Hello guys,
I have the following problem:
I own 5 Walthers Mainline passenger cars in HO scale: 4 coaches and 1 dining car.
The coach model:
https://www.walthers.com/85-budd...ainted-unlettered-silver
The dining car model:
https://www.walthers.com/85-budd...ainted-unlettered-silver
My other Walthers Proto models don´t make any problems on my Märklin C-Track (they never derail), but these Walthers Mainline cars always derail (not only in switches). Therefore I need to change the axles and this proved to be very difficult until now.
I found out, that the ideal measurements would be wheels with 10,6 mm diameter and axles with 25,5 mm length. Because this is the data of the original axles of these Walthers Mainline cars.
I tried first to purchase from this ebay seller who offers a wide variety of AC axles:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/50-H0-We...WS-AC-NEU-/201878649903?
I thought that #67 (10,4 mm wheel diameter & 25,4 mm axle length) would be the best choice. Because all the other axles available are less suited because of their measurements.
But when I installed these #67 axles, I was very disappointed because there was still too much lateral play, so the wheels touched the truck frame which decreased the free rolling of the car very much, so that it doesn´t roll freely at all anymore. In other words: I can´t use these axles for operation! Interestingly, I had the feeling that the lateral play was around 3mm (!), so I thought that axles with 26 mm length could be the solution although the original axles have only 25,5 mm length. But after I sent back those #67 axles together with a truck for testing, the seller tested it with the #76 axles (11 mm diameter & 26 mm length). It was no success to: 26 mm axle length was too much and he couldn´t even install the axles into the trucks. After that, we gave up.
It´s still weird to see, that these AC axles (#67) who have only 0,1 mm less length than the original axles, already do not fit anymore to enable safe and smooth rolling/operation.
So my question to you here is:
Does anybody of you know some other AC axles available in this world, that fit these Walthers Mainline passenger car trucks?
Does anyone of you have Walthers Mainline passenger cars too and did you successfully install fitting AC axles? If yes, which ones please?
I know that the wheel diameter should be between 10,4 and 10,7mm and that the axle length should be between 25,5 and 25,7 mm I guess.
Anyone out there who knows which axles would fit?
That would be very appreciated!

Hi, thank you for your advice but I will certainly not spend 50 € on tools just to adjust 20 axles. I know for sure that these 5 cars will be my only Walthers Mainline cars, so it really doesn´t pay off for me to buy these tools because I will certainly not need them in the future anymore because my US passenger train collection is complete.
I also do not think that the problem is in the spacing because the spacing of the Walthers Proto passenger cars is the same.
But when I look at the wheels, I have the impression that the flanges of these Walthers Mainline cars are slightly smaller than of the Walthers Proto cars. That makes them derail so easily. I´m very sure they wouldn´t derail if the flanges were a little bit higher.
The weight might also be the problem because these Walthers Mainline passenger cars are lighter than the Walthers Proto passenger cars. First I tried to add a lot of weight inside, but it didn´t help at all. I also don´t want to make the train too heavy as these 5 Walthers Mainline passenger cars are part of a 12 car train that I don´t want to become too heavy for the locomotive.
"What I have done with very hi level of success is simply reduce the inside spacing between the wheel from 14.2 mm to 13.8 mm." ---> So does that mean that you have done this successfully with these Walthers Mainline passenger cars?
I live in southwestern Germany. Of course I kept the original axles. They are all with the trucks. If you don´t mind, I would send you the trucks together with the wheels so you can do that space-change for me if you want and if you think that it will be a success. Just send me a PM with your adress. By the way I also speak German and French. So if you want we can speak in one of those 2 languages (but I prefer German of course because I don´t know many of these special words in french).

What are you talking about? Please explain.

I know that seller and I have bought privately from him before. He always sells me the axles for 0,85 € per piece. 20 axles = 17 € in total.

I did not make up my mind about it. I just don´t have much hope that this could be the solution. But I´m still open to at least try it. That´s why I asked you for sending the axles to you so you can try it. If it works out fine, great. If not...well then not. I will surely not blame you for trying to help me!