Atlas Rebuilt Well Cars

They have arrived and are in the process of being shipped now.

@Paul Graf posted:

They have arrived and are in the process of being shipped now.

Post some photos if you have time! Cant wait to see them.

@biscuitag97 posted:

Post some photos if you have time! Cant wait to see them.

The photographer is working on it.  We got in a bunch of stuff in all scales, so he is quite busy at the moment.

Received the rebuilt well cars today from dealer. Thanks, Jeff! Here's a few pix of a TTX Next Load, Any Road. Also have some of the NOKL. Nice cars - thank you, Atlas.

David

53’ came in today.  I don’t have any 53’ trailers so I showcased with the recent 40’ high cubes.  Beautiful car.

One problem…this car is advertised as negotiating O-54, but the wheels are scraping the body even at O-72.  Anyone else noticing this?

While I was taking out a couple containers and taking pix, I see Catonsville Central Railway (Woody) has posted some pix. But, here's a pic anyway - the 40-footer with a couple of 40-foot high cubes. FYI, with the pins between the containers but not in the well, the height is 5 inches above the rail - or maybe a sixteenth of an inch more. The container rubs against the bottom of the box spring as the track passes under the bed. A quarter-inch block under the bed-frame legs ought to fix that.

David

I received 10 cars today - 4 of the 53' and 6 of the 40'.  All are 3 rail.  The 40' cars need at least O63 and even with that diameter the wheel flanges on some of the cars scrape against the plastic piece at the end of the well. They will not run on O54.  The 53' need at least O72 and even with that radius some don't free roll through O72 curves.  They will not run on anything tighter.  I would suggest using O81 or larger.

UPDATE:  The fit of the 53' containers is really tight but I found that I could get them into the wells if I angled the container and seated first the end of the container that has the hinges.  Then push gently down of the other end to seat the container completely.  To remove the container reverse the process and lift the end first that doesn't have the hinges.

Also, be sure you have lots of CA glue.  13 ladders, several walkways, and some little parts I don't even know what they are, fell off.  Only one ladder was broken, however.

The wheels drag on the 53s on 072. I figure theyll wear the body quite a bit.

Has anyone else who has received the 53' well cars had a problem fitting the Atlas 53' containers in these cars ? if so have they contacted Atlas.  Update just received my order for FEC 2 rail 53' wellcars and the Atlas 53' containers just fit using the container doors end first into the well, no wheel rub on 2 rail cars, no end lettering on cars. Very well detailed but use care when removing from packing as some parts have not been CAed in and fall out from decks, you do not want to lose any of these detail parts.

Updated my post after receiving 2 rail 53' well cars. cars

I received the 2 I reserved thru Public Delivery Track, thanks Beth!

Overall I’m very pleased with these cars and plan to order more. The only minor issue I encountered was a couple of ladders had fallen off in transit, but were easily glued back on.

I’ll post better pics later but for now this is the only one I have.

John

I spoke to Mr. Muffins @  @Yorkbob. He stated his shipment was just received and he might have a couple left but most cars were sold out! Invoices going out this week.

These are some very nicely detailed cars, as expected from Atlas. Outstanding details for sure. Tight fit for the 53’s but nicely done overall.

So finally got around to opening my first 53’.   And reading the comments.   054 is completely out.  Video of lower level of me pushing the car.   The 2nd video is a downward slope of 072.  You will see in the pictures that the wheels rub against that flat piece.

Very disappointed that advertised 054 and there is no way that is going to happen.   Perhaps with some modifications 072 will work.  

For reference if I put a passenger car on the upper level 072 where the rebuilt car is and let go it will roll down the entire back slope.

My question is this design something that perhaps was 2 rail.  I could see 2 rail wheels working perhaps.  

I also removed the truck to see if I could move it forward and that is not an option.

Just FYI if you are thinking of buying these.

I will be making some calls tomorrow as I have 6 of these that will not work as spec’d

Picked mine at a train show today.

As others have mentioned, the details are great but fragile. Since I didn't need to have mine shipped, there were no shipping damages, but one of the ladders separated as I was trying to push the containers in.

The cars feel lighter than the car from the Atlas Gunderson Maxi-IV Well Car, 3-car set, even though most of the body on both are diecast. It appears like most of the floor on these newer Rebuilt cars are plastic and they flex a lot when trying to force the Atlas-O 53' containers, into the wells.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

Atlas will have to address these issues in the next run of these cars, there own 53' container is a tight fit at best. JMO

jjwyatt, Thanks for posting the video.

They are very good looking cars.

Does anyone have any ideas how to correct the binding wheels on curves?

If you remove the end pieces from the wells you will get more room for containers and more room for truck swing.  How much?  No clue.  When there are containers in the cars the ends are no really visible. The ends are very easy to remove as they use a small amount of glue to hold them in.  Which means replacing them is not as easy as the glue is what holds them in place.  This is the reason Lionel took scale length cars and made the containers short and did the painting in the wrong location to accommodate these two issues.

