Yes Mike, if you go back in time to the early 2000's you will see me championing gauge, setting wheels right, and modifying turnouts to get it perfect. The common thing at that time was to blame the rolling stock.
Yes, a very early proponent of proper trackage, in fact few people understood the problems cross level created.
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
Click here for Greg's web site
Very true Greg, but metal wheels are not a substitute for doing proper track work and road bed maintance. I have had zero issues since going to back to the original plastic Kalamazoo wheels. Only metal wheels are the drivers on my locomotives. Granted the Kalamazoo wheels have pizza cutter flanges that all but eliminate derailments. I have more issues with the pilot trucks derailing from sticks or leaves that blow onto the line during a run session. I need to pick up some more self adhesive weights to ballest the pilot trucks down more. I did add 2 oz of weight and that helped a bunch. The plastic material of the old Kalamazoo freight cars is quite thick and they have a decent weight right out of the box. The little 4-4-0's are not real decent pullers, so I keep train weight resonable and short in length, just like the prototype did. Trains were short and frequent till bigger locomotives came along. The 2 passenger coaches full of figures, and a caboose(till I find the matching observation car) is about all the 4-4-0's want thru the S curve at the back of the layout. If the rail is wet, she will slip out sometimes. With metal wheel sets, the added weight would restrict me to just 2 coaches, even with the less resistance of the metal wheels on brass rails. So my set up works for my chosen motive power and railway perfectly. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Another benefit is more weight down nearer the wheels, better tracking and fewer derailments.
I ran metal wheels for awhile, but the sound of them on my overhead indoor loop was causing issues with my sound sensativity, like nails on a chalkboard, so I put the plastic wheels back in. I run onboard battery, so dirty rails from plastic wheels is a moot point. Most of my trains are from the old Kalamazoo Toy Train Works. I do see the benefits of metal wheels, and they do sound good outdoors. But I personaly needed a quieter train indoors and out. I used LGB wheel sets when I was running metal wheels, but I had a local source that the price couldn't be beat. Mike
Greg thanks mate yet again.
I saw that Robbie (and reindeer pass) has them in stock and some are on the way.
Not too many at the moment as postage is $53US for 4 packs to here - slowly,slowly
RLD Hobbies has the proper metal aristo wheels in stock, they finally made some more. I believe these are the "D" wheels... give Robby a call.
I have some Aristo craft Evans here with the plasric wheels and wish to replace them with metal ones.
Any suggestions - they have to take into account the rotating bearing cap
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