Been modeling for well over 40 years, a variety of scales, mostly HO. Those HO layouts have all been built with Code 100 rail/track. Re-doing one of my layouts with Code 83. The manufacturer is unimportant to this discussion, for now. I know there have been some issues with wheel sets having flanges that are too deep. My rolling stock is a nix of old and modern, with the modern being less than 20 years old. Cars are no problem’ just change the wheel sets. What are good wheel sets to use? None of the manufacturers give dimensional info as to flange depth. If I’m changing a few cares, I might as well as change them all. I’m looking at a current roster that numbers about 200 cars.
Second - motive power. I’m not using any of the old stuff I have, except for one or two engines. Most of the new stuff is P2K and such. Any flange worries with those? If so, what to do? How would one do a consistent turn-down of flanges? The couple of older locos I’m using I know have WAY TOO DEEP flanges, so turning them down is the only answer (short of not running them, but I have my reasons for making the operable).
Practically any of the replacement wheelsets or locomotives that have RP-25 contour wheels will be okay for use on code 83 rail. The biggest offenders will be very old locomotives or rolling stock with deep wheel flanges. Some of these even have trouble on code 100 rail, particularly turnout frogs.
The only locomotive I had that had really big flanges was a OO Mantua diesel that I got in the mid 60’s. As stated above, it had trouble on turnouts. My father took the wheels out and filed the flanges down until they didn’t hit the bottoms of the turnouts anymore.
I’ve converted a lot of rolling stock using various metal wheel sets. Intermountain, Kadee, Atlas…
All work fine except that some of the Atlas bulk wheels have short axles. Be careful with length but flange depth is not a problem.
IMH experience some trucks work just fine with the replacement wheelsets and others are just worn out or trash. Expect to have to replace a few sets of trucks.
It is also helpful to use one of the “truck tuner” tools to clean and shape the pockets in the sideframes. Don’t over do it though. Also my tuning tool is single ended so you have to insert it twice. Silly. I believe that there is a double ended tool on the market.
Someone else will have to chime in about motive power. I do know that my old 1970s Rivarossi mountain has deep flanges and makes a wonderful noise on code 83. I won’t be using it until I can find better wheels and a replacement motor. Then again I might just sell it. Anything from about 2000 on up seems to run fine. I don’t know about the in between years. Diesels from all eras seem to work well ???
Didn’t know about the Atlas bulk wheelsets and short axles. Thanks for the heads-up.
I thought those truck tuner tools were a gimmick; guess they work. I know MicroMark has the double-sided tool.
Funny that you mention Rivarossi, as the couple of old pieces I want to run are from that manufacturer. I tried them on a piece of Code 83 Atlas track and I wouldn’t call the noise it makes wonderful. I guess it would be interesting if I had a high-speed video camera and got pictures of the ups and downs it makes when it hits the molded-in spikes on the ties.
Definitely spring for the Truck Tuning Tool. It’s solved several problems for me mixing Athearn Trucks with Proto 2000 wheelsets.
Kadee, IM and Proto 2000 wheelsets have all worked well for me, I prefer the InterMountain wheels because of their metal axel. It adds just a touch of weight down low on the car where it does some good.
Any locomotives meeting even the pre-RP25 era (early '70s for all but European manufacturers and importers) NMRA standards will generally work on code 83 track.
Rivarossi, AHM, IHC, and cheap HO train sets (Model Power, Tyco) were the last hold-outs with deep non-standard flanges. This includes their diesels. AHM and Rivarossi started converting in the '70s; IHC held out until the last couple of years. Even then, only new production would have the small flanges; anything from the older dies and tooling would still have the deep flanges.
But really it only takes a quick glance to tell if the flange is too large. Take a look at an Athearn, Proto 2K, Atlas, Kato, Stewart, or Bachmann Spectrum flanges and then look at the model in question. If the flanges are too deep for code 83 track, the difference will be obvious.
I’ve been modeling in HO since the 1960s and I haven’t had a problem with flange depth for any models even for code 70 rail. But I always avoided models of European manufacture or the cheapest American stuff. I found that even code 40 was OK as long as I didn’t use spikes (used glue instead).
The only old stuff I’ve had problems with were my Rivarossi steamers. I think they must have changed around 1990. I have a streamlined Hudson for the Empire State Express that was released in 1991 for the 50th anniversary and it has no problems. I also have a Dreyfuss Hudson a few years older and it does scape bottom. All the older stuff has the same problem. I have a large fleet of UP steamers gathering dust because I don’t know where to get replace wheels for them. (They also need to be retrofitted with decoders).