metals wheels for rolling stock.

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S

stang_crazy

Member
So i have a large portion of athearn rolling stock with a few other various brands in the mix.


Im wanting to swap to the metal wheel sets. How do i know which to go with?


Aslo as far as the trucks go on rolling stock is there any aftermarket stuff thats better or is what comes on most athearn, ect ok? Only reason i ask is because i notice on some of my athearn units with the plastic trucks the front is spread out from the wheel sets being taken out and put back in, so the wheels sit in it very loosely.

thanks for any help.

Or is there even a conversion chart of sorts?

Mike
 
Kadee and Proto both make replacement metal wheelsets and complete trucks. Freight rolling stock would use the 33 inch wheelsets and passenger is generally 36 inch wheels.
33 inch is offered in plain back and ribbed back depending on the type of truck they were used with. To be honest with you little things like having the correct type wheel backs doesn't bother me so I buy whatever is at the hobby shop.

Trucks are a different story. Arch bar, Bettendorf, 50 ton roller bearing, 100 ton roller bearing, etc are for a specific type car and / or a specific period so having the right truck does matter to me.

The delrin or nylon or whatever they are trucks that come in most car kits can be squeezed back into shape if you are careful. Remove the truck from the car and pop out the wheelsets. Holding the truck side frames between your fingers gentle squeezed to bring them closer together or pull apart if it is too tight. Small amounts repeated until the axles stay in or spin freely is the trick here. Go too far and it is too late. Free spinning with a little side to side movement is what you want to end up with.
 


My pleasure Mike. Worst case you bust a plastic truck until you get the feel for it you can always buy a set of Kadees or Protos to replace them. You don't even have to know what type they are. Just bring the old one to the hobby shop and match up the sideframe looks. Eventually you will get to know what everything is called. Some roads upgraded their trucks during an overhaul so repacing Bettendorfs with Hyatt roller bearing trucks isn't exactly wrong either as long as they aren't the 100 ton variety on a 40 foot standard box car.
 
NH Mike said:
Kadee and Proto both make replacement metal wheelsets and complete trucks. Freight rolling stock would use the 33 inch wheelsets and passenger is generally 36 inch wheels.
33 inch is offered in plain back and ribbed back depending on the type of truck they were used with. To be honest with you little things like having the correct type wheel backs doesn't bother me so I buy whatever is at the hobby shop.
Click to expand...

Actually, alot of Rolling stock use 36" wheels too. These are the higher capacity Cars and rolling stock. Some even use 28" and 30" wheels i believe (mostly well car units).

In the end, it all depends on how prototypical you want to bet. If your car has 33" wheels, its best to replace them with 33" metal wheels even if the real car uses 36" wheels. If you want to replace the 33" with 36" then you should prolly replace the entire truck as well, but be careful, as this may throw off the coupler height and such....

Most new rolling stock these days are being made with the correct sizes of wheelsets, but alot of the older stuff only has 33" wheels just because it was easier for the Manufacture's to produce all one size for all there products.... Now adays with the RTR and higher end rolling stock, the details are amazing and just about everything is copied from the prototype, including the correct sizes of wheels

Someday, ill get around to replacing all my wheels on my rolling stock with Branchline 33" and 36" metal wheelsets, depending on what the prototype calls for.
 
Hi Mike: I'm going through the same thing as you are, replacing with metal wheels. I've found that there are at least 3 different axle lengths. In the Walther's cat. under Northwest Short Line, is handy chart of their offerings with the different lengths for different manufacturers. Ex. 1.015 length is for Athearn, MDC, etc. and .944 length for Atlas. I've had to measure the axles with plastic wheels to install the proper length axle with metal wheels. Hope this helps. It does beg the question, why isn't there a standard axle length?
 
GrampysTrains said:
Hi Mike: I'm going through the same thing as you are, replacing with metal wheels. I've found that there are at least 3 different axle lengths. In the Walther's cat. under Northwest Short Line, is handy chart of their offerings with the different lengths for different manufacturers. Ex. 1.015 length is for Athearn, MDC, etc. and .944 length for Atlas. I've had to measure the axles with plastic wheels to install the proper length axle with metal wheels. Hope this helps. It does beg the question, why isn't there a standard axle length?
Click to expand...
I wonder if there is a different thickness of the flanges. Or maybe it's just the amount that the axles penetrate the trucks.
 
I use intermountain and proto 2000 wheels. IMO the ntermountain wheels roll slightly better as they have metal axels.

You can get 100 Intermountain wheels for $60 (thats 25 cars)
IMO 33" is standard for older 40-50' cars. 36" is common for the newer cars that can haul greater payloads.
 


I have been slowly repacing the plastic ones on my athearn fleet with new trucks from atlas. Yes, the atlas trucks use a shorter axle then athearn. I poped one set out of my new trucks just to see if they would fit the athearn truck frames, nope to short. Also if you put atlas trucks on athearns you will have to drill the mounting hole out as the atlas trucks use a smaller diameter hole. Not real hard I just put a drill in my drill press and bore the whole out to a larger diameter. I dont even have to disasemble the trucks either.
Aaron
 
I prefer the Intermountain wheelsets, but have used Kadee as well. The Intermountain have more of a point to them, which seems to help them roll more easily.

I have had problems with 2 cars where the new Intermountain wheelsets would not fit in the Athearn trucks. Since I don't have a tool, I ended up buying replacement trucks with wheelsets already in them.
 
hamltnblue said:
I wonder if there is a different thickness of the flanges. Or maybe it's just the amount that the axles penetrate the trucks.
Click to expand...
The flanges are all RP25. Code 110 is .110" across the wheel, and code 88 (fine scale) being .088" across. True 1:87 scale (P:87) is code 64 being .064" across, just over half of the thickness of "standard" code 110!! Talk about some ancient technology there.

This is why I wish manufacturers would at least get on board with code 88 wheels.

Josh was right in wheel sizes however, 33" & 36" are the more common, but 28" do exist, and 30" used to (don't think any do any more) with 38" being the high extreme on 125T trucks (intermediate trucks on articulated double stacks).

I myself have made the switch to code 88 Branchline wheels, because you can buy them in 100 & 300 packs.
 
I'm switching all my cars over a little at a time. I had bought over several months, about 25 cards of P2K wheels and about 10 Branchline wheels. I now have about 1/2 of my cars either converted, or they had metal wheels to begin with.

Since we're also dicussing trucks, there is a new manufacturer out there that our LHS has started handling. Its Tahoe Model Works, and these are really great trucks! They roll extremely well, come in six different types including two types of caboose trucks, and are only $6.50 a pair. I've been very impressed by these new trucks.
 
Reboxx has a nice chart of axle lengths, because there are differences in axle length among the manufacturers. Check their site: www.reboxx.com. An inexpensive dial caliper will help too. I use mostly Intermountain wheelsets these days. They are machined steel, not castings. P2K work well too. Not using Kadee much these days. Of all the brands, they seem to be less "universal". OK if you need a non conductive axle though.
 
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