I have a bunch of older freight cars(mostly Athearn) with plastic wheels. I got the latest Walthers sale flyer the other day and they have both Kadee, and Walthers Proto 2000 wheelsets on sale this month. My question is, which one is better? The Kadee sets are $6.98 for 12, and the Walthers are $7.98 for 12. I’ll have to order about 10 sets to fit out my fleet so I want to be sure which one is the best. Anyone here have an idea about that? I know Kadee makes great couplers, and Walthers makes nice rolling stock, but who makes the best wheelsets?
i have had good luck with both but seems to be leaning toward the p2k. actually, i still equip a lot of cars with plastic wheel sets on brass axles. i have not had the “clean track” experience so many others claim with the metal wheels. especially, when the color coating starts wearing off the wheel treads. what ever you do, use one of those little reamers called a truck tuner on the sideframes and any axles will roll a lot better.
I bought a couple of bulk-packs of Intermountain wheelsets a couple of years back. They have served me well. As I put new cars in service, I replace any plastic wheels, although I’ve still got a bunch of plastic wheels on my layout.
I use the P2K wheels exclusively other than some trucks which use a different length axle. For those, Reboxx makes wheelsets with various axle lengths. I don’t run any plastic wheels. Shop around, $7.98 a pack for the P2K wheels is too much.
I’ve replaced wheelsets on about 2 dozen older Athearn and Roundhouse rolling stock with Intermountain 33" metal wheelsets. No truck replacement or tuning was required. I continue to replace newer plastic wheelsets with the same Intermountains as I acquire rolling stock.
At the same time, I’ve upgraded the couplers (Kadee Whiskers) and added weight where it was needed.
I’m with Packer on this one. All my cars are equipped with Branchline semi-scale wheels. Having a narrower tread, they look much better than the standard HO wheel. And they run so freely that I can double my freight train lengths. They are absolutely dependable, operating flawlessly on Atlas code 83 flex track and switches, despite my not-so-great trackwork. Buy them in bulk and save money!
Of the two on sale, I’d go with P2K’s over the KD’s. But as mentioned, Intermountains have them both beat and come in a “scale” size tread that looks much more realistic.
My vote is for the Intermountain wheelsets. I use their semi-scale version when they are available.
Early on, I switched from a mix of plastic and Kadee to Proto 2000 and began to have derailment issues with the Proto. Looking at them under a magnifier, I found some had a small bubble on the tread. Others had an irregular flange. When I switched to Intermountain, the problem disappeared immediately.
The Protos appear to be cast while the Intermountains (and most others) are “coined,” giving them more uniformity.
I’ll third or forth Intermountain wheel sets. I buy them in bulk packs of 100 wheetsets…usually between $60 and $65. Yes they are slightly more expensive then other sets, but I feel the wheel wheel, metal axle is worth it. They have much more heft then the ones with the plastic axles.
I’ve used both the Proto and Intermountain with good success. One thing about the Intermountain, they seem to be a little ‘heavier’ than the Proto, and tend to add a little weight (not much) to the car. Be sure and have one of those terrific little “Truck Tuners” handy, because some of the plastic trucks I’ve run into are a little tighter than others. But as far as rolling qualities, both are excellent.
I had heard people say that and kind of laughed it off thinking how much heavier could they possibly be?
Then I bought a couple sets and was amazed at the weight difference!
Neither: NWSL & Jay Bee cut their wheels from solid stock. 1.are heavier 2. more NMRA accurate*.
Almost all rolling stock comes from overseas. Not all come with “NMRA” spec’d wheels FRICTION is caused by axle.rotating in sideframes. BEST is polished axles in Delrin sideframes.and only E & B has that (They’re also sprung).
Kadeee wheelsets are made with’slippery’ plastic axles, to go with their metal sideframes. Proto 2000 axles have ‘slippery’ plastic is applied to the ends.where the friction is… Mine also produced ‘wobble’…
I now have all my replacement wheels either NWSL or Jay Bee, and derailments are thing of the past. When faced with trucks with non NMRA replacements, I replace the entire truck.
In late 2007 I replaced 100 freight cars and 15 passenger car wheels with Intermountain wheelsets (33 inch for freight, 36 inch for passenger) on my transition era layout. It was not cheap, but they track better and look better, and best of all, they don’t pick up as much gunk.
You can get them in bulk - check on Ebay and go to the bottom of the page where “stores” are listed.
I’ve changed out many of the plastic wheel sets on my rolling stock with Kadee metal wheel sets. Most of the my fleet are circa 1985 Athearn blue box kits and so far the Kadee wheel sets are working fine except for the wheel tread blackening material coming off on the rails. Tried a few intermountain sets and they work okay too, with less blackening. My layout is all code 100 Atlas track and turnouts. I’ve decided to stick with the Kadees after finding that I can remove the blackening with a “Cratex” rubber block instead of scratching up the treads using a wire wheel. I also like that they are U.S.A. made according to the Kadee website. Peter
Wow, so many problems with Proto wheels? I NEVER had any issues, other than the few brnads of trucks they didn;t fit, and that’s not the fault of the wheelset. Every pair I ever pulled out of the package ALWAYS checked out with the NMRA gauge. ZERO derailments.
Of course I didn;t have problems with Atlas turnouts, either, and that seems to be some small miracle if you believe some people. The only things that ever picked points on them were cars that did not have the Proto wheelsets. And when checked, those original wheels WERE out of gauge. Repalced with properly gauged ones and the car no longer derailed.
All my cars were also proeprly weighted per NMRA standards, and I also always use real Kadee couplers, not one of the knockoff brands performs as well. Trains could run at warp speed through even the #4’s and not derail. No truck mounted coupelrs, either - all body mount (which is pretty standard these days outside of train set stuff).