Hello,
What kadee wheelsets can be used in the athearn 48 feet 125T cars? The factory ones are plastic and I’d like to change it.
Thanks!
Instead of Kadee wheelsets, Intermountain, Proto 2000, or ExactRail might be a better choice – but first, you need to determine their diameter. Most rolling stock has 33 inch wheels, but some well cars have 36 on one end of articulated sets, and some may only have 28 ihch wheels.
NOTE: Edited and corrected after David M. Bedard’s message about “radius.” Don’t know what I was thinking of when I wrote “radius” instead of diameter.
Hello,
It has 33 inch wheels.
Hackcell,
The Athearn tub/well cars 48ftr’s have 33’’ wheels on the coupler ends and 36’’ 130ton wheels on the articulated joints.
Frank
That would be diameter, not radius. Heck, 33"x2 is 66" wheels…holy wheels Batman!
Lol
Some articulated cars have 38" wheels on the shared trucks. Intermountain sells those.
Smitty,
The Walthers 48ft rib-side tub/well cars reporting marks on the side of the cars state: 33’’ coupler ends, 38’’ articulated joints, real life cars say the same, but on all the Walthers ones I have, the wheels are all 36’’ ??
Take Care!
Frank
I don’t know for certain, but I suspect that the prototype cars are built in such a way that there will not be any slope from front to back of the car if different diameter wheels are used at opposite ends. If that is the case, I don’t think that Walthers would have designed this in, and would have used the same diameter wheels for expediency.
I know that I built one of the Walthers 5-car well car kits and tried to use larger diameter wheels in the appropriate locations. If I remember correctly I had to remove them and go with the original smaller diameter wheel sets because the larger diameter wheels rubbed the bottom of the car frame.
As stated above, I am not sure what installing those 38" wheels will do to the appearance of the cars. I have been considering doing this, but was wondering about having to remove a couple of scale inches from the bolsters or trucks. May be more of a pain that what it is worth. I will have ot look, but I believe Atlas did take this into account and there are 38" wheels on the inside trucks. I am one of those OCD/rivet counter types, but sometimes have to let go of that.
Maxman,
I just checked to make sure. The Athearn 48ftr’s coupler ends 33’’ Articulated joints 36’‘. Walthers rib-side 48ftr’s 33’’ on all trucks. You can’t put larger wheels on the Walthers, because they would rub the floor bottom, but the Walthers cars are shorter and closer to the tub than the Athearns. Walthers end to end scale feet 58’, Athearn end to end scale 63ft. Walthers is a THRALL 5-unit, Athearn is a GUNDERSON 5-unit.
Unloaded and loaded everyday for five years before I retired, crane operator CSX Intermodal Bedford,Pk IL.
Frank