Hi, I have a newbie question, Is there a guide for what size wheels to use for rolling stock type? I want to replace some plastic wheels on a box car and a caboose with metal ones. Is 33in correct? Thanks for any help,
Greg
As a general rule, 33 inch wheels for freight cars that do not have roller bearing trucks. If they are roller bearing trucks, they may be 36, but now it depends on the year the car was built, and I don’t know what the dates are.
Most will be 33 inch. If you look at your rolling stock you should see them all about the same size. Some of the modern high tonage units will use 36 inch. I would just compare what you have with each other to confirm and then bring one with you to the LHS and match them up. You don’t want to change the size since it will change the coupler height on on units that have them body mounted (just about all current models)
Generally speaking, caboose stock will be 33" Most boxcars unless they are some of the newest high volume boxes will also have 33" wheelsets. There are exceptions but this generally the case. If you elect to install 36" wheelsets on a particular car be careful that is will clear the undercarriage details. It may be correct for a certain car to have 36" but for the larger wheels to interfere with the trucks and couplers to point where you choose not to use them.
70-77 Ton Capacity Cars have 33" Wheels,
100 Ton Capacity Cars have 36" Wheels
Rick
Just to REALLY confuse the issue, some TOFC and COFC equipment is equipped with 28 inch wheels. In the model world, some AHM-Rivarossi rolling stock had 31 inch wheels to compensate for the deep flanges…
I’m a happy (and lucky) camper. Just about every non-powered wheel in Japan was 860mm - close enough (in 1:80 scale) to the standard 36 inch wheel for my simple purposes…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Might be true but the major brands offer 2 main choices, 33 or 36. Thank God. 
If I am not mistaken Autoracks also have 28" wheels; on some railroads the loading gauge is so tight that some of these Autoracks pass under some bridges–and through some tunnels–with only a few inches of clearance.
The modeler asked about box cars, not TOFC or COFC equipement! [oops][banghead][|(]
Rick[2c]
I here what you’re saying man, and completely agree. Those guys R.T. Poteet and TomikawaTT are always running their mouths off going off topic. Rebels. That’s what they are. Miscreants. You’d never see me go off topic or run my mouth like they do. Boy could I tell you stories…Do you have time?
Hi!
May I add…
I converted all my rolling stock (run on the layout) to Intermountain metal wheelsets two years ago. They are typically better “rollers”, and I feel they collect much less gunk.
As my layout is from the late '40s thru '50s, all my freight cars got 33 inch wheels, and the passenger cars got 36 inch wheels. As previous posters indicated, there are a lot more variables with more modern equipment.
In any case, I highly recommend the Intermountain (purchased in bulk on Ebay).
Mobilman44
As was said, 33" on 70-77Ton aka most box cars. 36" on passenger equipment and most other high tonnage freight cars.Tank cars, etc
Autoracks are 28"
And just make things difficult. 5 unit well cars are typically 36" (or is it 33") on the 2 outside units and 38" on the shared bolsters. If you watch a stack train go by, you’ll see that the trucks have a different profile to accommodate this.
dti406 and Driline;
I went back and read the original posting and you are absolutely correct; the original poster did not inquire about WHAT SIZE WHEELS to use for ROLLING STOCK TYPE!
He did ask that but then specified he wanted box car and a caboose. Actually he wanted a guide and noone gave him one. [swg]
Au contraire, mon frère! Au contraire!
He got a number of answers pertaining to the use of 33" and 36" wheels; TomikawaTT and myself merely added information about circumstances under which 28" wheelsets would be appropriate. It does appear, according to dti406 and Driline, that our comments were inappropriate for his inquiry.
Extraneous comments in a thread on a message board? Call the internet police!!!
humina humina humina humina
Ummmmm…you know I was kidding…right? [:)]