Walthers 2 rail passenger trucks shorting out

"My Walthers passenger cars all short out."

   If your other 2 rail stuff runs fine on the track you might check the wheel sets on the Walthers cars to make sure they are insulated and installed the right way. A lot of the older O models were run as outside 3rd rail so they didn't worry about the wheel insulation.....DaveB 

To add to what Dave posted, some of the insulated wheels were only single-insulated, but people running outside third rail may have assembled the trucks without ensuring that the insulated wheels were on the same side. That would allow continuity through the truck frame.

The way he phrased it, his 2-rail cars are shorting on his Gargraves - presumably 3- rail.

Since I probably mis- read it, check the angle of those cast side frames.  They need to be vertical, and if they get splayed outward at the bottom, the top will touch theinsulated wheels, causing a short on 2- rail track.  The cure is to disassemble, file a slight angle on the center casting, forcing the side frames to be vertical.  Either that, or just tighten all the screws.

As mentioned above, all the insulated wheels should be on the same side of the car - - on both trucks if they car has metal in the underframe.

If you are running 3 rail power and the car are the very old ones with king pins for truck mounting instead of screws,   You could have the king pins project down far enough to hit the center rail.   this might be especially true on switches.

There is also a slight possibility the trucks are uninsulated (assuming running 2 rail power).   Walthers still offered uninsulated axles in the trucks into early 70s as an option for the outside 3rd rail guys.

Thank you al! I will get on this!

This is a good example of why a multimeter is useful to have in one's shop.

Since the outside rails on 3-Rail track are the same electrical circuit, i.e. "ground" or "common", your Walthers cars must be then shorting to the center "hot" rail. Thus, something must be hanging down too low underneath those cars. Just because they have 2-Rail wheel sets in them, regardless of whether they are insulated or not, wouldn't cause a "short" between the two outside rails, which are there same electrical circuit.

THANK YOU!  You guys are the best! I carefully looked at each truck and found one wheel set in 2 different cars reversed, which caused the short. Now...I'm running ancient 80 foot passenger cars behind a 70 year old 2-8-0. Pretty cool......If I didn't have so much time, money and sweat tied up in my 3-rail stuff....I'd....I'd....nah....I'll just keep things as they are.      Thanks again for sharing what ya know!