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anyone ever had any bad (out-a-round)metal wheels ?

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anyone ever had any bad (out-a-round)metal wheels ?
Posted by BIG JERR on Friday, November 28, 2014 6:13 PM

been busy dueing some older proto kits with metal wheels and though Im very happy with the hoppers I swear some of the the wheels are out of round and the cars whoble down the track , NOW in fairness I did paint a bunch a wheels including the wheels out of the trucks that came in these kits alone with some inter mountain wheels I bought recent for other projects and am 90% sure i got the old proto wheels back in there trucks .

   dont see any paint residue or overspray on treads and you can see the wheel rise and fall in the truck as the car slowly rolls bye (like out of round or axcel hole not in center of wheel .

    any one ever herd of some bad batches of wheels ?

easy enough to change out to resolve the problem but currious none the less ...Jerr

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Posted by cacole on Friday, November 28, 2014 6:16 PM

I've not had a 'batch' of bad wheels, but have had out-of-round wheels from several manufacturers.  One Athearn wheelset in particular had the axle stabbed through the outer tread of one wheel.  A Kato wheelset had one wheel with the flange on the outside.

But both of these were individual manufacturing mistakes.

 

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Posted by wp8thsub on Friday, November 28, 2014 6:23 PM

BIG JERR
...older proto kits with metal wheels...

I've had rather bad luck with Proto 2000 cast wheelsets. While not necessarily out of round, far too many aren't mounted properly on the axles so they wobble.  I've replaced many of them with ExactRail or Intermountain wheels, none of which have had the problem.

Rob Spangler

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Posted by Catt on Friday, November 28, 2014 7:30 PM

Never had any that were out of round but I have 3 wheel sets with plastic axles and the axles are bent on one side.Needless to say they aren't going anywhere s near one of my cars.

Johnathan(Catt) Edwards 100 % Michigan Made
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Posted by GGOOLER on Saturday, November 29, 2014 1:09 AM

no bad wheelsets here either but have had some atlas flex track with code .100 on one rail and .083 on the other rail. was fun figuring out what was up when i installed one, then testing the track.

later

g

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Posted by NP2626 on Saturday, November 29, 2014 6:42 AM

Nope, and all my wheelsets (around 500 of them) are Proto 2000 wheels!  You have used these wheels in P2K Truck frames which should have the best fit for these wheelsets.  However, anything is possible, some point in the machining process may have gotten out of control and a small batch of bad wheelsets got into the system.  However, glopped on paint on the tire could cause problems, too.  Suggest you do a thorough inspection and see what you find!

NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"

Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association:  http://www.nprha.org/

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Posted by BIG JERR on Saturday, November 29, 2014 8:40 AM

I agree, Ive never had problems with any of the walther p2k metal wheel sets in replacement cards or in car kits. these I speek of are older proto (life like ) ps-2 grain hopper kits and again slight chance the 28" wheels came from a bulk pack of intermountain metal wheels I picked up about a year ago on exxx . I well take a closer look maybe a spot a paint got on tread or axel ends but doubt it .

   the worst wobles like a duck going down the track and derails on some turnouts .  of corse didnt help that I ,the builder got the hair-brained idea the to use less than HALF the weight that came in the kits Embarrassed   JERR

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Posted by mactier_hogger on Saturday, November 29, 2014 9:12 AM

GGOOLER

 but have had some atlas flex track with code .100 on one rail and .083 on the other rail. was fun figuring out what was up when i installed one, then testing the track.

later

g

 

That's hilarious, built-in superelevation!!

 

Dean

30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HOSmile

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Posted by jrbernier on Saturday, November 29, 2014 9:27 AM

Jerr,

  P2K metal wheel sets have cast n/s wheels with an engineerimg plastic axle and 'tip'.  I have seen mis-formed axles/tips at times.  This was years ago when they were dirt cheap at M B Klein($3.99/pack).

  I currently use I-M wheel sets.

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

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Posted by wp8thsub on Saturday, November 29, 2014 9:50 AM

BIG JERR
these I speek of are older proto (life like ) ps-2 grain hopper kits...

I've built four of those.  One or more wheelsets were bad in three of them.  Fortunately replacements from ExactRail and Intermountain perform well in the stock P2K trucks.  The 36" wheels supplied with the more modern 100-ton cars (like the 4427 hoppers) were more likely to wobble than the 33".

Rob Spangler

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Posted by BATMAN on Saturday, November 29, 2014 11:10 AM

I had one car that would come off on turnouts, but only every few laps. I finally discovered that an out of round wheel was the issue. It would have to hit the turnout with the wheel at a certain spot and off she went. I ran the caliper around it and sure enough.

I also had a paintbrush fall out of the can once and had a splatter disaster. I often would get derailments in a particular spot and found a bit of paint splatter was the culprit. A quick scrape with the thumb nail fixed that.

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by csxns on Saturday, November 29, 2014 12:08 PM

Hard to believe but i have a Tangent coal hopper that came with a bad wheel and a Exact Rail boxcar also.

Russell

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Posted by mobilman44 on Sunday, November 30, 2014 5:45 AM

Hi,

Over the last several years I replaced hundreds (not an exageration) of wheelsets with Intermountain metal ones.  Guess what?   Not a single problem.

 

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

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Posted by BIG JERR on Sunday, November 30, 2014 8:41 AM

wp8thsub
The 36" wheels supplied with the more modern 100-ton cars (like the 4427 hoppers) were more likely to wobble than the 33".

BOY ,I should read what I got BEFORE posting , they are indeed the 36" wheels and the 4427 hoppers and the intermountain wheels are from a w40055 bulk pac (33") wheels , why I typed 28" well remain a mystery  ... any way thanks JERR

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, November 30, 2014 12:33 PM

You may have also gotten paint on the points of the axel where the wheels enter the side frames.  This will cause a wobble.  I have several that I brush painted and have been slowly going through them and fixing them.  Also I have had 1 bad wheel from P2K.  The flange was missing for about 1/8" on 1 wheel in a 12pk of ribbed 33" wheelsets. 

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Posted by rrebell on Sunday, November 30, 2014 1:11 PM

Had Atlas top of the line RTR with bad wheels, trucks were fine so slipped in some Intermountain.

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Posted by rrinker on Sunday, November 30, 2014 1:28 PM

 Several hundred P2K wheelsets used as replacements, never had a bad one yet. But mine are all 33", I don't run anything new enough to use bigger. They even still work fine after gluing resistors to them and scuffing up the blackening in the back with a Dremel so the conductive paint sticks. Then the whole assembly gets flat black, wheel faces get grimy black.

 The P2K kits I've built are also all older cars, the automobie boxcars and especially the tank cars, all with P2K 33" wheels. I think I had one that had a wierd chunk out of the axle, so I replaced it with one of my supply of ones that came on the cards.

 I'm tempted to try IM, if only because they are easier to attach resistors to, but I've gotten the process down witht he P2K wheelsets, and I jhave no reliability issues with them so it's hard to justify changing them out.

 I HAVE had several bad wheelsets in Branchline kits (before Atlas). Most others come with plastic wheels so they get swapped out for the P2K ones - one thing I don't do is run anything with plastic wheels.

                      --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by BATMAN on Sunday, November 30, 2014 1:30 PM

Are wheels machined or popped out of a mold? How would a wheel end up "out of round" anyway?

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by Southwest Chief on Sunday, November 30, 2014 2:39 PM

Never in HO scale.  But I've had lots of G scale Bachmann metal wheels out of round.

Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, CO
Click Here for my model train photo website

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