I was puzzled why some cars derailed while others did not, and even the problem cars did not always trip themselves up.
Then I noticed that some of my motley collection had wheel sets that gave less than 1/64 or so of clearance between the side of the truck and the track…some actually look like the truck will slide along the track. No wonder little track imperfections knocked these off.
So I would like to use bigger diameter wheels as a fix. I see that Jay Bee Bennett Enterprises and Intermountain offer 38" and even 40 " sets through Walthers. I am sure my problem cars have only 33" but I’m less concerned about accuracy than smooth operation with these. Should I expect any problem with installing 38" or 40" sets so long as the flanges are alright for code 83?
If you don’t mind spending the money to convert all these offending items, and if the axle lengths and ends are right for the trucks, and if no brake rigging will impact the larger wheels, and if you can live with the perhaps aprototypical diameters and looks, sure…why not enjoy your cars. Looks are important, but things you can’t enjoy running become static displays. That’s not what I want out of my toy trains.
BTW, the code of your track should have little effect if you have RP-25 profile wheels. If your rail-tops are allowed to sag and ridge, and if the ends that abut are not aligned, then you will have more problems as the code gets smaller.
Looking through an old box this Sunday afternoon I found some sets of 36" wheels. They do make the difference. To be true to scale, a 36" wheel should be 9% bigger than a 33". Seems like this is ample to provide clearance for troublesome trucks.
Are the plactic wheels or metal? I guess either will ware down to the point they are out of scale. If it where me I get a fresh set of Proto 2000 33" wheels and see if the fixed the problem. I use code 100 so I might be off base.
I used 36" wheels before I learned how to set couper height. Looked a little odd but helped.
Good Luck and if you think your cars are motley you should see mine! A round 150 rolling stock and only 70 Athearn are athearn Blue Boxes kits. But with Proto 2000 wheels and body mounted Kadees the cheap stuff rolls well.
By that statment there I do not think that you have a diameter problem but a guage problem. If your wheelsets are to narrow your trucks will be alowed to twist or turn side to side possibly causing a derailment. If they are too wide then you will have the wheels walk over the tops of the rails If you dont have one already get yourself a NMRA track guage and make sure all your wheelsets are guaged correctly. Also make sure that both sets of wheels are inline. If not then your truck will be kinda twisted on the rails causing derailments. Diameter will effect your coupler height, body height, truck to track and truck to carbody clearance and most importantly your rolling stock’s appearance I hope this helps.
Be careful with Proto-2000 wheels and Athearn trucks. The axles are too short and while they will roll just fine they aren’t necessarilly rolling in the center of the bearings. They can slop side to side making and even make the car list. When we converted our club’s fleet, on some cars we noticed it could move side to side almost 1/8". We ended up switching to Atlas wheel sets instead.
I had a few “problem child” cars when I pulled my old trains out of their 40-year slumber in boxes. I tried replacing the wheel sets, but in the end, I found the most successful tactic was just to replace the trucks and wheels at the same time.
I’ve replaced plastic wheels with metal ones on cars that were working OK, and they still work OK. But, in this case I replaced them to upgrade the wheels, not to fix derailment problems.
If you do replace just the wheels with larger-diameter ones, you will raise the car up. That will mis-align your couplers, so you’ll have extra work to do if they go too far out of spec.
If you just have a few of these, I’d recommend replacing the trucks at the same time. You’ll like the upgrade, and so will the loco that’s pulling the cars!
Years ago – correction, decades ago – no, still have it wrong, let’s say eons ago – some guys put very very soft springs at the ends of the axles where they met the bearings on their trucks. This kept the wheels centered even if there was too much play with the axle length. I should add that back then free rolling trucks were less values than they are now (so this was pre-Lindberg trucks in other words).
In the right circumstances this might still be a helpful tip for a car or two where nothing seems to match up right otherwise.
