Metal vs Plastic wheels

[Anonymous]

Are there any advantages in switching over to metal wheels on rolling stock?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I'm in HO and the answer is ABSOLUTEY YES!

In HO there are many choices, size, 28-33-36 & 38 so
use the right size.
Styles, axle length and performance vary.
Generally metal is cleaner and you increase your free rolling ability(Less wheel drag)
Can increase the length of your train.

Go to http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/197xvpbs.asp
P2K and intermountains are among the favorite but
may vary depending upon the car manufacturer.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Charles nailed the answer on the head! Metal wheels stay cleaner longer, sound better, stay in gauge better, and perform better. The extra cost is worth it.

Regards,

Paul Schmidt
Contributing Editor
Trains.com

[Anonymous]

Metal wheels certainly do add to the senses of running trains, however (There is always a downside to everything) metal wheels can drive you nuts hunting down intermittent short circuits. The club I am in, Prince William County Model Railroad Club, (www.pwmrc.org) is a modular club. One of the inherant problems of a modular club is humped joiner tracks between each module. This is usually due to swollen road bed or plywood at the end of the module. At one club show, I brought a few gondollas of which I had added metal wheels. The design of the gondollas is much like most rolling stock with a metal plate on the undercarriage for added weight. When the gondolla went over some of the more exaggerated humped module joiner tracks, the gondolla wheel truck tilted enough to cause both wheels to come in contact with the metal plate and cause a short from one rail to the other. Because of the momentum of the train, the short was only long enough to cause the train decoders to reset and all running trains only stammered for a moment. It was only when the train was running slower did the short stay intact and shut down the railroad. Hand moving the train removed the short. This went on for some time until I was taking my train off the layout when I realized what was causing the problem. The results where tack marks on the wheels and the under carriage metal plate.

Another problem you can stumble into, at least I did, is reinstalling metal wheels in metal trucks, i.e. Kadee metal sprung trucks. If you look closely at the metal wheels you will see one wheel is insulated from the axel to prevent shorts. If you invert one axel in the truck, a short will occur when you put the car on the track.

The track on the D&J Railroad is level all the way around, so I can enjoy the sound of long trains with all metal wheels.

Ken, D&J Railroad, Stafford, VA

[dknelson]

Further on Ken's good point:
Metal wheels in metal trucks under a metal underframe (such as a brass car, or, for that matter, Model Die Casting in HO) combined with metal couplers (KD) coupled to a locomotive with a metal frame and metal couplers (such as Athearn) can lead to all sorts of odd situations. I have seen people hunt for mysterious electrical shorts for hours only to learn the problem was due to certain cars being coupled in certain ways.

One little thing in favor of plastic wheels is that some of them roll better. I think Athearn trucks roll better with the original wheels than with metal wheel replacements. Nonetheless I do replace the wheels with KD metal wheels. I also use my Dremel tool to remove the dark coating from the wheel treads so that the wheel is dark except for the tread which is shiny steel color. The only problem is that this does make clear how much the wheels are wider than true scale wheels would be
Dave Nelson

[BRAKIE]

Ron,Yes and no. I have used plastic wheels for years and never gave it a passing thought about using metal wheels.Then the club voted in metal wheels on all cars used on the club's layout.So,I changed wheels on all 75 of my cars I use at the club.I like the sound of the metal wheels.
No,We have found out after a year of using metal wheels that the track does not stay cleaner by using metal wheels as is claim by many..We operate 2 times a week and that the metal wheels gets dirty just like platic wheels and locomotive wheels.

So like DCC it is a choice a modeler must make for his/her self.As for me I liked the metal wheels so well I changed all my cars over to metal wheels.Other club members however aren't to sure if the metal wheels help aything.

[gerryleone]

I know it's anecdotal evidence, but i saw it happen just the same: my entire railroad has P2K metal wheelsets. I run a "John Allen Masonite Cleaner" car over the layout once per session and never have any contact problems. The engines run great.

A friend of mine brought over a dozen of his own cars, all with plastic wheels. Within an hour of running those cars on the layout, I was having contact problems with every one of my engines.

-Gerry

[Anonymous]

I haven't got the technology or equipment to prove it, but I would think the plastic wheels carry a static charge that attracts the dust from near the rails as they move around the railroad. This is compacted into a crust that can be seen on the tread surface, and can be removed with a scraping tool. If there was a way to neutralize the static charge on the plastic wheels, the rails would be as clean as though we were running metal wheels. I am replacing the plastic wheels on my rolling stock a few cars at a time, but like converting over to all Kadee couplers after building up a fleet of rolling stock, it can get expensive.

Ken, D&J Railroad, Stafford, VA

[Anonymous]

A chemist by profession and a N scaler recommended
methanol(methyl alcohol) in a research opinion conducted for Tony's Train Xchange.
http://www.ttx-dcc.com/technews/cmx_chemist_review.htm

Those are underscore lines_between cmx_chemist_review in the URL.

[nfmisso]

One thing to remember when switching is that different trucks have different axle lengths. I measured one P2K, one IM and one KD 36" smooth back set, and found that the P2K was ~1.008", the IM ~1.014" and the KD ~ 1.018".

On some trucks that KD work great, on others the will not even rotate. The P2K are way too loose on some, and on others way too tight. Get a selection of metal wheel/axle assemblies to try. ReBoxx offers them in a large selection of axle lengths.

My Walther's coil cars work well with KD's. My McKeon hoppers like IM. The P2K are a little loose in my Athearns, but seem to work okay.

The new Athearn Genisis 70 ton ASF roller bearing trucks are FANTASTIC, with .088" wheels, they make the others look like wide drag racing slicks.

Nigel