Thoughts on Atlas O trolley

I have two.  One still runs and the other burned out the motor.  They saw lots of run time.

I have 3 that run great. I don't use them often but they do have alot of miles on them.

Thanks!!!

Bob

No real issues with these.  Good runners and you can crank down the speed pretty well as long as your track is in good shape.  Just make sure you are buying an Atlas one, as I believe the earlier Industrial Rail version used a plastic drive gear that was prone to breaking.  They will clear D-21 curves, and can barely clear D-16s if you remove a limiting screw on the trucks.  

The older industrial rails product failed early in its short life.  That was enough to keep me away from the product going forward.

Another warning on the original Industrial Rail trolleys (before Atlas) is they had incidents of catching on fire. I have a friend here in Tampa that had it happen and read of it happening to others. I have two of them that the gears went on that are custom painted Philadelphia Rapid Transit that are now car barn queens.

I second recommendations that you should make sure you get the ATLAS cars.  I also have the Industrial Rail versions, and haven't had any problems...but I do recall extended conversations here on the forum about gear problems.  For super streets, just be sure to remove the truck limiting screw (and doing so is easy and causes no problem).  Montclaire (see above) mentions his creeps around D-16 curves.  After removing the limiting screw, mine go around D-16 at normal operating speed with no problem at all.  Do a search on the forum.  There used to be a detailed article on how to remove the limiting screw.  It's easy.  Even I could do it

          Logan

I had a couple of the earlier Industrial Rail versions that were custom painted, (before Atlas O took over the line)    Instead of making them shelf queens, I bought two Atlas O IR trolleys and swapped out the running gear. I sold off the Atlas O bodies with the old Industrial Rail  running gear at a very low price (telling the buyers what I did) and everyone was happy.  The earlier Industrial Rail versions have plastic gears and they tend to break. The Atlas O IR trolleys have metal gears and differently mounted rollers and I have had no trouble with them.  Since there are no spare parts for them or the Atlas O trolleys, when the gears break they make great lighted diners!  All you need is to put them on a separate short track and put a diner sign of your choice on their roofs or beside the trolley body.

My Atlas O versions run well and have a good speed range. The fact that they have operating reverse units , as well as  working bumpers, make them a great choice for layout use.

Ed Boyle

Thanks for all the replies.

Bob