Walthers Heavyweights Problems

So why is it that whenever I attempt to get my PRR heavyweights together stuff has to fail? This time around its the walthers heavyweight 3-2 obs. The coupler height is very low on the rear coupler under the porch. I attemped to use washers to raise the car up off the truck and it seems to have zero effect on it. Part of the problem seems to come from the coupler box lids which were glued on and I had to hold onto the porch pretty well to break the lid off without it taking the whole porch with it! Before and after the coupler change the porch seemed to be slouching down. Has anyone had this problem with these cars? I got it new from a store nearby me so I am going to see if I can return it and buy another from walthers, but before I do I would like to see if others have had the same issues. If so I wont even bother getting another I will just give up on this passenger train all together.

I still have the Bachmann cars from a few years ago that I cant run on Handlaid track, they work fine elsewhere, but are of no use to me. Anyone want to buy them?

I actually just got one of these for Christmas, and almost immediately noticed that the rear coupler sagged quite a bit (a noticeable amount, but still not all that bad). I don't know how much you can do about that, because, as you said, the design of the car makes it extrememely difficult.
I did, however, find an alternative to ripping the coupler box cover off:
Remove the rear truck completely. Remove the screw that holds the coupler drawbar. With a little wiggling, you will eventually be able to slip the entire drawbar through the coupler box, at least enough to remove the coupler.
Adding washers under the coupler MAY work, although I'm not sure how well it will work, because of the coupler box design.
When you're done, slip the drawbar back through the box and into the car, replace the screw, and replace the truck.

Anyways, good luck!

Semi related-- The roof is actually extremely difficult to remove. The instructions make it sound like it would pop off once you pop the tabs, but it takes much more work than that...

Oh boy... Well I did the same to get the couplers in, I used the Kadees with the wiskars. But for that one i attemped to remove it and put one in with the spring upside down hoping it might support it a little. No such luck. Maybe I will just have to put a coupler there and remove the gladhand.... Sigh!

My father ordered 6 Walthers Amtrak cars and all of them had problums with the cuplers being to high or to low after doing some work on the cars and finding that he still could not get the cars to stay together 5 cars sold at Auction at junk sale at massive loss the 6th cars sold for parts as it met the wall after he threw in a fit of rage. The only cars he will deal with now are the Con-cor cars.

It's amazing that the Blue Box Athearn or Rivorossi passenger cars of 30 plus years ago, that cost $4-$5 each could be assembled with Kadee couplers added using the clip and a little weight added and they were able to be just put on the layout and run. There's NO excuse for kits costing 6 or 8 times that have such quality control issues. Has anyone contacted customer service at Walthers? I'd love to hear their response.

trainwayne1 wrote:It's amazing that the Blue Box Athearn or Rivorossi passenger cars of 30 plus years ago, that cost $4-$5 each could be assembled with Kadee couplers added using the clip and a little weight added and they were able to be just put on the layout and run. There's NO excuse for kits costing 6 or 8 times that have such quality control issues. Has anyone contacted customer service at Walthers? I'd love to hear their response.

I contacted customer service about it before I posted here. No response so far. I think I should just stick to doing the mods to the Rivi cars, even if they arent totally prototypically correct, at least they run great and dont have these kind of problems.

Has anyone had any trouble or adventures trying to install all the handrails that are supply with the model. I started w/ my RPO and I feel like they just forgot to give me all the handrails and I have to customize every single one.
If anyone can shine a light on this issue it will be greatly appreciated.
Many

I never installed the grab irons but they do seem to be a very tedious job.
These cars are very nice models though the grab irons should have been installed at the factory and the coupler issue should have been addressed before going into mass production.

Mine came in the bag with the couplers.

ApproachMedium wrote:

trainwayne1 wrote:...quality control issues. Has anyone contacted customer service at Walthers? I'd love to hear their response.

I contacted customer service about it before I posted here. No response so far...

I received a centerbeam that was damaged, and contacted CS, and they were very easy to deal with, and had no problem with sending a replacement.
The replacement had the same exact damage, and again, they were easy to deal with. They let me keep that car, and sent another free car (which was undamaged, BTW).

Yes I ended up getting a replacement from my local dealer. Walthers got back to me and told me to bring it there and my dealer would handle the damaged item. The replacement car still has the coupler boxes glued on, I was able to get the one box off to put a kadee on, the one attached to the porch can just stay as removing it will destory the gates on the rear balcony most likely again. Car height is still very low and needs to be raised with washers.....

Except for the superliners, Walthers sucks at passenger cars in general. I have a set of walthers horizon commuter cars with the same problem where the couplers sag or the frame doesn't fit into the car correctly.

ApproachMedium wrote:I still have the Bachmann cars from a few years ago that I cant run on Handlaid track, they work fine elsewhere, but are of no use to me. Anyone want to buy them?

What's wrong with the Bachmann cars? You handlaid what? Code 70? Perhaps the flanges on the wheels are too deep for your handlaid trackage? Keep the cars, get new wheelsets.

D/

Dieter wrote:

ApproachMedium wrote:I still have the Bachmann cars from a few years ago that I cant run on Handlaid track, they work fine elsewhere, but are of no use to me. Anyone want to buy them?

What's wrong with the Bachmann cars? You handlaid what? Code 70? Perhaps the flanges on the wheels are too deep for your handlaid trackage? Keep the cars, get new wheelsets.

D/

Nope code 83. And it has nothign to do with the track, the wheelsets sink so far into the trucks the sideframes ride under the railhead and smash into the frogs. I put in intermountain 36 inch wheels, same deal. The same thing happens on code 100 track, at higher speeds it causes derailments, but on the handlaid it doesnt work period because it shorts at the frogs. The cars are absolute garbage and I really dont want them anymore. Id like if someone would just buy them from me already. The 6 axle cars arent too bad but the 2, 2 axle coaches are horrible. One I replaced the trucks with walthers trucks and it works excellent but now i need to mount couplers to it, but I just have no desire to mess with these things anymore.

Any chance of you uploading a picture for us to see of one of your Bachman trucks sitting on the track? I have a set of those cars, use code 100 flex and never had a problem.

D/