As I’ve posted before, I’m reviving a layout started in 2001 and not touched until last Summer. You guys got me going in setting up my DCC system and now that works great. Even using JMRI with my old Lenz system.
My problem now is I have about 50 cars (mostly box cars) of the old Athearn blue box series that still have the plastic wheels. Searching the Athearn parts site, I find 33 and 36 inch wheels along with short and long axles. What is correct for these old cars? Obviously, I would rather buy in bulk, so getting the proper size is pretty important. I’m not hung up on specifically Athearn wheels, unless the other manufacturers and are not as good (price also a consideration).
33" wheels for box cars and most freight cars. Intermountian metal sets have replaced the plastic wheels on all my Athearn BB cars. The Intermountain wheels work fine with the athearn plastic trucks - big improvement in performance and cost is reasonable, a little over $2 a car for 8 wheels.
Imho, they’re very good for the price. and perform well.
As with all axles, check the gauge before installing them and once installed, before rolling the car on the track give it a few spins and make sure that there is no “wobbling” or excessive play from the journals. A truck turner is a good tool to keep handy.
BTW: A number of hobby shops sell these axles for prices lower than what you see on Walthers website.
You’ll want 33-inch wheels. I would suggest buying a few wheels from each manufacturer to try them out. I use Intermountain wheels. I think they were the cheapest, perhaps because they offered the best deal in a bulk pack. But, I do have trouble with some very old Athearn trucks, and I’ve had to discard some of them. I suspect the trucks themselves were just too old and loose, and would have had to be replaced regardless of which wheels I bought.
Also, get a Micro Mark Truck Tuner. This little gadget will ream out the conical openings for the axle tips, and give you smooth-running trucks.
Proto 2000, ReBox, Exact Rail, Kadee, and Intermountain, among possible others, make replacement metal wheel sets that seem to all be pretty equal in quality. I purchase Intermountain in bulk packs of 100 axles from Cherry Creek Hobbies in Torrington, Wyoming. I would also advise that you get a Micro-Mark Truck Reamer tool.
Ribbed back wheels were outlawed prior to or during World War 2 because they were cast iron and had a tendency to shatter. Steel wheels are smooth-backed and would probably be 99 percent of what your rolling stock calls for.
Get a Micro-Mark ‘Truck Tuner’ to ream out the journals and clean out any ‘flash’. Since you are doing 50 freight cars, I would suggest getting ‘bulk packs’ of I-M 33" metal wheels - They will ‘drop’ into your Athearn trucks. The price of those 12 packs in the blister cards can add up fast. At $9-12/blister pack, you will only get 3 cars converted($3-4/car) A $60 ‘bulk’ pack(100 wheels) will do 25 cars($2.40/car). Also, the I-M wheels have metal axle tips that do not wear down like the plastic tips on the P2K or Kadee metal wheel sets do.
There are a number of web dealers that will sell the bulk packs ‘cheap’ with free shipping.
I use Intermountain wheels due to their performance…They will roll farther then the P2K wheel sets.I did a roll ability test on a grade at the club and the IM wheels won by several feet.The Rebox journal cleaner did not help the P2K wheels all that much…
I’m told the Atlas wheel sets(available in the bulk pack) won’t work in other brands of trucks due to the Atlas axles being .945"…I am also told Atlas caboose wheel sets(available in bulk) will work in other brands of trucks.
Count my vote for the Intermountain 33inch wheels, as well. I do a lot ( over 100 so far) of BB refurbishments and have not really encountered any issues with the trucks. Just a swap out of the original wheels with the Intermountains and all of a sudden, you are rolling very easily! They can also turn a toy train Tyco car into a scale model car ( albeit with a few other tweaks…) and give more heft to Model Power cars as well. Cedarwoodron
Hi MISTERBEASLEY, You’re correct in your description of BB Athearn’s old trucks. I vividly remember opening the little manila envelope and seeing truck side frames with the entire bottom of the journal box mismolded, unable to support any kind of axle. Luckily, I had plenty of spares. Bill
I’ve replaced all the wheels on my freight cars with the Proto 2000 wheel sets. I like the shinny rims and they work very well and have very competitive prices. I am partial to the ribbed back wheels and didn’t know that they went out of fashion after WW2 so the vast majority of my wheel sets are the ribbed back wheels and I guess I don’t care that they may not be correct for my 1954 layout. All my wheels get weathered with their axles and front and back faces painted. Mostly gray with some gloss black oil/grease splotches and rust spots.
I have used both types of wheels… P2K and now IM. I found that the IM wheels have quite a bit of lateral play in the Athearn trucks. Are there two different sizes of IM wheels? I searched the website and even googled looking for an answer. I really don’t like all the lateral ‘slop’.
I ran my own tests to check performance. I replaced the P2K wheels in a blue box 50’ boxcar with IM wheels and they rolled pretty much the same, using a Rix rerailer as my constant height.
Not all model freight car trucks or replacement wheelsets are exactly the same width. Some work better than others.
I can’t vouch for the other manufacturers, but the Proto wheelsets fit the Athearn blue box freight cars very well.
Frankly, the Athearn plastic wheelsets, especially if replaced by new ones, are very free rolling. I find metal wheelsets to be rather noisy compared to the plastic. I think the difference in rolling resistance between the Athearn plastic wheelsets and metal replacements would not cause hardly any problems at all except in the longest trains.
IM axles do slop around in some blue box Athearn trucks, especially the roller bearing versions. Reboxx sells wheelsets with longer axles that fit better, plus Proto 2000 and Kadee wheels also work better in Athearn trucks than IM. As an alternative, you could swap in trucks from Accurail or others that work well with IM axles.
I used Intermountain 33" wheels for my older Athearn, however, the Intermountain wheels would not fit the “yellow box” Athearns.
The trucks for the yellow box I have are metal with springs holding the parts of the truck together.
The Intermountain wheel axles were too short, however as the trucks were very old I opted to replace the trucks and continued to use the 33" wheels. On a lot of the metal trucks the finish had deep pock marks and it appeared the trucks may have been disintegrating, These trucks did not roll well even when I found some wheels with longer axles that I had also reamed.
After weighing the many responses (and thanks for all that advice!) I opted for the IM 33" wheelsets. Ordered my first bulk order and have done the 25 cars that it provided. My initial thoughts are that they work great. Some of my older Athearn cars have a bit too much play, but I think those have worn out trucks, so now I need to find some more of those.
Thanks for the many ideas and suggestions. This site is what model railroading is all about, I have solved so many issues just reading existing posts.