinc pest, which is usually caused by impurities in the zinc alloy, improper pouring temperature, or both. The first parts poured in a batch are often the worst, as a boss in a hurry will start a pour before the whole cauldron of metal is up to temperature. As a tinplater I am quite familiar with the problem, as most of the drive wheels on old tinplate locomotives fall apart and have to be replaced. It's hardly surprising that contract manufacturers in China don't maintain precise quality control standards on the casting process, especially when things like trucks are probably subcontracted out to the lowest bidder, possibly behind the back of the importer whose brand name is on the product. 

I have not had any issues but I do have quite a few Atlas reefers that have not been out of their boxes for a few years. Guess I better check them out.

 

   Bill T.

Same here.

I have a Steam Era Classics PFE reefer with this problem. 
I thought it was due to rough handling caused by myself, but now I see it's wide spread.

Yup that is absolutely when the problem started arising as I stated in my post when the Pabst reefer was issued    I have had couplers just break off with not much of a load behind them from the same run   I don't know about later ones but these were the culprits I had

 

Two road numbers are          available per road name. 3-RAIL           ITEM# ROAD          NAME 2-RAIL                    ITEM#           6700           Undecorated           7700 New Road Numbers! 8173 Ballantine Beer 9173 New Paint Schemes! 3001500 Baltimore & Ohio* 3002500 3001501-1,-2 Burlington (C&S) 3002501-1,-2 3001501-3,-4 Burlington (FW&D) 3002501-3,-4 3001502 Erie 3002502 3001503 New York Despatch 3002503 3001504 St. Louis Refrigerator Car 3002504 3001505 Mexene 3002505 3001506 Pabst 3002506 3001507 Phenix Cheese 3002507

*Manufactured under License from Pabst Brewing Company, USA. MSRP 3-Rail: $74.95           MSRP 2-Rail: $79.95           Estimated Delivery: November 2010

BTW I converted a number of my Ballantine cars to Kadees and have some extra knuckle bolsters if anybody needs some email me

For the newcomers to the forum. Here's thread on this subject from about 3 years ago:

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...ry-disturbing?page=1

 

I explain the causes and science behind "zinc rot" and bad castings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just sent him a email to find out if he is still selling bolsters and mounting pads.

Foreign Steel.. super quality.. ! Ehh.. Is having the same affect in the real rail industry..

 

Broken wheels have been the culprit in a few of the Crude Train Wrecks that we've all

seen on TV and in the news.. 

Here are a few pictures of my Atlas NYC 40 ft steel reefer with the broken bolster.

 

 

I just did a quick count of my Atlas rolling stock- I counted 173 cars on the layout or on shelves. I also have 7 Atlas engines. I would call myself a loyal customer.

 

I am sure there are folks out there who have far more Atlas items then I do. To have one bolster failure out of 173 cars is not a bad failure rate.

 

Bill at Atlas did send me a replacement bolster for the reefer pictured above when the first one broke a few years back. When the second one broke Atlas no longer had the replacement bolsters.

 

We have been dealing with Weaver and the troop car frame failures. Now we have to wait for Atlas to hopefully produce replacement  bolsters. MTH has had numerous Zinc rot problems,  but MTH seems to always replace the defective item even if it takes a while. MTH  replaced a set of heavy weight passenger trucks for me at no cost, but I would have been glad to pay for the new trucks.

 

I really wish our major train manufactures would maintain tooling in the states for zinc components of their products made in China. With a total lack of quality control by their venders there needs to be a way to produce replacement Zinc components.

 

Have a good week,

Richard

 

Ouch Bluelined4,

 

I have these two reefers from your list:

3001504	St. Louis Refrigerator Car
3001505	Mexene

I guess I will have to handle them with care!

 

Richard

Richard, Precision Scale makes bolsters that should work. 41226 are brass AAR 50 ton. 41226-1 are plastic. The illustrations look very close to what you have.

BTW Atlas Express reefer trucks also suffer from Zinc rot. I have replaced mine with Lionel trucks.

 

Pete

Thanks Pete,

 

I will have to check into that.

 

Richard

Here are 3 of the 4 styles of resin cast car bolsters that I have available.  I'll have them at the Strasburg show/meet in Aug. -- $1/pair.  Drill and tap to 2/56 - 6/32.  Mount with Goo and CA mix and your're ready to attach your trucks.

 

 

Truck bolsters - solution - buy new trucks!

MWB,

 

So which one would I need to a replacement an Atlas 40ft Steel reefer. In the picture above it looks as if the fourth one from the top would work on an Atlas car reefer.

 

Thanks,

 

RG

 

I've got to start checking some of my boxed rolling stock to see just what is going on just like many of you.  

It would be great if Atlas would put something out on their site about this situation,if it has been corrected and when parts will be available.  I guess that I'll put a hold on Atlas stuff until I hear that there is a solution.

 

Norm

I hear you Norm. I really haven't looked through all my stuff either. I'm hoping I didn't waste a lot of money on what may be junk now.

 

Goo and CA mix. They're mixed together?

 

Dave

 

That's why I posted a link,to educate the new forum members.

Whatever floats your boat  I myself am not amused at helping others  You should have just posted the link instead of making new members feel they are being laughed at.

Probably the one to use - the side view profile is #3.

A bit of Goo on one surface and a bit of CA on the other - sort of like an instant contact cement - be sure of where you want the 2 bits to go since you might not get a 2nd chance to fiddle with it.

Yep, that wasn't the best choice of words. I've edited my first reply.Thanks for pointing it out.

I have gone through about 30 cars and have not seen it yet. Have a few with crumbling ladders as well

I've seen this crumbly problem on old scale models but I'd have thought modern technology would have figured out how to eliminate it by now. ....DaveB

Instead of casting, I printed mine...

 

 

Check out the thread here: https://ogrforum.com/t...t-bolsters-and-shims.

 

Thanks,

Mario

Mario did you ever receive my email?

I did and responded... Sorry, it got sent to my spam folder, but you should have one from me...

How many do you need?

Thanks,
Mario

Interesting article. Maybe the manufacturing will return to the USA

 

http://fortune.com/2015/06/26/...manufacturing-costs/