I have noticed on a lot of layouts the wheels, trucks, and other loco and freight car parts used as spare parts around a roundhouse or repair facility. Do most of you use the same wheelsets and trucks from your cars, or is a special type available for this purpose. The reason I ask is that the wheelsets used in ho scale freight cars have cone shaped ends, where real wheelsets don’t. Any ideas?
Tim
Tichy sells proto-correct wheelsets for a wheel car load. Try their website or Walthers.
You can also file the ends of plastic (or metal ) wheelsets flat.
[:)]
Not all HO wheelsets have cone shaped ends – plastic wheel sets off of Model Power, Tyco, and some of the other really cheap train sets have blunt axles. Even some of the new Athearn Ready-to-Roll stuff has blunt axles. I always take these trucks off and throw them away if there’s any possible way to replace them.
Replacement wheelsets are typically very cheap at the hobby shop–if you’re using plastic wheelsets, do yourself a favor and buy a pack or two of metal wheels with metal axles, and you’ll have plenty of plastic wheelsets to spray with rust and leave lying around your shop areas! The plastic axles should be easy to file down to eliminate the cone-shaped ends.
Thanks for the tips guys!!
Tim