Okay,

Now the smart hobbyist will just chunk those old Rivarossi steam engines with the absolutley huge flanges in the garbage and  buy something that really runs and probably has sound too.

Then there are people like me...  I have these engines and do not want to junk them. An old can motor really quiets it to an almost silent and fairly slow runner. Now, all I need to do is eliminate the " thump thump thump" coming from the flanges when they hit the "spikes" on the Code83 track.  The drivers are easy enough to turn down.  Has anyone done anything with the leading or trailing trucks? How did you do it?  If you used replacement wheels, what are the part numbers and so forth?