I’m in the process of converting many cars to metal wheels.
I have a variety of brands on hand, but I have never used/ordered Kadees sets of 12.
Do these have the pre-blackening and if so does this wear/flake off as I think I have seen suggested?
All of the ones I have seen are blackened. I’ve never had it flake off, but it does eventually wear off in the tread area where it makes contact with the rail.
I have read comments here in the past alluding to the fact that the blackening agent used on Kadee wheels may contribute to dirty track problems, but the wear would be so gradual that the amount of blackening agent on the rails would be extremely minute…
I think the severity of the blackening contributing to dirty track would be directly proportional to three factors, how much trackage you have, how many cars you have and how many of those cars have Kadee trucks.
I use Kadee trucks on almost every piece of freight equipment, but I replace the wheelsets with those from Intermountain to improve the rolling qualities of the trucks. In fact, this combination provides the benefits of sprung/equalized metal trucks and is actually more free rolling than all the plastic rigid sideframe truck/wheelset combinations I have tested.
The Intermoutain wheelsets are not blackened and the track stays very clean.
Sheldon
I use Kadee wheel sets almost exclusively, but before installing the wheels I take a wire brush in my Dremel tool and remove the blackening from the wheel tread (holding the wheels in a pliers by the way, not my fingers!). With care you can remove the blackening from the tread and leave it be on the face of the wheel. That way I have a steel color on the tread which is more realistic except for cars that have been parked for a while. The wire brush I use is brass so I assume it does not wear away the metal of the tread itself.
By all means if you do this wear eye protection. And keep your mouth closed as well [:O]
Dave Nelson