Mail Call! Railway Post Office, commonly abbreviated as RPO has rolled in!

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Alcomotive said:
Here is the result of the cars I mentioned previously....they came today by FedEx....

3 cars are Athearns, 1 car is an Accurail and 1 car is an Atlas......not bad no damage except one car on the Athearn is missing one lower stirrup step ladder which will get a new one added as I have a large supply of replacement ones. No biggie! Also I stand corrected not all of them have kadees or metal wheels :( but I can deal with making the upgrades......kinda like the 100,0000th PS-1 car ...... pretty cool. I have seen these before but never had an opportunity to get one until now.

View attachment 136827View attachment 136828View attachment 136829View attachment 136830View attachment 136831View attachment 136832View attachment 136833
Click to expand...
Just out of interest, what size metal wheels do you fit on your rolling stock?
 


Smudge617 said:
Oh balls, I've ordered 36"
Click to expand...

Generally speaking - for rolling stock in the '40s thru early '60s, 33 inch wheels are for freight cars and 36 inch are for passenger cars. In more modern eras, smaller wheels are more prevalent, especially on trailer and container cars and the like.

The wheel size is determined by the car's size and weight capacity. Older rolling stock had 33 inch wheels -- newer high capacity covered hoppers, as an example, have 36 inch wheels.

If you have both sizes on hand it's usually pretty easy to tell the difference by holding the old plastic wheels side by side with metal wheels.

You have to be careful since not all models use the exact same wheel size as the prototype. For example, IIRC the old AHM/Rivarossi passenger cars used 33" "freight" wheels rather than the 36" wheels normally associated with passenger cars. You can replace the wheels with 36" ones, but you may need to shave the brake shoes (cast on to the trucks) down a little to allow for the larger wheels.

Generally 70 ton or less capacity have 33" diameter wheels, cars over 70 ton capacity have 36" wheels.

Auto racks and some other high cars have 28" wheels in order to lower the overall height of the car.

Lastly if the cars are from earlier times before 1940's those wheel sets may have ribbed sides as well.

The rib backed wheel that represent early cast iron wheels installed up through the early 1950's. These were used in freight and passenger service. The passenger service wheels were usually 36" diameter. A rule of thumb is that if the car was built with friction bearing trucks and was still riding on them the wheels were ribbed on the back until the wheel set was changed out when repair was needed. Later cast iron wheels (freight cars built late 50s' and on) had smooth backed wheels. During the 1970's the cast iron wheels (particularly on 100 ton and more cars) were found to be major causes of wrecks. All rolling stock (including the diesels) had to be inspected by a certain date and marked with a white or yellow dot inside a black square indicating whether the wheels were cast iron or not. If they were cast iron they had to be replaced by a mandated date. You can still see older (1960's and early 1970's built equipment) that exhibit these dots. So depending on the era that you model the wheels may have ribbed backed wheels or smooth backed wheels. Sorry to add to your confusion!

I am no expert but there are guys here that can elaborate even more or better.

Here is a table from Intermountain: https://www.intermountain-railway.com/wheels.htm

Wheel diameter can be measured with a caliper:
28" wheels measure (28/87.1=.321") in HO scale.
33" wheels measure (33/87.1=.378") in HO scale.
36" wheels measure (36/87.1=.413") in HO scale.
38" wheels measure (38/87.1=.436") in HO scale.
(87.1 = HO scale to prototype ratio. HO scale is 87.1 times smaller than the prototype).​
28" wheels are used on modern Tri-Level Autoracks, some Bi-Level Autoracks, and some older intermodal cars such as Impack spine cars, front runners & four runners - check your prototype.
33" wheels are used on 50 & 70 ton capacity cars (CAPY approximately 150,000 LBS or less).
36" wheels are used on 100 ton capacity cars (CAPY approximately 200,000 LBS), and on all passenger cars no matter the era.
38" wheels are used on 150 ton capacity cars, primarily the center connection trucks on modern intermodal cars with 33" wheels at the coupler ends.
Cabooses can use either 33" or 36" wheels depending on the prototype.
The CAPY information is typically printed on model freight cars and can be used as a guide. Some cars have the wheel size printed on the sides or ends of the car in the data. If you are ever unsure of which size to use, you can simply replace the wheels currently on the car with the same size.
 
Ok, thanks for that. I can't change the order now as it's been shipped so I'll wait till they arrive from China (very hard to get any spares in HO here) If they don't fit the Harriman coaches I've got some 40' freight cars they should go on. I did look at ordering from the U.S. but postage and customs (your wheel sets are £11.21 for 12 Axels, postage is £23.39 = $46.40. not including import tax) so it's tripled the cost, ended up with the China ones, most stuff you get now is produced in China anyway, doesn't matter who's "name" you use.
 
