Hello All
While at an LHS today I noticed the Intermountain ball bearing wheel sets.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Intermountain-HO-40058-33-Insulated-wheelset-p/imr-40058.htm
They are pretty expensive and different looking.
Has anyone tried them, and if so are they any better or just a gimick?
Thanks
Springfield PA
The ones I have seen had 36" wheels and were used in brass passenger cars(heavy sleds). IIRC, the bearing is free of the actual axle mount. If you have a car with some specific brass trucks that just does not roll very well, this may be just the ticket. For most 'normal' freight cars, regular metal wheels or a complete truck/wheel replacement works just fine.
IIRC, Railway Classics were using them in their $600 brass passenger cars....
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I agree standard metal wheel sets work great, Just don't see where the above would work. I guess an application where the trucks were tight or as noted metal, the bearings would help.
A manufacturing goof-up caused some of them to not really have ball bearings but to be marked as such. A fellow club member bought two packages of them and they were the standard IM wheelsets marked and priced as being ball bearing sets.
Unless you have a really poor performing truck that can't use a regular wheelset for some reason, I don't see where ball bearings would be that much of an improvement for HO scale.
I'll bet they do the trick with Walthers trucks, but I;ve always been able to work the Walthers trucks over and tune them so they roll pretty well. It's labor intensive, though, and can be tedious. Are these ball-bearing wheelsets a drop-in or is there more work involved?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
The ball-bearing InterMountain wheelsets make many brass cabooses much more usable. They install just like a regular wheelset. A tiny drop of Nano-Lube makes them roll even better. They are my last resort for specialized brass trucks that have poor rolling qualities.
Yes. One wheel is insulated. The axle is solid and common with the uninsulated wheel. I just installed a number of them in Broadway Limited Imports HO SP Daylight Cars which have an electrical pickup scheme similar to the Walthers where it picks up power on both sides of the truck and transfers it to the car body. The BLI trucks have metal side frame inserts with lugs protruding up into the car. I cut the lug off one side of each truck. So one truck transfers one rail at one car end, and the other car the other rail at the other end. Only half as many wheel transferring power, but it works. On the walthers, I think they have screws rubbing on some flat spring like metal plate. You would have to remove that contact plate from the floor bottom one one side at one end, the other side at the other end. Also, depending on how the truck frames are made, the insulated wheel might contact the frame if pushed sideways enough if the axle length allows that much lateral motion. A spacer washer might be needed on the insulated wheels side.
They work quite well. I just installed them on 16 Broadway Limited Imports HO SP Daylight passenger cars. The BLI design just didn't roll well and some cars required over a 3% grade for the car to be free rolling. (The La Mesa club has a spec of 2.5% maximum to freely start rolling and continue smoothly for a car length.) After installing the InterMountain wheel sets, they test at 0.5% to 0.8% (excellent). Also, a 16 car train required a drawbar pull of only 1.5 oz. which is extremely low. I did have to make a change since they have a solid axle and one insulated wheel meaning I could only pick up power on one side of the truck and had to cut off the upward protruding metal power transfer lug on the insulated side of the trucks.