rolling stock metal or plastic wheels


M

marriedshades

Member
What a good opinion. between metal wheels to plastic wheels on rolling stock. or is there a big difference plan to upgrade my couplers thought might do the wheel on the cheeper cars don't seem follow the track as well.
 
Have also read on here that plastic wheels are sometimes off centre on their axles, would explain why a couple of my old, so equipped cars, do the wobbles.
 
This subject has been discussed many times before on this & other forums. Just use the search box in upper right hand corner to find all the previous discussions on this forum.
 
Metal wheels, proper car weight, and free coupler swing in their pockets solves most running problems. None of those will correct bad track work. It all has to work together. Definitely search here on the forum for wheels as there are many posts on the subject.
 
Sounds like upgrading the cars the easy part that's also way I'm taking my time on laying track all i got left there is to cut some flex and tripple clean all the track lock nail tack down the track wire it up and do my first of many tests to mack sure every good. and as that happens buy the parts to upgrade the cars as money becomes available .
 
G'day ...IF you have the chance avoid plastic wheels like the plague...They're cheap , nasty and don't even sound right....If you buy rolling stock with plastic wheels first chance you get go into a hobby store or somewhere and buy a pack of metal wheels...They're not expensive but way better..Cheers Rod..
 
Hey Rodney!

Do you recommend replacing the entire truck or just the wheels?

Maybe it depends on the individual trucks as to weather you have to replace the entire truck or just the wheels.



Great Thread, lots of good information here for a novice HO model railroader like myself.

Thank you everyone!
 
Metal Wheels. I started building up my rolling stock over 20 years ago. One of the first things that I did was to either replace the stock wheels with metal (Kadee) or replace the entire truck with spring Kadee trucks. (I did have a dealership back then, so the price didn't bother me much). I haven't needed to ad much in the way of rolling stock, but occasionally I have picked up an interesting car, or a car from another modeler or club, and the first thing that gets changed is the wheels, followed by the couplers.
 
I've had really good luck replacing just the wheels with metal ones. I bought a bulk pack of 100 wheelsets and went to town on all the cars that had plastic wheels. There is definitely a noticeable difference.

Jeff
 
G'day Louis and fellow forum'ers....Thanks.....A fellow modelling friend of mine had 25 or so coal hoppers all plastic wheels...ran not anything special...I took a few of my converted plastic to metal wheels rolling stock to his layout and he just found it .. amazing enough that he started replacing his wheels instantly...a word of caution though ..some aftermarket wheelset brands have a thicker bevelled axle end and on cheaper trucks these don't ALWAYS match up perfectly and may need to hone out slightly the trucks....I use Bachmann ones , never had much trouble...but nowadays I ONLY BUY..metal wheel rolling stock anyway..Just the same it pays to have a few spare ones on hand..so I'd say no , it's not really necessary to replace trucks too....The pack of 12 Bachmann wheelsets here are about $14...enough to do three cars at a time..but worth every cent if you want better running and sounds of metal on metal....Cheers Rod
 
Rodney,

I went to buy some new metal wheel sets and couplers the other week from my LHS and was told that I needed to know what sizes I needed for both the wheel sets and couplers. They said there was 36", 32" and I think 29" wheel sets. If wheel sets vary in size, how do you know what size to buy? Do these "bulk" sets come with a selection of sizes?

Being told all of this more or less put me off changing anything on my rolling stock for fear of getting it wrong and causing problems, but owuld love to change out my plastic sets for metal ones.
 
G'day Tony....I'll confuse you even more....I can only buy 36" or 33" here....I was assured that 36" for passenger cars and 33" for freight cars...All of mine are 33"...as I only model freight....not sure but I think the scale difference for prototype looks not so much for operation but I could be wrong. 3" in HO scale would be tiny maybe and not affect good coupler tolerances too much but for realism etc...for many modellers it might be more important to look more accurate...If you're doing freight 32/33"...passenger 36"..I believe I have only a tiny bit of AMTRAK...... Cheers Rod..
 
rodney mcgiveron said:
..a word of caution though ..some aftermarket wheelset brands have a thicker bevelled axle end and on cheaper trucks these don't ALWAYS match up perfectly and may need to hone out slightly the trucksd
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Not just the thickness of the axle but the length too. For example the Proto-2000 wheel sets are shorter than the Athearn Blue box. At the club I noticed the trains were "wandering" down the track. Finally realized it was because we had just changed out all the wheel sets. The Athearn BB slopped side to side or even leaned over on the shorter axles.

I just bought a bulk box of 100 of the Intermountain wheel sets. I keep meaning to make a chart of all the brands and sizes. I know Reboxx used to make many sizes .980" to 1.080". I assume all the other manufactures fit within that same range. I keep some of each type and just try them until I find the one that fits properly.

wombat457 said:
I went to buy some new metal wheel sets and couplers the other week from my LHS and was told that I needed to know what sizes I needed for both the wheel sets and couplers. They said there was 36", 32" and I think 29" wheel sets. If wheel sets vary in size, how do you know what size to buy? Do these "bulk" sets come with a selection of sizes?
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The only 29" wheels I know of are the old Rivarossi pizza cutter wheels on their passenger cars. They made the wheels smaller to help the cars turn the tight corners. 36" is prototypical for almost all passenger cars. 33" is the most common freight size in the united states up until just about a decade ago. In the last decade the modern freight cars have been moving to 36" and even 39" wheels. So for the modern freight cars, research would have to be done to find out the correct wheel size. The problem there is one doesn't know if the manufacturer used the prototypical size or not.
 
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Width of the wheelsets is indeed an issue. I had to return a bulk pack of metal wheels that simply kept falling out of the trucks. I came to the decision that as expensive as it was going to be, the whole truck, wheels and all needed to go. There just was no real finality in mounting metal wheels in plastic trucks. So, I now am methodically replacing all the trucks on all the rollingstock. The performance improvement is incredibly satisfying. Using gauging equipment to determine coupler height is the other significant part of the puzzle and it needs to be spot on. I have a goodly stock of different shank height couplers from Kadee now not to mention the shims to get it just right. I am waiting for the tool from micromark for honing the journals on the trucks for better rolling performance. Finally, actually check your flextrack for gauge. It's surprising that it's out of gauge much more frequently than you might imagine. Turnouts too.
 
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PIN DR said:
I've had really good luck replacing just the wheels with metal ones. I bought a bulk pack of 100 wheelsets and went to town on all the cars that had plastic wheels. There is definitely a noticeable difference.

Jeff
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Ditto here. I try not to buy plastic-wheelset rolling stock in the first place, but on occasions when I pick something up at a show, etc. I just replaced them and have had little issue with it. I do keep both freight and passenger size on hand, but other than that have not had any of the issues noted here. Pop 'em in and go...
 
Im in the process of replacing all my cars w/metal wheels as well. Using Intermountain bulk packs. Dont just go and replace wheel sets without doing some research on the proper size diameter the car is supposed to have though. 100 ton capacity cars get a 36 in wheel (hopper cars, gondolas, and tank cars for instance). Box cars are typically 70 ton capacity and typically get 33 inch wheels but some box cars have a cap of 100 tons. Cars like spine cars get 28 in wheels.
 
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