Upgrading HO scale Anne and Clarabel

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

My Club has a Thomas the tank engine with Anne and Clarabel. We also have Percy and his car sets.

We have discovered that While Thomas matches the NMRA gauge for wheel set. Anne and Clarabel are too narrow to the point that they will ride up on guardrails even on Code 100.(they’re also pizza cutter profile)

The wheels are a 1 piece casting. So the club is looking to replace the wheelsets. Thomas is of course a big draw at openhouses and trust me when I say that Anne and Clarabel derailing causes an awful lot of consternation with our younger guests.

I’ve found numerous manufacturers of OO gauge metal wheelsets that would likely fix the problem, but I can’t figure out what size these wheels are. Anyone have any idea?

Also, I’d like to perform the same upgrade on my Hogwarts Express set, another popular one.

2

Get a digital caliper and measure the wheel diameter.

Rich

3

if the flange son the wheels seem adequate you maybe able to use a wheel puller from Micromark to adjust them until they can be brought into spec. You may just want to remove one wheel set and see if it has a flat end or a tapered end

4

Since there are only 2 cars, you might consider replacing the trucks along with the wheelsets. That would guarantee compatability.

5

No trucks on those things. The sideframes are part of the car.

6

Oh, that’s different.

Never mind.

7

Maybe use the wheels/axle from an On30 car. They’re a bit larger diameter than an HO car, but they’re still HO scale. They have the added benefit of being metal wheels.

8

Can you replace the frame of the cars with another European type car frame and replace Anne and Clarabel back on the new frames with the proper wheel guages?

9

We went through a similar exercise with these cars. If I remember, everything was one piece except for a separate roof. But it’s been awhile now and I could be mistaken. Here’s about what those two cars look like: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.hornby.com/images/originals/r9087-2877.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hornby.com/print/thomas-161/r9087/product.html&usg=__NsPumeKblOrVGTVSkTPj4VK2YXY=&h=300&w=750&sz=116&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=WEWLw-C8Mm4AVM:&tbnh=56&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dclarabel%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS282US282%26tbs%3Disch:1

We have at least two Thomas engines, and the kids do like them. But they only have three speeds: stopped; go like heck; and derailed. One member tried replacing a motor, but that burned up. What we finally did was remove the motors so

10

If it is one piece except for the roof I think I would do a careful slice and cut off the base then remount them on the european frame with some glue and styrene strips for support. It depends I guess on how far into the project you want to go.

11

LOL!!! Never seen anyone use Gilda in a posting before. Now, THAT’S funny, I don’t care who y’are!

12

Sounds alot like old Tyco locomotives. [:D]

13

I’m kind of late to the party here, but are these some kind of special model or different equipment that you got somewhere? Because this stuff sounds a lot like the cheapo Bachmann Thomas equipment that I got for my son’s layout when he was 3 years old.

I have upgraded the couplers and added weight to some of the cars. I would not call them brilliant runners, by any means, but they operate (well, operated; he’s kind of outgrown them now) just fine on an oval of Powerloc track with a couple of sidings. Everything’s in guage, and the only derailments we have are due to a peice of flexible, adhesive-backed road that comes un-stuck from time to time and catches on the sides of the cars at a crossing.

But the point is, these cars run something like $15 each. Why not either chuck them and buy new or contact Bachmann for spare wheel sets. The wheelsets on all my son’s stuff is perfectly in guage. Also, all the Thomas wquipment uses the same wheels, so you could just get the cheapest car available and swap wheels.