I am new to the hobby. I purchased a McKean box car kit for $4 to get the experience of putting a car together. I want to replace the plastic wheels with metal wheel sets and I think I will need to get new trucks. What do I need to know to get the right type and size of wheels and trucks. I have 3 cars now so I’m looking at replacing all the couplers with Kadee#5’s. Am I on the right track?
Yes, you are on the right track.
As far as wheels are concerned, most metal wheel sets will fit most plastic trucks so you may not have to replace the trucks. A good tool to have is a Truck Turner from Micro-Mark. It is used to make the inside cone of truck bearings smooth and can open them up is a wheel set is too tight. While you at at it, get a spring pick from Micro-Mark also. It will make replacing couple springs much easier.
Most 40 and 50 foot freight cars use 33 inch wheels. If you are modeling the modern era with longer cars, quite a few of them use 36 inch wheels. That you are going to have to research.
Hello,
My recommendations are a little different and for HO scale.
Quality metal wheelsets should be a drop-in installation. Kadee, Proto 2000, and similar brands.
Yes, 33 inch is the standard size. If you get into larger cars, Grain Hoppers use 36 inch wheelsets.
Couplers used to be the Kadee #5 as the standard. Other brands ex: Proto Max are of similar design and can be equally useful.
One item to obtain is an NMRA standards gauge. Always check wheel gauge, even on new cars. You can also check track gauge, plus much more, with this indispensable tool. If money is a factor, get the NMRA gauge and adjust the plastic wheels.
You should find factory trucks work fine, on quality products.
One more consideration. Find a good train shop. They can be an immense help.
Good Luck!
William
Reboxx has list of their replacement wheelsets/truck manufacture
http://www.reboxx.com/wheelsets.htm
Their wheelsets are highly recommended on another forum.
Intermountain wheelsets are also highly recommended.
Hi, and welcome!
I’ve been in HO since the '60s, and learned real quick to replace stock couplers with KDs - mostly #5s. Sometimes you need a different stock number, but the #5s are the norm.
Four years ago I replaced wheelsets on all my layout cars. I model the 1950s, and basically all the freight cars have 33 inch wheels and the passenger cars 36 inch. I bought Intermountain wheelsets in bulk (on Ebay) and what I thought was a luxury has now turned out to be a necessity.
ENJOY !
The wheel sets in the prior posts are right on on the money.
For couplers I prefer the Kadee number 5 which will fit most of your fleet. I would encourage you to mount a Kadee height gauge on a piece of track and use this for ALL of your coupler installations. Make this your standard operating procedure. The kadee red and gray fiber washers are also a must as they can raise or lower coupler heights slightly to match the gauge. These washers are also good for use inside of coupler boxes to control vertical coupler play which is a killer on long trains and leads to unwanted disconnections as one coupler will ride up and over the other.
Under set shank Kadee couplers like the 37 or 47 ( the same with different coupler boxes) work very well in the older Athearn cars as they rode a bit low. This will help you avoid adding to many washers to the bolsters to raise the car heights too high for operational and cosmetic purposes.
Take your time. It is very rewarding and a great way to recycle older horn hook coupler cars back into service.
John R
The Kadee #5 is the standard I would recommend. On my cars and locos I use Kadee shelf couplers (#118 standard head and #119 scale head). For tank cars I use the shelf couplers as is (SF type). On other cars I cut the top shelf off. This makes the coupler into a lower shelf coupler (type F) which is a common sight on modern railroads. Cutting away both shelfs makes it into a type H passenger car coupler. Kadee shelf couplers actually work like the real shelf couplers in that they stay coupled together even through a catastrophic derailment.