Spoked Metal Wheels

[Benjamin Maggi]

I thought I would scratchbuild some "European-looking" rolling stock to pull behind my British-ized LGB Stainz, and the articles for small cars from the April 1995-April1996 articles of Garden Railways look perfect! (Thank you so much for back issues!)

The principle for the chassis is parallel wood/styrene sides have holes drilled in them to accept the axel ends, and once the wheels are in the ends are glued to the sides. Thus, the bearings are the axles sticking through the side holes. I plan to use styrene instead of wood for the chassis, for both ease of construction and I think that plastic will not swell or bind the axle end like wood might.

I want metal wheels with spokes, but some of the places I checked did not have them. Does anyone make spoked metal wheels for large scale?

Anyone else ever build this cars before? Comments?

Thanks!

[cabbage]

Yes they do -but most of them are in the UK....

http://www.grsuk.com/index.asp?info/welcome.htm

http://www.brandbright.co.uk/catindex.htm

regards

ralph

[FJ and G]

I believe I’m the only one who casts 7/8” scale wheels in metal, resin and epoxy and in various other combinations. Wheels DON'T come cheap if you use a commercial source.

 

I’m doing a writing project right now so I’m on a hiatus from all of this.

 

commercial site: http://www.seven8n2.com/parts.htm

 

[Benjamin Maggi]

Wow, those prices were a bit, um, pricy. I guess I will just use non-spoked wheels that I can find. Are Bachmann the cheapest?

[TheJoat]

Check out http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/Scripts/default.asp - various sizes...about $5-$8 for 4.

[John Busby]

Hi scoobster28

Not all Euro/UK wheels are spoked some are three hole disk so the std wheels you can easily obtain will be OK unless it is a period model and you really want spoked or split spoke wheels.

If you absolutely must have spoked wheels you will have to get them from the UK or get some LGB spoked wheels from somewhere (that could be interesting now)

What exactly are you building not sure I have any issues from then.

regards John

[Benjamin Maggi]

It was a 7 part series where the first article was the construction of the box chassis I mentioned above, and then the following 6 articles each built a car ON TOP OF the created chassis. There was a high gondola, a low gondola, a tank car, an ore car, a caboose, and something else which I forgot. I plan to build many of the gondola cars and modify the tank car, and maybe mount a bashed boxcar on another chassis. I don't like the looks of the caboose they suggest, but in another issue from that same time there is a logging caboose bash that is nearly the same size, and the shape I want.

Essentially, I will build the chassis in bulk, and then create stuff on top as I see fit. I want to build some Brisith goods vans (boxcars) and a brake van, and these chassis are "close enough" for right now. Plus, they will be cheap (2 axles per car = $5 for wheels per car, plus cost of styrene). Cheaper than the HLW kits I was going to use by almost 75%.

[FJ and G]

Just looked at item 4089 in Ozark Miniature wheels and their price for spoked 2 wheel (1 axle) is $9.50 so for 2 axles (minimum for one car), that's $19. About same or more than prices I listed and they are getting them from another source (Sierra).

 

As I said, probably better to make your own spoked. If you want holes, just drill them in solid bachman wheels. If you want spoked, you can take bachman and drill and file out spokes. It'll take a few hours at least but if you get a good master, you can cast it as much as you like and even in metal castings, solder or white metal.

 

You can make masters of hole wheels, as well as straight or curly spokes and then make some with more or less spokes. It's pretty fun stuff if you are patient and like this sort of thing 

[Benjamin Maggi]

FJ&G,

Thanks for the advice. For right now, I have given up on spoked wheels and will just use Bachmann ones. By the way, love your beagle (I have mentioned it before).

Beagles + Trains = Happy person!

[Takasaki Matt]

Don't give up just yet.  Have a look at these sites:

http://www.cambrianmodels.co.uk/16intro.html

and

http://www.cooper-craft.co.uk/

These spoked wheels are plastic but with suitable weights they have a solid feel and stay on the rails.

Also the legendary Colin Binnie still produces a wide variety of wheeks and axle boxes:

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/8NbERqyKIvPy5YV48Yvq4Mlo1aE7MN6hv2PzN91FV3MDoVskGaN4nYPtzjeqvHYMN6Rtle3cvtWpF-DoaQq8lGLpnn3ly1uRR9w-JrF1vw/Binnie%20Engineering%20Catalogue/Binnie%20Engineering-2.JPG

Regards, Matthre Foster.

Takasaki Light Railway.

[FJ and G]

Matt,

 

Great sites and prices; couldn't get the third link to come up. 

[Takasaki Matt]

I think the third link I gave is to a Yahoo Group that one needs to be registered with for the access.  Just in case I bungled here is another link (forgive if unaccessible):

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MBfMRjn4n8yXBm0icoXs4MeMojM3wxTrSA5ZVtRKwI4YkGaGPGIJFEA9Er1CLWT5G3_tSTZXM_7eiyYYznf8gKQyhtyX8AkVmEbFci00tQ/Binnie%20Engineering%20Catalogue/Binnie%20Engineering-3.JPG

And

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MBfMRgCaq82XBm0iQmDtPcCuHZozdUvvaBL2ZrtKYje8uEuHpCcWL6yPH3MEovyHWyrnlGkYLVeOFoWAEHwvlFQQDe5hNR6CWj3fzScDVQ/Binnie%20Engineering%20Catalogue/Binnie%20Engineering-2.JPG

even

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/16mmngm/files/Binnie%20Engineering%20Catalogue/

I know there is no website and snail mail is usual.  Plastic anyway and the Cambrian Models wheels are cheap and cheerful anyway.  When I can afford it, I get metal wheel sets, though that isn't as often as I'd like!

Regards, Matthew