Suggest that you get a plastic divider box and start acquiring metal wheel sets of various sizes. I purchase 100 wheels at a time. Get best price that way.
Would not recommend Exact. Rail wheels. I am in the used car market as many are today so having assortment of metal wheels is a must to make used car purchases functional on my DCC detected layout. I also find my digital calipers from micro mark come in very handy to insure I get the same size back on a car I am tuning up.

I have had nothing but good results from ExactRail wheelsets, which are virtually indistinguishable from Intermountain.  I look forward to trying the new ones as well.  I realize these are RP-25 compliant instead of purely prototypical, but they're closer than other available wheels and should perform as well as anything else from ExactRail.

so I understand what accurate means, and their web site clearly says "most accurate".  To me that's a very definite claim.

So, putting a marketing department's version of English aside, which of the two types of model railroad wheels in identical settings above do you think have the "most accurate" tire width, flange, etc.?

Andy,

In my humble opinion, you are technically correct and practically wrong.  I think it is perfectly fair to call these wheels the most accurate on the market, as they are probably (I'll refrain from saying definitely, since I do not know) the most accurate RP25 compliant wheels available.  When you consider that some (All?  Again, I don't know) of the P:87 wheels out there have flat backs, there is an argument to be made that these new wheels have more accurate profiles overall, even if they are too wide.

I love P:87.  It's an important segment of our hobby, because it helps motivate those of us who are dedicated to more accurate (there's that darned word again) modeling of our chosen prototypes.  However, I feel that it is important not to try to push it on people who are unwilling or unable to model in P:87.  It is also not really fair to jeer, make fun of, or otherwise disparage models built to a less demanding standard.  Yes, it may not be technically correct to call such models accurate or exact, but within the limitations of the NMRA standards and general interoperability, it's the best that can be or has been done to date.

and just say honestly that they are a more US realistic shaped version of the NMRA RP25 model train wheel profile.

No one is jeering. And it's not I who is making any claim. Although RailFlyer Models on this forum have already done the same.

So what can some manufacturer who actually DOES produce completely accurate HO scale wheelsets call his wares? Are you suggesting that he can't describe them as the most accurate? And where does that leave him/her or an intending purchaser when manufacturers make conflicting public claims, or such appear on a forum subsequently?

You wouldn't accept your own argument if you found your bank statement balance was 40% short every month. ("But Sir, such compromises are assumed").

They look very sharp.  Hopefully some others will try them out and report back how they are, compared to say Intermountain's.  I plan on replacing all the wheel sets with the same brand once I have decided which ones are best. 

Ken L

Guys,

We've had 40" RP25/88 and P87 Locomotive Wheels for a while now, more sizes coming in a few weeks once we get around to machining them as we've been slammed with OEM work.  They also have the correct profile inside and out.

Andy is right, anything larger than P87 is not accurate, nice but not accurate.

The wheels are not posted yet on the web-site but if you check out the traction motor variations, what we're doing is all there.

Thanks,

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc. / rti-Micron

www.railflyermodel.com

Ummm  I think they were referring to the contours of the backs of the wheels and the axles. But Kadee also does a good job with those contours (and also has ribbed back wheels for older eras). Intermountain wheels are nice rolling but the flat-backed wheels and straight axles don't look terribly realistic.

Code 88 wheels look better than code 110 (normal HO rp25 wheel tread width)  wheels but they are still rather wide compared to the prototype and the flanges are bigger too.

Proto87 is a standard for wheel tread contour and flange depth. I don't believe it's also a standard for front or rear faces of the wheels nor is it a standard for axle contours (if it is, I'm sure Andy will correct me).

So you can have highly acurrate wheel tread width and flang size but with lousy wheel front/back and axle contours. Or you can have highly accurate wheel faces and axles with way too wide treads and over size flanges. Or any combination of these.

One thing that's not realistic about Proto 87 wheels -- they won't run on most of the currently installed HO scale track and turnouts. In places where the rail gauge is a little wide (perhaps to allow for curvature), it's possible that a proto 87 or even a code 88 wheel set will fall in between the rails and cause derailments while the standard code 110 HO wheels work fine. I've seen this on a nationally well known pike. I've never seen code 88 wheel sets do this with modern flex track. I don't know how proto 87 wheels fare with modern flex track -- they may work fine.

Code 88 (semi-scale) wheels also fall into the gap at the frog points of a Fast Tracks jig-built #8 turnout. No they don't derail but there is a definite drop-into-the-gap phenomena.

If you want to use either scale (proto 87) or closer to scale (code 88 semi-scale) wheels, expect to either spend more time tuning turnouts or in the case of proto 87 building your own turnouts, non of the major turnout manufacturers make proto87 tolerance frogs (the flanges are much smaller and will slop around in the flangeway gaps of a NMRA standard HO turnout).

Is the appearance worth the extra work? Only you can make that decision. Exact Rail may be stretching the "most accurate" phrase a bit but in some conditions it may be true. Maybe. But I'd like to see a closeup comparision of all the contoured back wheel sets in extreme close up.

Cheers,

Charlie

that will function flawlessly without fussing around with turnouts and trackwork for standard (i.e. non-proto 87) track.  What I am debating, which is why I asked for a detailed look at the Exact Rails new wheelsets is are they superior both in looks and quality to the Intermountain/Reboxx ones?  I became frustrated with Jay Bee and P2K wheelsets not being in gauge.  Though most passed without issues, there were enough of the wheels to be out of gauge i decided to go with a different brand.  I originally was giong to settle with Intermountain/Reboxx but with ExactxRails new product causes me to reconsider them instead.

Ken L

I"m looking for a "standard" wheelset that will function flawlessly without fussing around with turnouts and trackwork for standard (i.e. non-proto 87) track.

Good luck there.  The problem with only using one type of wheelset is that there are dozens of trucks out there which are not standardized regarding the length of axle and shape of end bearing that they will accept.  One size of wheel will not fit all trucks properly and roll well.  Only Reboxx has addressed that with their multiple axle lengths available for their code 88 wheels.  I'm not sure if they are still available.