Williams Passenger Car Trucks

It's a product of a designer who did not understand what he/she was designing. Theoretically, the fast angle wheels and needle point ends on the axles should roll more freely than the post war wheels turning on fixed axles. The fact that the coupler frame drags on the axles is part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is that the springs on the center rail pickups are too strong. I had a set of five Williams 60 foot streamlined cars, the ones in the yellow box with the red corner banner that said "crown edition" and they pulled like dragging bricks along the tracks.

Replacing the pickup springs with Lionel springs helped a lot.

The other thing you can do is make sure the plate that wraps around the axles is a loose fit, and oil the points of contact.

Williams made dozens of truck designs over the years, but the ones in that five car set were the worst, as fas a drag goes.

 You don't happen to have the Lionel pickup spring # RoyBoy ?

Sorry. I just bought it from Mikes trains and hobbies in Lompoc, CA. He comes to a lot of train shows in northern California and I look through his bins. It's a conical spring that is larger on one end than the other.

It comes on the 2500 series aluminum cars, but there does not seem to be a number in either the postwar repair book,  or the modern era book. 

The truck is 492-1, but there is no parts breakdown for it.

Spring P.N TCL 45

 Jeff at the train tender has them,   http://www.ttender.com/partslist.html

Bill 

In a case like this you should have spoke with Mike. He does have a vast knowledge of replacement parts. It could be he has it in stock at his shop. He can carry only so much to each show. In a case such as this I'd call his shop.

The problem with poor rolling characteristics goes back to the mid 1970's. Boy do they squeak going down the track.

I have a 6 car AL TX SP set.  I use LaBelle oil on the axle ends, and Never Stall on the 3rd ril roolers.  That seems to help them roll very well.

Rob Roy,

I took in a set from a person to partially settle his bill. They did the very same thing. I pulled the trucks and used a little Lucas' Red N Tacky #2 on each axle (The same way one would lube prewar axles). I made a profit on the deal and the new owner is very happy....Just a thought

Chris M,

The best you can do with the Williams set of wheels is to use a good lubricant, other then that you will have to change out the complete truck assembly.

I have worked with many Williams passenger cars and they just need a good lube!

Do not try to mix or match sets of wheels for any Williams car. It will just add to the frustration.

If you add Lionel fast angle wheels but keep the Williams truck it won't work correctly for long.

Lee Fritz

I added Lionel heavyweight trucks to mine. These cars are the ones that the trucks would crumble when you looked at them.

Bill

Boxcar Bill,

I have never had a set of Williams trucks fall apart on me. I think that you mean K-Line heavy weights when they first cam e out did that.

Anyway I have trouble with the Crown Edition six car passenger set with dummy or fixed couplers as these will jump even on a straight track at low speed.

The truck sets, from the Crown Edition era, that look like they have K-Line center rail rollers work a whole lot better. These will hold the track and roll along smoother.

Lee Fritz

    Lee,  

I mean Williams, I still have some that I haven't converted. If your are not careful when removing them from the box they will break. I bought these around 2003-2004, when I called Williams they said they would glady replace them at $12.00 a truck, eight cars sixteen trucks, you do the math.

Bill

Bill,

That is a is very strange & unique problem for Williams. I have been around Williams for almost 12 years and never heard of their truck assemblies falling apart, just hope that it don't happen to me.

I own at least 12 Williams engines and about 21 Williams passenger cars.

My problem has been with the passenger cars not staying on the track do to truck assembly problems.

Lee Fritz

I don't know what all this talk is about Williams Passenger car trucks having fast angle/needle bearing wheels. The Broadway Limited set that I just purchased has the old Lionel type wheels on axles. The cars roll terrible even when lubed. We could in theory replace the wheel sets with fast angle wheels but we would need to find a way to get the little bushings in the trucks so that the needle ends don't "drill" through. The other option is replacing all of the trucks but that would be a very expensive proposition.  Williams needs to improve their trucks instead of shipping their passenger cars with 1930's technology.  

Lee,

   Williams corrected the problem, You shouldn't worry unless they do it again. And I am sure if it happens they will replace the trucks. If you want to research the problem, the stock number is 723 for the New York Central set.

Bill

Dennis,

This was a problem with only a "certain run" of Williams passenger cars in the past and has nothing to do with current WBB stuff.

So the new Williams stuff should be very good to own.

Lee fritz

Lee: My set of Williams aluminum passenger cars was purchased just last weekend. In addition to not being able to stay on the tracks (without some tweaking), the set gives about twice the drag as even my old 1980's MPC set gives. IMO, Williams trucks are just terrible; no fast angle wheels used, high drag and 1930's technology..

Dennis,

Was the set of passenger cars purchased brand new from Williams by Bachmann?

Or is it an older set? If purchased brand new I would contact WBB immediately and see what WBB says to do.

I have not had any problems with the newer WBB rolling stock. Don't have any new WBB engines as yet, only Williams before Bachmann engines.

Lee Fritz

Boxcar Bill,

I like your idea using lionel trucks,  what part number is it? I looked at the lionel website, came up with this:  6009536050, but was not available.

Thanks

Bill,

   The ones we used are 610-9060-050. We have them in stock, check our web for discounted pricing.

Bill

"Just one more thing" (Lt. Colombo, LAPD):  I just finished spending a half-hour lubing all axles and their needle points on my 5 Williams Santa Fe aluminum passenger cars and remembering this thread, had to put in my two cents worth.

Until today, I had been using LaBelle oil for lubing all my axles, both for passenger and freight cars. But my Williams cars would eventually develop squeaks again. This time I used Lucas Red & Tacky II with a needle syringe putting minimal little grease dabs into the critical places and now what a difference! No squeaks from any of the cars and they roll much better.  This is a 5-car Crown Edition from 1987.

I'm so pleased with the results I just had to share.  I think I'll be using the Red & Tacky II for greasing axles from now on. 

After all, the real railroads use axle grease, not axle oil, don't they?  

Vern

I have a theory that using a drop of light synthetic oil on each wheel might help the drag situation. While the new passenger set that I have is well made and looks good the trucks leave something to be desired. Perhaps I purchased some new old stock and it had the old style wheels. Might just bite the bullet and go for fast angle trucks.