You can’t go wrong with just about anything made by Intermountain. I do know that their manufacturing facility is in Longmont, Colorado; I know that because I used to work in Longmont. What I don’t know is whether the parts for the weheelsets are made right there at their facility or if they’re “jobbed out” over seas.
Bottom line, Exact Rail, P2K, I-M, Kadee, whomever, to me there is no discernible functional difference. Aesthetics? Could be an important consideration based on non-operational criteria, e.g. ribbed backs, “real” world manufacturer name cast on front face, etc.
Like an #8D common box nail, best price wins.
Covering all the bases…
Jaybee is made in the USA.
I’ve had good luck with them. They mostly fit, just a few trucks I’ve had an issues with the axle being tight and the “Tool” solved most of that. The only issue I ever had was just the other day, when I found one that must’ve run through the machine wrong – it was non-insulated – but surely the exception to the rule as I’ve put them on over 200 cars.
I do not usually swap out any rolling stock that comes with factory metal wheels. Unless there’s another issue, they’re fine. I also agree that the wear of plastic on plastic is a non-issue, unless you have a display layout that runs every day, round and round…[:-^]
i too use I-M Metal wheels 33s a frind toll me to do that to all my cars.i tool tham all frist he toll me to get the tool and ues it on all cars &the gage wus the frist thing i bot.and use it all the time.
Hello,
I have 6 Roundhouse 1890s era Pullman Palace Car which I would like to equip with metal wheelsets, because their original plastic wheels are not really suited for operation without derailing. My Pullman Palace Cars are built from kits, which date from the 60s or 70s. Does anyone know which metal wheelsets could be recommended for this type of cars/trucks?
I second the motion for semi scale wheels. I have gotten rid of plastic and the oversize metal wheels. The intermountains role very well on nearly every car with the exception of some Atlas trainline equipment, that they are way to long for the space between the truck journals. I will put on some accurail trucks and run the intermountains.
The thinner treads also look very good as well. When putting those on a branchline blue print model with the fine detail it yields a very fine looking model. On cars not as well detailed they also add a great deal to their appearance and really dress up some of the accurail cars that have rather nice molded on detail as well. The tripple hoppers look very nice with this minor change as they are a very well engineered kit with hidden weights and nice brake detail. The slope sheets are also nicely done and add a great deal to the finished appearance. On some of the newer released reefers that accurail has done the wheels look very good next to the finer cross section of their steps and stirrups.
As to rib backed wheels and I may be incorrect on this but I believe they were banned from interchange in 1957 so anything era wise later than that should have smooth backed wheels on all rolling stock.
While the semi-scale wheels themselves do look better, their use in standard sideframes presents its own anomalies with the too-wide gap between wheels and sideframes.
If the wide wheels or the gaps bothered me enough, I’d go to Proto87, but fortunately, neither do, nor do plastic wheels. [swg]
While you may wish to replace the plastic wheels with metal ones, I doubt very much that the wheels are the cause of your derailments. If you’ve checked to ensure that they’re all in-gauge, check that the truck-mounting screws are properly tightened and that there’s no interference between the sideframes or wheels and the car’s underbody. Those cars originally came with Talgo-mounted couplers, another source of derailments, especially when the cars are being pushed. Another cause of derailments could be the extremely light weight of the cars, or their prototypical length, which isn’t too fond of tight curves or small switches.
My MDC Palace cars are still using their original wheels, but have body-mounted couplers and added weight:
Wayne
All of my Athearns and MDC cars (300+) still have their steel axle/plastic wheels after 30 years and still free rolling and clean after I got rid of all the sintered iron wheels on Athearn locos and Kadee wheels (the real reason tracks/wheels get dirty). I only clean my track once or twice a year with CRC 2-26. I don’t see any reason to change.
“While the semi-scale wheels themselves do look better, their use in standard sideframes presents its own anomalies with the too-wide gap between wheels and sideframes.”
I am with Wayne on this point, semi scale wheels simply bring attention to the fact that our model trucks are too wide, I don’t care for that gap between the wheel and the sideframe.
Also, I use NMRA track standards and do not care for the wheel drop of semi scale wheels in most frogs that meet NMRA dimensions.
I use my combination of Intermoutain wheels in Kadee sprung metal trucks for the following reasons:
Equalized sprung trucks track better.
This wheel/truck combo is very free rolling and I pull long trains.
The metal wheels and metal trucks add weight where it does the most good - this allows total car weight to be a little lighter than NMRA RP’s and still perform well in long trains.
Sheldon
@ doctorwayne:
I already checked the cars. Everything is ok, in gauge and not interfering with anything. The main reason is that they are simply too light, although I added interior lights, interiors and passengers. Another reason might be that I run them through my 20" curves, which seems to be a little critical for them. Too bad I will never be able to have them run with diaphragms, because then they would derail immediately in the curves. But without diaphragms it´s fine. It´s just the weight that really matters and gets these light cars off the track on 20" curves. I know that with metal wheelsets they would stay on track, because the plastic wheelsets are just a bit too light to stay on track properly. So I definetly need some metal wheelsets, but just don´t know which ones to take in my case.
My Palace cars have hornhook couplers, which are of course not mounted at the carbody but Talgo-mounted. But that is not the reason for derailing. Even when the cars are being pushed while the locomotive is running backwards, they don´t derail. BUT: everytime the cars are being pushed (=everytime the train is running backwards) the cars immediately uncouple themselves. That´s because of the hornhook couplers and because they are Talgo-mounted. I wonder how much work it would be to install body mounted Kadee or McHenry couplers, and wether performance on my 20" curves would improve or worsen with them…
I would guess that body-mounted couplers on such long cars wouldn’t get along too well with curves that tight.
I just got my MDC Pullmans out to check the axle lengths and was surprised (and embarrassed) [:$] to discover that the combine in the earlier photo is actually equipped with Kadee 36" wheels. [:-^] At least it saved me the trouble of measuring the axle length. [swg]
Any 36" wheelset with an axle length that fits Athearn or MDC freight cars should fit your Pullmans. Kadee #5s and any of the more-recent iterations of it should be a drop-in fit for those Talgo-style draught gear boxes.
Wayne