Morning!
Doing better, but I can barely sleep because this question is stuck in my head.
Im curious if HO Scale 33’ Wheelsets Code 110 will fit on HO Scale Bachmann railcars?
Im lazy to get actual Bachmann ones and rather get better looking ones that are slightly cheaper
Atlas had two types of HO-scale wheelset standards: short and long. The diagram is from about 15 years ago, and the company used different standards (“for caboose” is just a name).
Here is a discussion from 12 years ago.
Plastic to metal wheelsets - Model Railroader / General Discussion (Model Railroader) - Trains.com Forums
P.S. I made that statement with my memory still hazy. I’m sorry.
Do you mean passenger cars? If so, passenger cars generally used 36" trucks. 33" trucks were generally for freight cars. I believe some newer freight utilizes 36" trucks.
Tom
So I made a post a few weeks ago on the lot of Bachmann stuff I got on auction and I want to replace the wheels on the railcars with the Rapido HO Scale 33’ Wheelsets so it looks more better looking but I might weather the wheels or paint them coupler brown to match some of the things on my layout.
Gabe,
If your Bachmann rolling stock came with 33" (not feet) wheelsets then the Rapido 33" wheelsets will fit. How well they fit/roll will depend on the inside truck width between the journals.
Do you have a pair of calipers for measuring the point-to-point distance of your wheelsets? Manufacturer’s wheelsets vary in width (as shown in BN7150’s post diagram above) so some will roll better or worse with your trucks due to that fact. Too long and the wheelsets bind. Too short and there is too much side-to-side slop causing wobble.
A decent digital caliper can be had for $20 or < at any hardware store or online and is worth the investment. A truck tuner is another handy tool for cleaning burrs on the inside of your truck journals. Both are part of my essential tool arsenal.
Tom
I recommend that you look back in the ‘old forum’ posts and read some of the relatively recent discussions about how plastic trucks and pointed-axle wheelsets work.
The ‘point’ is not the bearing, as conical pivots or a cap-jewel setup work in watches. The actual ‘bearing’ is on part of the upper face of the point, against the slightly wider taper of the recess in the sideframe.
The ‘caliper’ advice lets you measure the working axle length, rather than having to approximate the ID of the active contacts in the cast sideframe… again, if the points were the ‘contact’, sideframe measurement might be easier, but as noted above, that would be ‘binding’.
I second the use of a purpose-built truck tuner. You’ll make surprisingly good use of it over time!
Yes, passenger cars are generally 36” wheels. As for freight cars, I think once cars grew to 100 tons that’s when 36” wheels started to appear. So, for example, 70 ton cars had 33” wheels. Interestingly, some intermodal cars have 28” wheels to minimize height restrictions.
DFF
As do some auto-rack cars.
The ‘inside’ trucks on articulated double-stack cars usually have larger wheels for better load-carrying.
In the case of freight cars, the names “70 ton car” and “100 ton car” refer to the approximate nominal capacity, or allowable load, and the weight of the entire freight car includes the unladen weight, so it is heavier than that, as shown in the table (for a 4-axle car = 8-wheel car). There are also AAR standards for axle dimensions and wheel diameter. See the 1984 edition of the Car & Locomotive Cyclopedia.
In addition, the load capacity of 100 ton cars was raised from 263,000 pounds to 286,000 pounds after January 1995, and the term “nominal load” was no longer used (source information unconfirmed).
The reason for increasing the wheel diameter to match the axle load is thought to be due to surface pressure strength, which can be calculated using the Hertzian stress (or Hertzian contact stress) formula.
Add up “LD LMT” and “LT WT”.