Railroads don't have curves anywhere near as tight and the cars are as close to scale as possible.

My cars still haven't arrived yet, but is anyone having the same problem with the 40' cars?

@seank941 posted:

My cars still haven't arrived yet, but is anyone having the same problem with the 40' cars?

The 40’ 3 rail cars do not run on O54 track.  There is no problem with container fit.

My 40' rebuilt well cars ran on my O-72 curves with no rubbing or binding of the wheels. My 53' well cars not so much... Those had rubbing and the wheels get bound up while taking O-72 and they needed some rather complex modifications to make them run perfectly on my O-72 curves. The following is what I did to fix the issue...

Modifications consisted of cutting off the thin lower beam on the end plate pieces of the car, I removed the end pieces for ease of cutting with a sharp knife. Then I cut off the lip that the end plate piece rested on, but only where the wide hole is on the end piece. After all that, I glued the end pieces in place. Only applying it where it was from the factory. Image below shows what the finished modifications will look like:

After completing the modifications, be sure to move the wheel set in the truck from side to side and pivot the truck. This is to check if you have plenty of clearance on the end plate piece, no matter what position the wheel set goes into. In my case, 2 of my cars still had slight wheel rubbing issues on one of the end piece. This was resolved by cutting a bevel on the sides of wide hole of the end piece, to make more clearance for the wheel flanges. See image below for that:

Here's an example of what an unmodified car looks like, to compare:

Final modification is to the coupler, but only for the truck that's on the brake wheel end of the car. This coupler modification is for both 53' and 40' cars.

The coupler release pin needs to be bent down far enough where it completely clears the chain guide detail piece, when the truck is turned into it. It will need be around a 60 degree angle downwards, but check the clearance with the truck on the car. A bit of plastic on the air hose moulding needs to also be cut off, on the coupler release pin side. It's the piece hangs down on the side of the shank, above the release pin. See picture below for example:

Skipping the coupler modification will cause the truck to be forced into a position that causes the flanges to grind on the rails, due to the centering spring rotating it into that position. The purpose of removing that bit of plastic on the air hose moulding, is to give a little bit more room for the coupler to swing towards the chain guide detail.

I do not recommend the end piece modification procedure to anyone who isn't confident they can do this job without majorly damaging the car on accident. I took my time with that modification and struggled a bit at times, but it was well worth it because the cars now run perfectly on O-72. If you do end up trying the solution for your 53' rebuilt well cars, it's at your own risk. The coupler modification isn't too difficult, it can be done without creating a ton of accidental damage to the model.

@MichaelB thank you for sharing the necessary mods to get these to negotiate O72!

Also for clarity, this is the difference from the top between modified and unmodified

Unmodified:

Modified:

Modified ones still look pretty normal overall, so it won't affect the overall look of the cars when they are empty.

I have seen that & fixed it use Lionel 6-14251 Trucks, its a shame you have to do this but I have seen from the Atlas trucks I have taken off some roll better than others & a couple don't roll more than 3" so the factory one's are trash, shame you pay $104.00 & the steps break off to easily.

I've been running my Atlas Rebuilt Well Cars for about 4 months now and they have become some of my favorites, really looking forward to future runs. I've been wanting to build up an Intermodal train for the longest time so really glad Atlas produced these, and the Gunderson Maxi IV cars. Naveen/hibar, I'm hoping the 53' containers fit ok. I don't have any yet but they show as shipped on Atlas's site so hopefully they'll be here around the end of the month.

John

Have 5 of the 53' rebuilt well cars and all fit , put container door end in first and smooth front should slide in sometimes a little tight but work. The new highly detailed cars Atlas has been releasing in the Masterline series reflect what the HO mfgrs  Scaletrains, Rapido etc have been doing for several years now so more care in handling is required. The 3 rail versions do present an issue for the Mfgr and the buyer something the HO Mfgrs are not restricted by. JMO

@jgtrh62 posted:

I've been running my Atlas Rebuilt Well Cars for about 4 months now and they have become some of my favorites, really looking forward to future runs. I've been wanting to build up an Intermodal train for the longest time so really glad Atlas produced these, and the Gunderson Maxi IV cars. Naveen/hibar, I'm hoping the 53' containers fit ok. I don't have any yet but they show as shipped on Atlas's site so hopefully they'll be here around the end of the month.

John

John,

I also follow hibar's advice of inserting the 53' containers with the door-end, first.

When I first got these cars, both of the ones I have, seemed to require slightly more effort to get the containers in, but nowhere near the effort required to fit Atlas-O containers in the wells of the Atlas O Gunderson Twin-Stack Cars. Now, with repeated loading & removal, the 53' containers seem to go in without any hardships into these Rebuilt cars, while fitting snugly in the wells.

The following picture show the Atlas O 53' Rebuilt Well Car on the left and the Gunderson Maxi-IV Well Car on the right, both cars with Atlas O, 53' containers, from different runs.

These are just my opinion.

Naveen Rajan