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Frequent poster 820 posts David Calhoun Frequent poster 820 posts
David Calhoun

I normally pride myself in solving problems that pop up like little gremlins on my railroad. Recently completing a reefer with all those little plastic parts that seem to disappear by jumping off the model and/or the surface you're working on, I ran into a problem I have never seen before.

Setting the car on the rails, it did not seem to roll smoothly. NO PROBLEM! Just taking my handy dandy tool, I reamed out the bolsters and reinstalled the wheels. No luck there. I repeated the process to no avail. What could possibly be wrong? The tool kept coming out clean indicating that the pocket for the needle ends of the wheel should roll freely.

That's where the process of elimination came in. On checking two of the wheels, I found that the conical point wasn't. That is, some material was left over from the die or casting process so that the "needle" end wasn't a perfect cone ending in a point that should allow the wheel to roll freely. 

Some scraping with an Xacto blade solved the problem. I tested each truck on a siding I have that has a 1% grade and checked to see if the truck rolled freely down the siding before re-installing it on the car. So, there is a new procedure on my railroad. I assemble all trucks and check them on the grade siding before installing them on the car. Any problem cars are pulled off the layout and the trucks run through the same process before being put back into service.

Tuning with a small reaming tool is great, but be sure to check the wheel as well. You may run into the same problem I found and had to solve. 

 

Chief Operating Officer

The Greater Nickel Plate
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Greg Williams GregW66 Prolific poster 1,305 posts
Greg Williams GregW66

A friend of mine did this as

A friend of mine did this as he converted all his rolling stock to metal wheelsets from Intermountain. This eliminated many of the derailment problems he was having. He likes to run LONG trains with helpers, things run pretty smooth now. The key is to set a standard and make sure every car meets or exceeds the standard.
Greg Williams
Superintendent - Eastern Canada Division - NMRA
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VE7KKQ Active Member 67 posts
VE7KKQ

I was doing the same thing

I was doing the same thing with some of my rolling stock that had plastic wheels.

 

I discovered that one Intermountain wheel set had an axle too short so one end had the proper shape the other was blunt, the next problem I had was when I put the newly wheeled car on the live track instant short, but all the wheels were on the rails correctly. By using my multimeter to check continuity I found one wheel set had two solid metal wheels on the axle.

 

I emailed Intermountain and when they had their wheel sets resupplied, I received replacements.

 

John
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Stan Shields New member 23 posts
Stan Shields

Brass is best

I stopped using plastic wheelsets altogether, the brass work much better (IMHO). Also a good idea to add weight to rolling stock, the all plastic stuff really needs some extra heft.
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David Calhoun Frequent poster 820 posts
David Calhoun

Wheelsets

Just to make things clear, the problem was with a METAL wheel set. I have converted most of my rolling stock to metal wheels.

Chief Operating Officer

The Greater Nickel Plate
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DrJolS Frequent poster 625 posts
DrJolS

BRASS???

Stan,

Do you really mean brass wheels that look like brass and corrode like brass? Or are you talking nickel-plated wheels that happen to be brass underneath? Maybe not much difference for cars that don't pick up current, but I found that brass wheels on tenders and illuminated cabooses need maintenance too frequently.

For appearance, either the brass or the silvery plating look weird, so painting the wheels is the same if that matters to the owner.

 

DrJolS
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Patrick Stanley Frequent poster 593 posts
Patrick Stanley

Also Check Wheelgage

A wheel set with even a slightly wide gage will cause drag and resistance as the truck tries to roll down the track.

Espee Over Donner
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