I’m sure this is a newbie question, and my apologies if it has been asked before, but I couldn’t find anything using the search feature.
I’m just getting back into model railroading and have pulled out my limited supply of N-Scale from storage. All was purchased in the 1980s. I was checking the wheels on my rolling stock with a NMRA standards gage, and noticed that there was a small gap between the gage and the wheel when measuring the wheels. The gap was wide enough that I was able to slide my .010” coupler trip pin gage between the wheel and the standards gage This gap was on all of the eight cars I have.
Is this normal or should I replace the wheels? If I need to replace the wheels, any recommendations on brand?
It really depends on what kind of track you use or if the look of the size of the flange bothers you. If you run your stuff on standard (code 80 like what is used on the NTrak mainlines) Kato, Atlas or Peco track chances are ( barring bad track and wheels) you won’t have any trouble. Some stuff won’t run well on code 55 track, so you should check it first.
N scale wheels have very bad until the past 10 years or so. Even the Kadee/Microtrains wheel sets have had very large ‘pizza cutter’ flanges, and many wheel sets are out of gauge on other brands. If you are going to replace these wheel sets to bring them up to current standards, I would suggest going to metal wheels. Intermountain has very good replacement wheel sets, and Atlas also has very good metal wheel sets. Atlas even has a 33" wheelset with the axle length correct for the Micro trains trucks. Axle legnth is a key area when replacing wheel sets. Too long of an axle and the wheel set will ‘bind’ and not roll free. Too loose and it may drop out. Pick up packages of several types and experiment. In some cases nothing will work and replacing the entire truck assembly will be in order.
Thanks for the information. Since I have such a small amount of rolling stock right now, I think I will just go ahead and replace the entire truck assembly.
About wheelsets, how is the 33" measured? Is it the length of the axel between the wheels?
The 33" is the diameter of the actual wheel(minus the flange). Here is a good rule of thumb:
o - Passenger cars - 36"
o - Freight cars with a capacity under 70 tons - 33"
o - Freight cars with a capacity over 70 tons - 36"
Most ‘modern’ cars have 36" wheels, and many older box cars have 33". Look at the reporting marks on the side of the car and check the CAPY. You will see the capacity listed in total pounds. For example, 150,000 is a 75 ton capacity car.
It appears that all but one of my cars have 33" wheels. This now brings up another question.
If this is the case, and my plan is for my layout to be set in the “present”, should I consider scraping everything but my one 36" wheel car ( a Kadee Micro-Trains 50 foot Standard Steel boxcar, single door with Rail Box markings)?