I’ve just spent about 1 years changing trucks on my trains, but the new trucks all came with plastic wheels.
Am I better to change the plastic ones with the metal wheels?
What’s the difference? One thing I can see is that I derail a lot of times when the plastic wheels come out of the truck.
Ed Dalton
Abbotsford, B.C.
Let’s not start riots about who’s right or wrong with the Iraq and other countries where we fight for peace, but let’s pray for the soldiers who are overseas, both U.S. and Canadian.
The metal wheels are better than plastic wheels. I suggest replacing the ones that fall out of the trucks first, so you’ll have less and less trouble as you go on.[:D]
metal wheels aren’t just more reliable in my opinion, but they look better too. You get those shiny flanges like the prototype. You can’t get that with plastic wheels.
You may have another problem where you state that “One thing I can see is that I derail a lot of times when the plastic wheels come out of the truck.” If the wheelset is actually coming out of the truck frame, you have a problem to solve here because if the metal wheelsets are the same axle length, they’ll do the same thing.
I’m assuming that you’re in HO scale though N scalers have the same issue.
If you’re looking for decent metal wheels at a budget price, go with Proto 2000 wheelsets. The 33" will work for most freight cars, 28" for the Auto Carrier cars, and 36" for passenger cars. If you’ve been buying Athearn, or Walthers replacement trucks with the plastic wheels, the P2K wheelsets are “drop in” replacements.
Give us some more details as to what brands for cars you have as well as the type of replacement trucks you’ve been using.
Don Gibosn is one of this forum’s “Wheel Gurus”. He’s given a lot of great info regarding this issue. Hopefully he’ll stop in soon and give his input or refer us to a topic with all of the info that he’s posted.
Most cars are 33" and I would suggest metal wheels all the way if you have some time to tinker with your rolling stock(which you should if your a true MR). Atlas has the Proto 2000 wheels for really cheap and you can find cheap sets of 12 on internethobbies.com Good luck!
It took me a while, but I replaced all my plastic wheels with KD metal wheels. They look better, they track better, they’re simply better across the board.
Hi Ed.
It could be the trucks are spread apart or warped or the axles are too short or the wheels out of alignment or a combination of all the above. The axles should not fit sloppy in the truck. If you replace the wheel set, you have to be sure to get the correct axle type and length. NWSL has a chart. See chart 7-5 for Specifications of wheel set components and 7-3 for stock wheel set chart.
Also be sure the trucks pivot freely and are centered in the bolster.
Do you have an NMRA Standards Gage to check the wheels to be sure the wheels are in gage? Also the wheels sets in a truck need to be in line with each other.
In other words, lets say the wheels of one wheel set are slightly to the left on one axle (more axle sticking out on the right than on the left) and the wheels on the other set are equal or to the right (more axle sticking out on the left than on the right). The truck will ride at an angle, but the axles are running straight and putting force on the journals trying to straighten out the truck.
Add to that is the fact that normal NMRA track gauging is wider that the NMRA wheel gauging. With the normal slop between the wheels and track, the wheels will turn slightly sideways and scrub the rail edge. If there is a flaw in the track the truck will derail and possibly, with all the forces against the plastic truck being pulled by the train, causing a wheel set to pop out.