40' Woodside Reefer

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Overview:

I'm pretty happy with mine, here's a few preliminary pictures, it seems AML has addressed a number of issues in this new car.

Wheels and trucks:

Originally the trucks were not sprung, the new AML freight car trucks are sprung.

The excessive side to side slop of the axles has been eliminated.

The sloppy fit between the axle and the journal has been improved.

Overall, a vast improvement in the trucks alone.

Some of the wheelsets were slightly undergauge, belowe the NMRA minimum.You must disassemble the trucks to re-gauge the wheels.

Remove the two tiny machine screws on one side of the truck. Now separate the 2 halves of  the bolster a bit and you can pull the sideframe off. The springs will come out, but they normally don't sprong a lot. Now you can remove the sideframe completely and regauge the wheels. Reassemble in reverse order. The springs are quite easy to replace. You will notice one side has raised bosses for the springs. Slip the end of a spring on the boss, and using an x-acto blade in the coils, compress and put the other end in place.

Be sure to lubricate the axles, there was no lubrication on any of my 4 cars.

The picture below shows a typical warping of the floor at the end of car, click on the link below to read Ted's vignette. (this is Ted's car).

sub pages

Click the links below to go "deeper" into details on individual AML rolling stock