The good Rev. Harding makes a very good case for truck improvements
by replacing wheel sets. He is on a good straight and narrow path.
Although initially taking his same exact footsteps over the last
several years, I have in the interim changed directions slightly,
however. I now custom fit each and every new car, or any car that
arrives on the rip track with new Reboxx .088" wheels. The
improvement in rollability has been an absolute revolution; and the
results a revelation.
To measure improvement, I use a "roll tester" purchased from Reboxx,
a 2' stretch of track that describes a "dip" about 4" high on the
ends and 1" in the middle, the track actually following the segment
of a circle. One takes a truck and allows it free to roll, and you
count how many times it rolls back and forth, counting every single
movement, no matter how miniscule. You do this three times to five to
average out errors. Then you remove the old wheel sets and measure
the axle length. On most trucks, I also then take the "Tool",
actually a cutting bit, and "clean out" the journal holes.
Then you trial fit in the new Reboxx wheelsets, using the measured
length of the original axle as a starter. Reboxx wheels come in axle
lengths of .005" segments from 0.950 to 1.055". I keep a full supply
from about 1.00 to 1.050, concentrating on 1.015 to 1.040. As a try
these out, I measure them on the roll tester, keeping a note book of
results. Because NONE of these trucks, plastic, cast metal- old or
new-, or (and especially) brass are precision instruments in any
fashion, it is not at all unusual that a given truck will roll best
with axles of differing lengths.
Inasmuch as I model only steam/transition era, all my tests have been
on older prototypes.
Notes:
1) Kadee metal "Bettendorf" improve on the average 75-95% by
replacing the kadee 1.015" wheels with Reboxx 1.020" wheels (10 rolls
vs. 17-19).
2) Athearn metal sprung trucks will improve "most" of the time, but
not significantly (3-4 rolls with Jay Bee 1.015 wheels vs. 7-8 with
Reboxx 1.045"). Except for "historical" purposes, I now retire all of
these trucks.
3) Silver Streak metal trucks: Original metal wheels 5, Reboxx 1.045" 12.
4) Lindberg plastic sprung (famous for "free rolling"): original
plastic wheels 3, Reboxx 1.015 23!
5) Kadee Bettendorf T: 15 original, 20 1.020 Reboxx.
5) Central Valley metal sprung: 4 original, 14 1.020.
6) Trans Canada plastic AAR: original 5, Reboxx 1.020 19.
7) Similar spectacular improvements have occurred with a variety of
passenger trucks, most of them Central Valley, but also with the most
current Walthers.
IN any given truck, the above results may be only a guide, because
there can be such individual variability.
Placing tiny drops of oil in the journals has been a "no-no" since
Linn Westcott so decreed a generation ago. Well, although I think
that he was correct, and remains so in most instances in this regard,
I have on occasion had even more spectacular improvement at times
when oil is present.
I have now converted over 100 cars, and have been marketing to others
boxes of removed metal Kadee and Jay Bee wheel sets. The sheer
palpable improvement in rollability translates directly into the
increased ease with which any given locomotive can handle heavier or
long trains over your rolling and curving profiles.
Keep in mind that these wheels will help only in those trucks with
tapered journals. In trucks with straight journals, i.e. a lot of
brass, the only salvation currently are the ball bearinged wheels
from Intermountain and/or PSC. I am experimenting with experimental
coned bearing inserts in several of these trucks so that the standard
Reboxx wheels might be fitted. No results to report as yet, however.
Denny
If you are doubtful about the .088" wheel tread width, be reassured.
They will track repeatedly and faithfully through the most
complicated "dog's breakfast" variety of NMRA-standard trackwork
without a single hitch, and they have been doing so now for some
time. And best of all, they simply look great (they make the common
.110" wheels that we have used for 75 years look "positively
porcine"- quoting Tony Thompson).
--
Denny S. Anspach, MD
Sacramento, CA
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