Aristo-Craft Rolling Stock

Overall:

If lowest cost is an issue, and/or you are upset about anything breaking on your cars, and/or have very small children handling the cars, and/or don't care about plastic wheels, get Aristo.

If cost is less of an issue, you like higher and finer detail, or have Kadees, or use metal wheels, I would recommend the USAT freight cars.

Looks, paint, details

Aristo freight cars are nice looking, good graphics, and nicely priced. They are 1:29 scale and follow the prototype well. (The 4 axle and (old Delton) cars are not 1:29)

Aristo has often minimized or scaled up details, ostensibly so that they sustain less damage in derailments and handling. This could be a good or bad thing. If you crash your cars or have clumsy people handle them, the larger door latches and other details are a good thing. If you are concerned about scale appearance, you will like the AML or USAT cars better. Aristo is lower priced than USAT Ultimate series, although you need to include the cost of adding metal wheels when comparing.

Early cars sit too high.

Many cars "wobble" (can be corrected easily)

Quality control: For 18 years, the underfloor was been reversed 180 degrees. Early in 2008, it was fixed, but then in late 2008, it was back reversed. Aristo has apparently re-corrected the problem. How tough can this be to remain correct? This was despite many complaints.

Notice here I am not talking about the older lines of cars in both manufacturers, the old Delton 1:24 stuff from Aristo, and the earlier line freight cars from USAT, only the "Ultimate" series with metal wheels. I'm also ignoring the pre-China manufactured cars, they have other quirks.

Wheel Replacement

On the negative side, Aristo cars come with plastic wheels.

These cars come with plastic wheels. The story from Aristo is that people wanted cheaper cars (So why does USAT sell like hotcakes?) so they outfitted them with plastic, and you buy the metal wheels separately and they are still cheaper than USAT.

Goofy logic, obviously if you did not have to buy 2 sets of wheels for every car, the car with metal wheels from the factory would be cheaper. And you can't compare the Aristo to the USAT freight cars, there is more workmanship and finer detail on the USAT stuff.

Cheapest metal wheel solution is Bachmann #92421 "31.0 mm Larger Metal Wheel Set". You may get a few ones that wobble, but on the whole good deal for the money. These are somewhat blackened, like a "black chrome"

Note: if you have roller bearing trucks, the tips of the axles may be knurled to help retain the simulated bearing caps. If you try to remove the wheelsets to replace with metal wheels, this knurling will score and damage the brass bushing the axle rides in. The early roller bearings did not have knurling. Newer ones have knurling. The knurling was added to better secure the plastic caps. 

Couplers

Truck mounting Kadees:

Kadee recommends 909/831 couplers, they bolt right on. The can be a tight fit, the back of the draft gear often rubs on the plastic axles. These are large offset couplers, with the attendant problems of large offsets and long trains. See my coupler page about this.

The screw hole in the tang on the truck does not quite line up with the hole in the Kadee coupler... using the longer silver screw in the 831 kit, it works, but be sure to check with the Kadee coupler height gauge to make things right.

You can fit other Kadees with zero offset, but they are more work.

Body mounting Kadees:

Body mounting on the older cars requires removal of a rib that keeps the stock truck-mount couplers from riding up, and a platform fabricated.

None of the standard cars have an easy way to body mount Kadee couplers.(one newer production product is better)

On the newer cars, there is a mounting pad that was obviously designed for the standard Kadee 830/906 coupler
but:

• the height of the pad is wrong
• the screw holes are in the wrong spot (too close to the end of the car

Apparently Kadee 820 (#1 scale) do not need the pad trimmed, but just the holes re-drilled, but I do not recommend the #1 gauge couplers, most people have too much trouble with them being smaller.  

All couplers:

Notice that if you are using the stock plastic wheels (ugh) or Bachmann metal wheels, they have a thick plastic axle and it can rub on the back of the Kadee draft gear box. First, since the screw hole is larger than the diameter of the screw, try to tighten the coupler down while pushing the draft gear away from the axle. If that does not give enough clearance, grind away the back of the draft gear box.

Notice that since the truck is sprung, when the springs are compressed the axle gets nearer the draft gear box. When you are working with the car on its back and unloaded, you have more clearance than when it is on the rails, so don't miss this or the extra drag will be noticable!

Finally, the replacement metal wheels from Aristo are slightly different in diameter, so fit your final wheels before changing couplers!

Cars Wobble from side to side

Many cars "wobble" from side to side. There is a thin washer between the truck and the bolster. Remove the truck, take out the washer, put the truck back on, and then center the washer carefully on the bolster pin, then replace the screw. Be careful, there is just enough of the bolster pin sticking up to get the washer to stay in place. If you let it slide out of place and screw it down, you will interfere with free pivoting of the truck, and score the top of the bolster pin.

General Tips

The springs in the trucks are identical to the springs in the hook and loop couplers provided. They can rust pretty easily, so spray them with armorall, or drip some plastic-compatible oil on them.

DO NOT use the Aristo "electralube" which is not plastic compatible, even though it is still advertised as such. It's destruction of truck sideframes is well documented on the Aristo forum.