Model Railroading > Walthers "Thrall" well-car wheels

I'm finally getting around to assembling a couple of Walthers doublestack well cars I picked up through TO Classifieds last year, and while perusing the parts I noticed that the end platforms are labeled for 38" wheels at one end and 33" wheels at the other. This rings true with me for the prototype, but it generates a modeling question: if I try to equip these models with other than same-sized wheels, am I going to induce an operating problem? Is my car going to be jacked up five scale inches crooked where it's riding on the bigger wheels?

So, I'm seeking advice from anyone else on here who has built/operated some of these Walthers five-packs. In replacing the came-with plastic wheelsets, should I give up a bit of prototypical accuracy and just equip all six trucks with 33" wheels? Should I use 36" wheels for coupler height? Or will it work to put 33s on the ends and 38s in the middle (assuming I can find 38" metal wheels)? What is your experience?

It is prototypical to have the 33" wheelsets on the ends and 38" on shared wheelsets. I used small Kadee washers to shim as needed to level out the car.

Though the wheelsets differ by 5", divide this in half to get the actual difference of 2.5" in height between them (the radius, not the diameter, determines height); so the difference really isn't too extreme.

To get the correct coupler height you can shim the trucks or use "offset head" couplers.

I really like to use the 38" wheelsets. It is very noticeable to the trained eye. ;-) On spine cars, the trucks are very much exposed and the 33" (ends) vs 36" (shared) wheelsets look very prototypical.

While we are on the subject of wheelsets, I use the Athearn 33" and 36" Genesis sets with the end bearing caps that rotate. Watching a set of cars roll by with the bearing caps rotating is SWEET! I'm in the process of retrofitting an Athearn 36" truck with 38" wheels. Decided to take an NWSL 2mm axle and drill the ends to accept the Athearn needle bearing shaft.

Jaybee has the right wheelsets for this car. I used a bunch on mine and they work and look fine.

ESPEEFAN Wrote:
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> Jaybee has the right wheelsets for this car. I
> used a bunch on mine and they work and look fine.


I too use the JayBee 33"/38" set (#369-988) which is specifically for the Walthers and Athearn 5 unit articulated well car sets. Both car sets run extremely well with this set of wheels.

NSTopHat

NSTopHat Wrote:
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> ESPEEFAN Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Jaybee has the right wheelsets for this car. I
> > used a bunch on mine and they work and look
> fine.
>
>
> I too use the JayBee 33"/38" set (#369-988) which
> is specifically for the Walthers and Athearn 5
> unit articulated well car sets. Both car sets run
> extremely well with this set of wheels.

Thanks for the tips, guys. To what extent did you have to use offset couplers or shim the trucks to get proper appearance and coupler height?

tmotor Wrote:
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> On spine
> cars, the trucks are very much exposed and the 33"
> (ends) vs 36" (shared) wheelsets look very
> prototypical.

One little problem ... prototype spine cars use the same size wheels throughout the entire car (usually 33", although some older cars used 28" wheels). They don't have larger wheels under the intermediate trucks. Only double stack cars do, because of the higher weight of stacked containers on the shared trucks.