i have recently recieved a hag ho sbb locomotive. though a very well made locomotive i do have one problem, the wheels on it are european style and only work with code 100 rail and i have code 83.[sigh] does anyone have any sugestions, please help.
[#welcome] to the Forums.
There are two ways to modify the loco if you want to run it on your track that I know of. One is to disassemble it and replace the wheel sets with new ones with smaller flanges, if you can find them. The other is to disassemble the loco, remove the wheel sets and turn the flanges down on a lathe, or get someone to do it for you.
If there are other reliable options, I don’t know what they are.
I have turned the flanges on a few locomotives without a lathe. One approach uses files only. First I filed the diameter down. I used a sort of twisting motion turning both the wheel and the file. I applied the file at a very approximately 45 degrees. After getting the flange diameter down, I rounded it to approximate the RP25 contour. The key for me in this was to continually turn the wheel and keep my wits about me (and patience).
My other approach used a bench grinder for the diameter reduction. I put the wheels in the frame and held the flange to the grinder at about that 45 degrees mentioned earlier. This way the wheels sort of automatically rotated and made the job easy. You’d want to wear eye protection for this version as you’ll be getting your face very close to the wheel. You also will want to do a great job of removing abrasive grit from your work. You still have to round the flange by hand.
My favorite example was shrinking the flanges of a Mantua/Tyco 0-6-0 that I eventually detailed up. I got the flanges down to about 2/3 RP-25. It looked great and didn’t de-rail any more than anything else. One reason I turned the flanges was because I wanted to replace the center blind driver with a flanged one, and I needed the clearance.
Ed
Well, good luck.
Everyone should have at least one experience of destroying a loco during their learning process.
Hi
There are quite an amount of very knowledgable persons on the English language forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HAG/
which may be able to offer some help. Important: have the article number ready, and/or the description of the loco type. Also if yout loco is built for 2rail (DC or digital) or 3rail (AC)
cheers/jw
(jens)
I turned down the flanges on my IHC Mogul using a cut-off disk in my Dremel, with the drivers still in the loco. You’ll need to ensure that none of the filings get into the mechanism - I used some judiciously placed masking tape and worked with the loco upright. Hook up a pair of leads so that you can power the loco - the drivers should be turning at a medium speed while you work. With the cut-off disk running at high speed, lightly touch the face (not the edge) of the disk to the edge of the rotating wheel flange. If the driver centres are plastic, work on each wheel for only a few seconds at a time, to avoid overheating the tire, which will melt or deform the plastic. The resultant turned-down flanges will not have a knife-like edge, but I find that the loco runs fine through all trackage, including turnouts.
For non-powered wheelsets, I removed them from the loco and chucked them into a drill, which was in turn clamped in a vise. With the drill running at medium speed, the cut-off disk was used to turn down the wheel on the free end of the axle, which was then reversed so the other wheel could be done. This was done several years ago, and the loco still runs fine on my code 83 track.
Wayne