Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
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QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole Some opinions that have been expressed in the past are that plastic wheels generate static electricity as they roll on the track, thus attracting dirt, and that metal wheels don't. I prefer metal wheels because of the sound they make more than any concern with dirt buildup, but I have seen some rolling stock that had so much dirt buildup on plastic wheels that the wheel rims were enlarged to the diameter of the flanges. My personal preferences for replacement wheelsets are Intermountain, P2K, and LBF, in that order; and for replacement trucks P2K, Atlas, and Kato.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
For most general applications, I use the Proto 2000 33's, usually the flat black. They also come in 31's as well I think... They cost around $8 at my LHS.
-beegle55
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
TMLEWI wrote:which metal wheels are best.
What is best for you will depend on your fleet of cars.
P.S. The club converted in an attempt to keep the track cleaner. As near as we can measure it hasn't helped at all. The wheels themselves pick up less gunk but it doesn't seem to help keep the track cleaner. Then because of the additional short circuits and additional noise our club is now thinking about converting back to the plastic. That proposal has my vote.
I've had good luck with the Proto wheels on both Athearn and Accurail cars, Kadees on most anything, and definitely Intermountain on those quirky cars that are a little hard to fit. I've also found that if I use a little reamer called simply "The Tool" on the inside truck bearings, I can get almost any metal wheelsets to match.
I have a garage railroad, subject to all sorts of temperature changes during the year, and switching to metal wheelsets has eased the pain of major rail cleaning down to about twice a year, and I don't notice any buildup on my wheels at all. PLUS: My locos can handle longer trains with metal wheels.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Texas Zepher wrote: TMLEWI wrote:which metal wheels are best.Best is a totally subjective term. Our club switched to 100% metal wheels a few years back. After this, my assessment is Reboxx and NWSL were the best because you could match the axle length. Just be careful on tread width because many of them are semi-scale rather than RP25.
Just as a note here: RP-25 does not specify tread width; only the flange/fillet contour. I have used the 0.088" tread width wheels from Reboxx for over two years now, and have had no issues with them, on Atlas code 100 flex track and Peco turnouts. They operate flawlessly.
Kadee, makes great couplers but we don't use their wheelsets on the club layout anymore.
That's because Kadee, like Athearn's BB locos, uses sintered metal wheelsets. They are more porous, because sintering is a process which uses powdered metal pressed with heat into the mold for the wheel. Thus, they pick up much more dirt than cast or machined metal wheels.
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Gary M. Collins gmcrailgNOSPAM@gmail.com
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"Common Sense, Ain't!" -- G. M. Collins
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Take a plastic comb, and run in through your hair rapidly several times ( assuming you have hair ) and then go near the floor with comb and see what you can attract. Plastic charges easily ,electrically, with motion, especially when the relative humidity is below 35%, and the lower the Rh the more easily it is to attract a charge to the plastic.
Now can you imagine your rolling plastic wheels, in a dry environement? You get the picture, your wheels become a vacuum cleaner.
I like my Central Valley metal wheels...of course they come with the whole trucks which are by far superior to anything else (IMHO)... other than those that I have convereted to CV, I also like P2K...
Brian
The prototype has metal rolling on metal. So it's appropriate...