I am wanting to convert my small fleet of rolling stock over to metal wheels so I can run on the club layout, the question is, what size wheels to buy? I want an affordable but reliable brand of wheels in a general purpose size that would be suitable for all sorts of equipment.
Metal wheels are generally of a similar price range, around 10 - 12 dollars for a set of 12, which will do 3 freight cars. Most box cars of 70 ton capacity use 33" wheels, 100 ton 36. Hoppers, covered hoppers and tank cars tend to have 36" wheels.
Intermountain is a good brand to go with. MBK has them for $9.99 for a set of 12 axles. You can get bulk packs and save a bit on the unit cost.
Just to clarify I model from about 1940 to 1980 as far as rolling stock goes. Would 33" ones be a problem on a covered hopper?
For the smaller covered hoppers like the 2 Bay or 3 Bay in the following capacities of 1958, 2003, 2893, 2929, up to 3510 CF then 33" would be okay.
For the 2970/80CF ACF Two Bays, and all the larger ACF/PS like the 4427, 4740, 4750, 5250 then 36" would be proper. Also buy using the 36" wheel sets on the old bluebox ACF & PS Athearn cars, you don’t need the Kadee Washers as the cars will now be at the proper height.
Rick Jesionowski
You will need to look at the CAPY data on the side of the freight car. 100,000 to about 150,000 lbs cars normally use 33" wheels. Over that, 36" wheels are normally mounted. A typical 100 ton capacity grain hopper(200,000 lb capacity) will have 36" wheels.
While I generally agree, I would only change out the wheelsets on one car of a set of like cars (all Athearn blue box 100 ton covered hoppers for example) to see if there is any interference between the larger wheels and any underframe parts.
If there is interference, then you will need to see if you are capable and willing to take corrective steps.
Why can’t I just put 33" wheels on all the cars? Is there an operational problem? Or is it just “look”?
I’ll try to answer this with both looks and operational. Now, the wheel diameter doesn’t matter as far as rolling ot tracking, but there is or may be a problem with coupler height which is the operational end of the question. I would suggest getting the Kadee coupler height guage and make sure the couplers are the correct height after installing the wheels. Also I will add that you talk with the club members and they will help you with this also. Ken
As for looks, a 3" diameter difference is not that noticeable in HO scale.
Oporational issues however would indeed make it more challenging, and these would primarily be caused by incorrect coupler height.
If you are running scale sized coupler heads, this gets exaggerated even more so.
If the smaller diameter wheels make the couplers too low, that will be very easy to spot.
But to notice the looks of a HO scale 3" wheel size diameter difference on the wheels, you either need a scale ruler, or be the absolute biggest rivet counter on the planet! [(-D]
When a car with 33" wheels is coupled to a car with 36" wheels, the difference is easy to see. The point is that we’re all building models – some cars had one size and some cars had the other. A lot of little details go into whether a car “looks right” or not, and wheel size is one of the easy ones.
Check coupler heights, check for rubbing on the underframe, fix the problems, and you’re good to go.
For a real can of worms, ask about truck sideframe designs.
I really don’t want to order a bunch of different wheels, I’d like to order just a bunch of one kind.
OK, my experience. The coupler difference between 33" and 36" is not a huge factor, couplers might not be perfectly in alignment, but it will work.
Use what the majority of your club members use.
I would say, get 33". You’ll be safe either way.
Mike.
Cars that should have 36" wheels are often engineered for it. Walthers Centerbeams came with 33" wheels but all the couplers were too low. I switched to 36 and presto.
For general service pre-1980 boxcars, 33" will almost undoubtedly be correct.
The rolling stock I am wanting to convert are all Accurail kits and the stock plastic wheels “appear” to all be the same.
Again, check the “CAPY” marking on the car. Anything less than 190000 or so would be fine for 33" wheels – typically 150000 to 170000.
Pretty much every Accurail kit I’ve ever assembled has the same trucks and plastic wheels included. I’ve put 33-inch Intermountain wheels on all of them, and they work fine.
Coupler adjustment is a routine job that goes along with changing wheelsets. I also use a Truck-Tuner to clean out the end bearings on the trucks. Since I’ve got the trucks off anyway, I spray paint them rust or dark brown and weather a bit with powders. It looks so much better than shiny black. Don’t forget to mask the bearings and bolster hole while spray painting.
I don’t bother painting the wheelsets themselves. I don’t notice them. I don’t care about rib-back or flat-back wheelsets. You can’t even see those differences.
You didn’t say how many cars you wanted to replace the wheelsets on. If they are mostly Accurail from that vintage, you could probably get by with 33" wheels. A bulk pack of 100 would do 25 cars and they can be had for about $70. Or you could order a 12 pack that would do 4 cars for about $11 and see how it goes. Just be aware that the wheel sets come in standard tread(.110) and semi-scale(.88) so take that into account.
Now my club requires resistors on one axle per car (for CTC/signaling purposes) what would be the best resistor to put on the cars? I plan to use two per car, one on the inward axle of each truck. And how to attach said resistors? I’d like to keep it as inconspicuous as possible.
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Now you are getting into something difficult.
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For this one… ask your club. Look at what they have done for examples. Two axles per car is overkill. There will surely be several cars per detection block, so one axle should be plenty.
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-Kevin
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Also look if the car has a Plate C marker on it A square box that says Plate C. For sure those would be 100 ton with 36" wheels