Guys, thanks again for your help. I went to my LHS with the intent of purchasing Reebox wheels. A small clear pack containing a pair of P2K trucks with metal wheels caught my eye! I bought two pairs. They fit like nicely!
I am saving the old trucks to show a friend of mine whose a long time modeler and found it surprising when I told him on the phone that P2K 33" wheels would not roll in these stock trucks.
So I realize now that “Early Run” Athearn RTR cars might have NEM* Europeon type trucks on them, like some of the IHCs, while the current Athearn RTRs have metal wheels.
Dunce Cap Question [D)][:p] If Athearn was raising the bar, why didn’t they consider this? Especially since their competitors were using metal wheels. Plastic wheels, while free rolling, are no longer the standard.
I’ve got a huge pile now, of plastic wheel sets, some in new condition.
I’ve been purchasing Athearn BB cars since 1977, but I’m sorry to say I’m not buying Athearns anymore, RTR or BB. I’ll be going with MDC, Bowser, and other freight car kits.
MDC is Athearn now! I still have ‘some’ Athearn cars, but over the past to years I have been upgrading to P2K, Red Caboose, Accurail, Intermountain, etc… However, I now have about a dozen old MDC Milwaukee Road ‘rib sides’ that are going through the ‘rebuild’ process to upgrade them to current standards. Sometimes the old stuff just has no good ‘new’ replacement!
Anyone (besides me) suspect that the overseas OEM substituted some European bound N.E.M.Trucks?
Metal WHEELS per-se aren’t just what improves the rolling qualities, it’s the side frame material (such as Delrin) and the shape and polish on the axle points - the parts that ‘rub’ together. Lindberg proved this years ago with metal axles, Delrin side frames, and PLASTIC wheels.
I keep some of JB’s NEM wheelsets around to have the best of both worlds.
Oops![:0][:p] I forgot about that! Thanks! I have a number of Roundhouse/MDC freight cars I bought years ago which have been basically trouble free. As for future freight car purchases, the lines you’ve mentioned above are what I’ll be looking at in addition to Bowser. Though, I don’t want to pay $25 for a freight car.
Don,
I appreciate your info. I notice that the plastic wheels on the trucks I took off of these cars roll “incredibly well!” However, like many modelers, I very much like how metal wheels don’t build up as much “gunk”, stay much cleaner, are slightly heavier, and make the sharp “clickety-clack” sounds over rail joints.
Don’t get me wrong .I switched to 100%Metal Wheels almost 18 years ago. In addition to the attributes you describe I found JB’s nickel plated brass wheels derailed less on turnout’s (machined to NMRA ?) , conducted electriciy better on enginea, and were ALWAYS in guage. AFter 200 of them, I put my guage away, and wheel wobble almost a thing of the past.
I usually have a wide selection of replacement wheelsets and trucks on hand. I usually ream the sideframes, change the wheels, and retruck if I need to. If new wheels are needed, I do the minimum necessary to change the wheels AND get reliable operation per NMRA standards. Playing carshop is part of the hobby, especially with all of my AHM, Lionel, and other antiques!
I have put P2K metal wheels on quite a few MDC and Accurail kits recently and have had great success with them. I just got some more for some additional models I am in the process of assembling. They work for me, and are priced right, in my opinion.
-Joe
My RTR car came with metal wheels, but plastic axles. Now everything on my layout (except the locos) has all metal Intermountain wheelsets. No problems anywhere, and the wheels look a lot better than plastic, but they don’t have the embossing letters that P2K and Kadee’s do.
While I haven’t had any problems so far, based on some of the responses here, it is a good idea to carefully check ALL metal wheelsets before installing them on your cars.
I must admit that last year on several of my freight cars, I just ripped open the P2K wheel pack and installed the axles without inspecting. I now inspect every single axle I installed with the gauge as well as check for wheel wobble.
My wakeup call?
I bought a pack of Branchline wheels to “try them out”. They are more expensive than the P2K wheels. I put each axle on my test track and rolled it. I was surprised when I saw one of them “Wobble”!! I know that this is likely the exception rather than the norm, but things do happen sometimes at the factory level
NMRA uses different dimensionsthan NEM. A NMRA axle does not fit a NEM truck and vice versa. NMRA wheels are in inches/ fractions threof. NEM specs wheels are in millameters. Rivarossi and IHC wheels use 31"-32" equivalents even on their passenger cars, not 33" or 36".
Manufacturers are now importing and buying what is cheapest. As long as the axles match the sideframes and still roll - who cares? The NMRA’s specs are voluntary, so WHO’s the bad guy?The customer who is buying ‘after-market’ products, from a different manufacture, lining someone else’s pocket’s, that’s who. I am espousing the Stockholders view .
NOTICE how difficult it is to get Kadee’s to match NMRA height with ATHEARN Product’s? BB’S are all low, Genesis coupler pockets too small, and the screw hole in RTR off centered enough to make the KD ‘lip’ not seat in the pocket properly. 100% Accident’s - Qualty control, or design?
Those of us who have been around long enough, clip off the BB coupler pocket, use 20 series in Genesis SD’s, and cut off the KD ‘lip’ on RTR. I only have 15 Genesis engines, 5 RTR’s and possibly 60 BB conversions, so I may have missed something.
If you haven’t noticed these discrepencies on your products, look again! I’d hate to have had all the luck. On a club layout with inclines, ‘clasp’ type couplers must line up , or they let go. Think of it as a handshake with only 2 fingers entwined.
NMRA spec’s are for a reason. Want NMRA? Buy Intermounatain. You wont need to replace their wheels.
Very good point about Athearns as they are notoriously low. Intermountain cars are beautiful, but a bit pricey. However, there are some good deals on ebay on them from time to time.
While we’re on this, have you checked out the Atlas and Proto freight cars? I don’t own any yet, but was considering getting a few. It would be nice to purchase freight cars and not have to monkey around with coupler heights that are way off the NMRA standard.
Be careful what MDC you are getting. Both Athearn and MDC (Roundhouse) were bought out by Horizon Hobbies. Since the buyout, Horizon has released modern prototype (since WW2) under the Athearn name - doesn’t matter whether it was originally Athearn or Roundhouse. So far it has been mostly or all RTR - I haven’t heard of any new production kits, but I am willing to be corrected. The MDC/Roundhouse “Old Timer” line is being released under the Roundhouse name in RTR only so far. I believe Horizon has made improvements to both lines such as metal wheel sets and knuckle couplers.
There are lots of old (pre-Horizon take-over) Athearn BB and Roundhouse kits out there still unbuilt, and are regularly featured on eBay and at train shows. From what I have seen going price seems to be around $4 - $5 per kit, but in-demand models and road names can go for twice that. Most of these (if not all) will have plastic wheels and horn hook couplers. Most (but not all) old Roundhouse kits had die cast underframes. Those with plastic underframes contained sheet metal weights. Most Athearn had plastic underframes with sheet metal weights.
Antonio:
In the past year I converted all of my rolling stock to metal wheels (about 200 cars) mostly Athearn and used P2K almost exclusively. I reamed and clean the truck journals and put a drop of oil, they roll beautifully, on the other hand the kaydee wheels did not roll as good. As for my Athearn RTR cars, they all came with metal wheels.