First Weaver anything I have on my layout

In my experience, the needle point axles seldom need any additional lubrication. This is especially true with the Weaver plastic trucks. If and when I lube needle point axles, a drop or two of light oil has been more than enough.  I can see where R&T would be good on tinplate.

Gilly

Gilly,

   I was not thinking about the plastic trucks, never wanted to own any, a definate different situation no doubt about it.

Lee,

   Must be the Weaver magnetic breaking kicking in for safety purposes!

PCRR/Dave

Lee

There's something wrong with the trucks on your Weaver TOFC. Those trucks have needlepoint axles and should roll freely. They aren't quite as smooth as Lionel trucks, but they should roll more than a few inches with a push. I'd give them a close look for something causing excess friction - maybe a sideframe out of position pushing inward on the axle. I don't like Weaver trucks much, but that's because of the coupler mounting, not because they don't roll well. 

Did you look to make sure that there aren't ay hobos riding the rods?

Lee 

I had the same problems with some Weaver plastic trucks. It is really a simple fix. The truck sides are held in by a plastic pin attached to the truck mount . Use a thin flat tip screw driver, insert it between the truck side and the mount and prey it apart just a tad on both sides. This should relieve the pressure and the wheels should spin freely. The other thing you can do, is to take your dremel with a small drill bit and hollow out the point where the needle pont of the axel and the plastic meet.The issue is caused by the sides on assembly being snaped in to tightly.

I really like Weaver products, made in the USA. Great detail and reasonably priced. Im surprised Lionel, MTH or Atlas have not bought them out. That said I hope Weaver stays  independent and continues to build great products.

Thats because they fill a nitch market and is not a threat to their bottom line. Look what Lionel did to K Line.  

Lee,

Forgive me, this is a really stupid suggestion. Is there any chance there is still packing material between the tops of the wheels and the bottom of the car???? They are shipped with little strips of gray foam.

Gilly

The Weaver plastic trucks are made from Delrin, or "engineering plastic," similar to the plastic trucks that MPC started using not long after they took over Lionel production in the early 1970s.

One of the advantages of Delrin is that it's self-lubricating (the plastic has a "slippery" texture so it acts like a natural bearing) so in reality no external lubrication is necessary, or more appropriately, of any significant advantage.  The key is to have as small of a contact area between the axle and the "bearing" and not have too tight of tolerance so that the axle will float enough within the bearing to roll smoothly.  If the press fit between the axles & trucks are too tight it can overcome the naturally lubricating properties of the Delrin plastic and have too much friction.  On Weaver's metal trucks, I seem to recall that they use a plastic bearing that the axle is pressed into, similar to Lionel & MTH's.  I'm assuming it's also Delrin, but again if tolerances are too tight then you can run into problems where the wheels don't turn as freely as desired.

Ok, how are Weaver freight cars niche products? I have 3 dozen of them And I like them but I don't see how their niche products ...

I'm going to Weaver tomorrow after work with a friend. He's picking up, and I'm dropping off. Anybody want anything?!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll inquire about the trucks they use and the bearing issue.

Don

Just came back from Weaver. I talked to Joe about the truck topic. Weaver trucks are not the same as MTH. Weaver has its own tooling, but the trucks are made at the same facility. Joe isn't aware of any issues with slow rolling wheels. I'm going to do my own experiment with Weaver Lionel MTH and Atlas. This will be out of the box or off the shelf, with no lubrication. I'll post my results.

Another topic of discussion recently was the lack of diesel engines. I also asked about that. The problem is parts, one example, trucks. When Sanda khan folded, that left Weaver in a bind, with no supplier, hence the switch to a new supplier through MTH. Joe also mentioned that he had spoken to Kadee about possibly producing trucks, but they need to examine the tooling, which would have to be shipped out of China. No problem there, just getting it back if things didn't work out. I don't know who makes Kadee trucks, but Joe couldn't find any place stateside that can do it.

Moving on to the TOFC"s; Joe said that has been one of his top sellers, and they'll be making more. He mentioned that H30 sales weren't what he expected. That's a darn good looking car. 

Wood chip cars were in various stages of production, from sub assembly to paint and print. I didn't see any with trucks.  This is another nice looking car.

I had some business to discuss with Peg concerning a club car project I'm involved with from another forum, and my buddy Clem picked one of the two cars he ordered, the Reading 3 bay Blue Coal hopper. His UP wood chip car wasn't ready yet, painted but not printed. Hopefully that will go along to York with Joe and Gary.

I always enjoy going down, it's a nice way to end the work day!

Don