To all:
I have been amazed! I posted this two days ago and have received so
many e-mails and suggestions that I can't respond to everyone individually!
I am truly impressed! Many, many thanks!
The solution that was used was to gently nip the axles with a good pair of
wire cutters. So I 'roughen up' then ends of the ACE half-axles where they
extend into the Athearn gears. It worked so good that when I was done I
rechecked the others and found one to fix
Re-wheeling two steeplecabs each with two trucks with four wheels
each. This is 16 wheels and half axles. Of these, only 3 were sloppy loose
and two more were semi-loose. All are now tight.
Several people suggested glue but avoiding glue was the original objective.
Dick Karnes suggested I just slide out the original Athearn half axles,
regauge to S, and secure with a drop of glue. This would normally work and
is the Scale suggestion that comes with the Hoquat shell. But I am highrail
with 'S'mile and 'S'miles of gen-u-whine AF track so I used ACE wheelsets.
When I finished building 40 I had fixed sideframes just like the Athearn
SW-9 who's mechanism is under there. Unlike the instructions, I retained
the equalization of the Athearn trucks. (i.e. when it goes over a bump, one
wheel will go up or down slightly and the other three wheels stay put.) The
equalized wheelsets worked against me as the wheel would go up but the
sideframes, being fixed, would not. The ends of 40's sideframes would pick
at switches and other things.
As I am highrail, I solved this by getting more ACE highrail
wheelsets and making a new set of half axles. Only this time I left the
axle extensions intact. (The part that goes into the journal box.) I
modified the sideframes so the axle extensions actually go into the
sideframes and work!
Because of the working equalization, I had to use ACE Scale
wheelsets to get the axle extensions! The Athearn wheelsets could not be
used. They lack the extension because the HO side frames do not touch the
wheelsets at all. (The shorter HO axles swing up and down less than my
longer S axles. This allows Athearn to have fixed sideframes. On level
track my sideframes are no lower than the Athearn ones.)
Again, thanks to all of you! I finished the rear truck of 40 last night and
tested it on my module. It works great. I have 6 more wheelsets (with
gears, bushings, etc.) ready to install into the other three trucks.
Thorin
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