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Walthers Gold Line HO wheel sets Locos and rolling stock
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Frequent poster 926 posts ratled Frequent poster 926 posts
ratled

I’ve been getting some of the Walthers 50’ bulkhead flats lately.  These aren’t bad cars, especially for the prices I’ve been getting them, but the wheel sets leave a lot to be desired.  I can actually place them on a 3% grade and they stay!  Has anyone fixed this problem with out replacing them?  If you replaced them did you do just the axles or the whole wheel set?  I just ordered some of their new woodchip gons and they come with the same wheel sets so I’ll have even more to do.

 
Thanks
Steve

http://klamathline.blogspot.com/

 
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JaySmith Regular poster 174 posts
JaySmith

I only have one car, the KCS

I only have one car, the KCS flat and I can't wait to get those plastic wheels off of it.  It takes a lot of power to get that car moving!

Jay Smith

The Northeast Corridor-New Jersey Division HO Model Railroad on Facebook

Amtrak - New Jersey Transit - Septa

 
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joef MRH Founder 17,368 posts
joef

Get your self an axle tip reamer

Get yourself one of the axle tip reamers from MicroMark ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You'll find this little tool makes it a lot easier to get free rolling wheelsets in your trucks. Otherwise, there's no guarantee replacement metal wheelsets will roll any better if they're a tight fit in the truck sideframes.

Joe Fugate​
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

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Read my blog
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mikeruby Regular poster 236 posts
mikeruby

Replacement wheels

I've replaced all my Walther's plastic wheels with either Inter-mountain or Proto 2000 metal wheels, they run freely now. This the first thing I do to any new car, and fit Kadee couplings.

Mike Ruby
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kbkchooch
kbkchooch

Ditto here. P2K wheels on

Ditto here. P2K wheels on everything. I usually buy them by the box (cheaper that way) and EVERY car gets them and weight added to NMRA spec before it ever sees the rails!

Now, I have an opposite problem! I can't park anything on a grade! Anybody make HO scale wheel skates????
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ratled Frequent poster 926 posts
ratled

Thanks Guys

Thanks guys for all of the replies. I got a product called “The Tool” from my (not so) LTS.  It’s a different version of the one Joe Mentioned.   I gave each axel a spin before I used The Tool. I found that the axel would free spin about 1 – 3 seconds when flat and come to an abrupt stop.  I used The Tool and I was surprised how much plastic I would remove. The sooner the axel stopped during the free spin, the more plastic The Tool took off. I gave a each a spin after using The Tool on both axels and found that they would free spin about 5 – 10 seconds and slowly wind down to a stop. There was also a noticeable torque feel to the truck too after using The Tool that wasn’t there before.   It was kind of like what a top or gyro would give off. This has to translate to some improvement in performance. Unfortunately it’s getting kinda of late to take out for a test spin tonight to see just how much.   It will have to wait a couple of days.
 
I did notice that there was a similar kind of post on the Atlas forum and someone there mentioned they also added graphite to the axels. At first thought this sounded good but then I figured all that graphite would fall off and onto the tracks. Just the thing to dirty tracks and foul wheels later. I also noticed that after doing 6 cars tonight that I had a good oily film on my fingers from the axels. Walthers must have put some light oil on them.
 
Anyway, thanks again for the replies. Now just have to do the woodchip cars.
 
 
Steve
 

http://klamathline.blogspot.com/

 
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shoggoth43 Regular poster 112 posts
shoggoth43

graphite

I'm not sure I'd worry about the graphite so much.  I've heard people using plastic wheels that had the graphite stick to the wheels instead of the journals.  Given you no longer have plastic wheels I would suspect the graphite would have a static cling effect on the plastic sideframes before it would fall onto the rails.  Complete conjecture on my part though....

-

S
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Arved New member 22 posts
Arved

Graphite

As shoggoth43 said above, don't worry about the graphite.  The axle journals are well outside the rails, so if the graphite drops, it's not going to hit the rail and dirty things.  If you've got some Kadee or P2K wheels with any time on them, you'll notice the stripe the rail has worn in the wheel blackening - that should give you an idea of how far away the journal is from the rail.

Reminds me - I prefer NWSL Code 88 wheels (0.088" wide vs. 0.110" width of Kadee and P2K wheels).  I'm not a big fan of a plastic axle riding in a plastic sideframe, and I've seen the axles and journals wear on high-mileage club run equipment.  Graphite helps, as does using metal axles.  But, eventually, the metal axle will wear in the plastic sideframe, too.

Code 88 wheels are a nice compromise between the "tinplate" look of common RP-25 wheelsets and true Proto:87 wheels (which, unfortunately, are intolerant of NMRA gauged trackwork - but Code 88 wheels work fine for me on common trackwork).  Those with Athearn Genesis cars aren't strangers to Code 88 wheels.  If they're good enough for Athearn to include...

And I love Athearn Genesis RB trucks.  Nice upgrade for those models needing RB trucks.  But I digress...

Merry Christmas!

- Arved
Modeling the Southern Pacific, from AC-4s to AC4400CWs
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