Last edited:
Well I was all set to help stimulate the economy on Cyber Monday, but I didn't really find much appealing on sale at my usual online sources. This is the only thing I ended up getting, a set of PC&F 50' boxcars. The doors on these are slightly interesting, as they are different sizes, one 6' and one 8' door on each side.

ath_box1.jpeg.jpg
 
Smudge617 said:
It's not very good compared to you guy's, (the word crap comes to my mind) but in my defence, only been doing this hobby for two yrs and had/have a lot to learn :) So I have a long way to go. Especially on the basics like scenery, track laying, electrical wiring etc. which I find difficult to do as I have very poor motor control of my hands. (the tunnel took me 3 months to build)
The lighting doesn't show up very well as the basic idea was a end of line country station with goods/shunt yard and turntable, so it's supposed to be "old" lighting, and quite dim, which would be correct for the era I started to build, which was 1930's steam.
Now it seems to have got away from me, and I have American HO running as well.
The board is 7'8 X 4'00 and split in half, so it can fold up against the wall when not in use.
Click to expand...
Looks awesome to me! Well done!
 
skyliner said:
Well I was all set to help stimulate the economy on Cyber Monday, but I didn't really find much appealing on sale at my usual online sources. This is the only thing I ended up getting, a set of PC&F 50' boxcars. The doors on these are slightly interesting, as they are different sizes, one 6' and one 8' door on each side.

View attachment 136871
Click to expand...


This is an awesome find! Nice set! Love having Cotton Belt cars.....I may need to get a few of these! 🤔
 
And right on the heals of the Mikados, finally arriving on Dearborn Station track 3 after ordering them year(s?) ago is the first section of the 1960s combined Super Chief / El Capitan. Actually the two cars to the left, 2nd row, are from the Chief Connection (La Junta Colorado to Denver), but the rest are the transcontinental EL Cap high level coaches. Eight more cars to come in this set. With which and combined with the cars I already have, I will be able to re-create any Santa Fe streamlined train after 1942.


PassCars.jpg
 


Smudge617 said:
Ok, thanks for that. I can't change the order now as it's been shipped so I'll wait till they arrive from China (very hard to get any spares in HO here) If they don't fit the Harriman coaches I've got some 40' freight cars they should go on. I did look at ordering from the U.S. but postage and customs (your wheel sets are £11.21 for 12 Axels, postage is £23.39 = $46.40. not including import tax) so it's tripled the cost, ended up with the China ones, most stuff you get now is produced in China anyway, doesn't matter who's "name" you use.
Click to expand...
No worries about showing the layout. Post what you want to show. I have yet on this forum to see nastiest on what is posted. Hey if you don’t show pictures how will you get better.

TomO
 
Alcomotive said:
This is an awesome find! Nice set! Love having Cotton Belt cars.....I may need to get a few of these! 🤔
Click to expand...

These were announced about a year ago from Athearn, I think they are new colors and road #'s from a series they did some years ago. It looks like they have the three-packs in both Cotton Belt and SP. I'd suggest not waiting if you're interested, they seem to be disappearing relatively quickly at the major online retailers.
 
skyliner said:
These were announced about a year ago from Athearn, I think they are new colors and road #'s from a series they did some years ago. It looks like they have the three-packs in both Cotton Belt and SP. I'd suggest not waiting if you're interested, they seem to be disappearing relatively quickly at the major online retailers.
Click to expand...
What's the model number on the box for these?
 
skyliner said:
This one is ATHG69106. They have another Cotton Belt set numbered ATHG69105.

The two SP ones are: ATHG69102 and ATHG69101, although those don't appear to be in stock at the few places I've looked. They also have a bunch of these as single cars, but I figured the sets are a better bargain.
Click to expand...
Thanks Eric!
 
Iron Horseman said:
Don't be silly, and you don't need a defense! Looks good to me, would love to come over and run my trains on it with you. Actually it is much BETTER than mine as I don't have a pike at the moment.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but mines is still a bit of a cheat, grass came as a roll, buildings are Hornby re- painted, tunnel is mainly by Noch with contributìons from. Polystyrene Inc. Superglue Ltd and, Dammit Cut My Finger Again Brothers, with various add ons I bought online, not scratch built, as you guys manage to do. Only bit thats "mine" is the signal box and even that came as a kit! 🤣
Oh, dumb question, what's a "pike"???
 
Last edited:
A work in progress, it has so much potential, embankment, small stream maybe, few trees, a pond ? add a Church or village, if you using European rtr, a castle maybe?? Or go completely nuts, bit of sand, build london bridge, and your in Arizona. 😁
 


Smudge617 said:
Yeah, but mines is still a bit of a cheat, grass came as a roll, buildings are Hornby re- painted, tunnel is mainly by Noch with contributìons from. Polystyrene Inc. Superglue Ltd and, Dammit Cut My Finger Again Brothers, with various add ons I bought online, not scratch built, as you guys manage to do. Only bit thats "mine" is the signal box and even that came as a kit! 🤣
Oh, dumb question, what's a "pike"???
Click to expand...
A pike is your model railroad. The "layout" is the track arrangement, and the pike is the whole miniature world. I don't know when model railroaders began using the term pike, but definitely by the 1950s.

For back ground (thanks to stokesda) explained by Carl Swanson in the August 2007 "Model Railroader," p. 20:

"A pike is an ancient infantry weapon, a pointed metal head on a long thin wooden shaft." [that is the duh part, but it continues]. In the old days, private companies built toll roads, which were blocked by a wood shaft - a pike. You would pay your toll, and the attendant would swing the pike away to let you through. Toll roads are still called turnpikes today.

In the past, railroaders often used 'pike,' in the sense of 'road,' as slang for their full-size railroad. Modelers picked up on that and started calling their layouts 'pikes.' ..."

And from another source ... UP2CSX says
Just as pikes were the original toll roads, railroads were also named pikes since you had to pay to ride. ... there were a few early railroads that even included "Pike" in their corporate names.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top