Weaver and Atlas 2 rail cars on Atlas 3 rail Track

Yes, I have been running two rail cars and now MTH scale wheel locos on Atlas track.

The guard rails on Atlas O72 and #5 turnouts need to be built up to the height of the running rails.

I modified all my Atlas turnouts, per Soo Nut's instructions. I have quite a few 2-Rail scale truck equipped cars, especially cabooses, and they operate just fine on my Atlas O track.

all freight cars have 2 rail trucks, 2 rail couplers. track is mth scaletrax, but any 3 rail T track will work.

Check out this video.  It's a 2 rail engine and cars on Atlas 3 rail track.  Although I don't have any switches so I don't know how they would run thru a switch.

All cars and engine have Kadee couplers.  Curves are O-81 Atlas.  I had them on O-72 curves but I had a problem with 1 car.  I did however run a 6 axle engine thru the O-72 curve with no problems.

Rick

Without any switches, how can you say 2-Rail scale equipment works OK? Atlas O switches must be modified in order to effectively handle 2-Rail scale wheels sets.

I didn't say 2 rail equip ran thru 3 rail switches.  I said I don't have any switches so I don't know how they would run thru a switch.  But, my 2 rail equip runs just fine on 3 rail track.  That includes engines and cars.

You're welcome,  Rick

Thanks for the replies fellas. 

How do I modify the switches? Styrene?

Yes, that is how I did the guard rails on the diverging route of each of my switches. I simply added the styrene strips to the tops of the appropriate guardrails (making sure that they are then at the same height as the running rails), and then painted them Grimy black.

What did you use (adhesive) to attach the styrene strips to the tops of the guardrails? Do you have a photo as to how you did it?

Thanks for any help. I've been struggling with the Atlas switch guardrail gap problem for sometime now.

1) I used Gorilla Glue brand "thick" SuperGlue.

2) No photos of "how I did it", since I simply cut the narrow shim strips to the length of each guardrail, glued them on top, and painted them grimy black later.

3) Don't really know what you mean by "struggling with the Atlas switch guardrail gap problem", i.e. WHAT "gap problem"? The purpose of adding the narrow shims on TOP of the guardrails is to raise the guardrail to the SAME HEIGHT as the running rail. Thus, for some reason, the 2-rail scale wheel sets will then take the diverging route without derailing.

Thank you for the info.

Instead of "gap" I probably should have said "height". The "gap" problem is the space just prior the to switch frog point...when the wheel drops and sometimes derails.

I have tried to run a train of two rail cars on my 3 rail Atlas track. They work fine except through turnouts as the posts above identify. My investigation on my layout indicated that the cars that had problems through turnouts were all Atlas cars, and they ALL had far too much lateral wheelset play, such that one or more wheelsets would not follow its respective truck when diverging. My later Atlas cars have almost no lateral wheelset play and they are fine, except that 2R wheels still drop into the frog.

One HUGE advantage with the use of 2 rail wheelsets is that a train of these is MUCH quieter than the same size train using 3 rail cars. I have a Db meter (from Radio Shack at about $50) and the difference is more than 3 Decibels. Because Db uses a log scale, every 3 Db (approximately) is TWICE the sound energy, so 3Db is a lot. As soon as I can find longer axle replacements for a "number" of my 2 rail Atlas freight cars, I plan to buy only 2 rail cars and use them interchangeably on both my 2 rail and my 3 rail layouts. There is that much of a difference......

Atlas cars are fine on Atlas, Gargraves/Ross, MTH RealTrax, and MTH ScaleTrax. They'll bounce on turnout frogs, but usually don't derail. Turnouts should be the #5's or #7.5's (with the guard rail tops raised) as opposed to the curve-replacement (i.e., O-72) type. You do have to be cautious regarding the lengths and weights of the cars and where they are in the train to avoid string-lining issues.

Here's an all scale-wheeled train. The cars are a mix of Atlas, K-Line (Weaver Die-Cast Sprung Trucks), Pecos River Brass, and Lionel (MTH Trucks with Intermountain wheelsets) Locomotives are scale-wheeled MTH C44-9W's in 3-rail mode under DCS.

Here they are on Gargraves 48" Radius (O-96)

Hot Water,

Once the height adjustment is made, what happens if you run a 3-rail truck thru the switch, does it bump up or is there any derailment?  If it works, seems like we all ought to do the fix regardless if we run 2-rail or 3-rail trucks.

No, nothing happens. On one or two guardrails, I got the top shims a fraction too close to the running rail, i.e. tightening the clearance, and subsequently had to shave a bit off the shims. Other than that, everything seems to run fine. I especially like the Athearn 2-Rail trucks!

I wonder if the fix is the same for RCS switches?  I guess I'll find out soon enough when I "fix" mine

Heck, if there's no difference in the operating qualities, maybe we could get Steve to make a design "fix".

Great information here.  Thanks

As additional information, I hve been running 2-Rail wheel equipped brass cabooses for quite some time on our large modular layout. We use a mix of Gargraves track, Ross Custom Switches, and even some VERY old Gargraves/Curtis switches. Most of my 2-Rail cabooses don't have any problems at all. The biggest issue has always been those darned Weaver plastic trucks, which have the thicker Hi-Rail wheel sets!

Over the past week, I have purchased two of the newest Weaver Milwaukee ribbed side boxcars, one with 3-Rail trucks (which took a LOT of work to lower the carboy height and still had to shim down the Kadee coupler), and one 2-Rail car (which came already equipped with Kadee #805 couplers). The 2-Rail car ran better, right out of the box, than the "modified" 3-Rail car! I'll admit that I had to add lead weight to both cars, just because I prefer heavier cars.

I also purchased a brass B&O "wagon top" covered hopper (imported by Hallmark MANY years ago) at the Chicago O Scale March Meet, which already has Rich Yoder 2-Rail Scale trucks. I can't wait to see how this car works, after it is painted, lettered, and weathered. I already have some cabooses with Rich Yoder 2-Rail Scale caboose trucks (equipped with real leaf springs), and they run very well also.

For just general overall freight cars, I still prefer Athearn trucks, with MTH 2-Rail trucks coming in as a close second.

Is there a 2-rail truck, along with a body bolster, that can be used that will give the correct height on all cars?

If the body bolster is attached to the underside of the floor, then all cars should come out to the correct height if the same trucks are used on all cars.  This should keep us from having real thick Kadee shims, or shims at all.

Is Athearn still making the trucks or are people getting what's been out of production for quite a while now?

Concerning the Athearn O Scale freight trucks, I believe that they are ALL "old stock", i.e. get them while you can!

Thanks HW!

I know what you mean about some of those flanges, some of them are way bigger than others.  If I used ALL Athearn trucks (and wheels or NSWL wheels?) that would eliminate that issue.

Experiment and try some.