Hello all,
Looking through the walthers ore bridge kit the other day, I noticed that the wheels don’t look all that great. So I had a brain storm, why not take N scale wheels and machine them to fit. I’m not talking about throwing a couple of sets of N scale wheel sets under it and calling it a traveling ore bridge. I’m thinking more in the lines of single wheels, butted up to one another.
Thus making a rolling ore bridge, don’t know if it will work out as planned but I’ll give it a try.
Has anyone else attempted to do this same feat of engineering ? If so what did you use and how did it work out ?
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River steel Corp {DRSC}
Guess no one else has tried this before. Rats…
What’s an “ore bridge”? What’s the catalog #? I can’t find it in the Walthers catalog.
Are you referring to this http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2906, now called a ‘Bridge Crane’?
Does it have a single row of wheels on each side (leg) - if so, how good are you at machining, in order to get two points on each side of the shorten axle? Hmm, are you sure there’s no upgraded single wheel sets out there for, say faller and Kibri coal and container cranes?
If that is the kit you are talking about, I wouldn’t try to machine points on both ends of the axles. I would expiriment with two or three Mfgs. metal wheel sets (MDC, Con Core maybe Atlas? I think the Athearn/MDC use plastic). Cut the wheel set in half. Take a scrap 1x2, or such, drill a hole a little larger in diameter than the axle. Put the pointy axle end into the hole and use a “C” clamp to puhe axle through the wheel so that you have roughly an equal axle length on both sides. If the total axle length is not long enough you might find some metal rod or tubing stock, the right diameter, to replace the axle with, and you might allso use some tube stock as a bushing for the axle to fit into.
To mount the wheels to the model, I would drill through the feet or base, with the appropriate diameter to match the axle or bushing you use. Maybe cap the exposed holes with small discs of styrene or jurnal bearing cap detail parts. You may have to use a small brass tube as a bushing in the wheel its self and then insert the wheel with bushing into the wheel cavity then puhe rod used for an axle though the holes you drilled in the base. I hope that doesn’t sound to difficult, it shouldn’t be. I could draw a blueprint better than I can write one.