Model Railroading > How about those KD wheelsets

I have a lot of cars equipped with these wheelsets and they do work well in nylon truck sideframes with a shot of graphite powder lubricant.

These now have a reputation of leaving dirty track behind them on layouts. Is taking the plating off the wheel treads down to bare metal the solution to this issue? It can be done with a wire brush in a Dremel tool but that is a little time consuming though a lot cheaper than replacing hundreds of wheel sets.

Thanks.

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As a test, I buffed a half dozen car-sets of Kadee wheels to a high shine with a hard rubber polishing wheel in my Dremel, and am checking them during the once-a-year maintenance cycle I do on all my rolling stock.  So far the results have been favorable.

Bob

Never did like those Kadee wheelsets with the plastic axles, tended not to roll all that great. You may consider swapping them out for IM or Reboxx wheelsets and selling off the Kadee ones on E-bay.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Ted,

I could do that. That would be the expensive way out. You are right, the KD wheelsets do not spin like the ones you mention but they are quite freely rolling. The graphite does really help.

I don't think I will buy any more unless KD reengineers the product but I am not ready to do a replacement for those I have. The KD wheels with the ribs on the back are still the only game in town for those models which need them.

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One of the neighbors did the dremel and wire tool fix with good results in regard to the track gunk. He did replace just about all the wheels since them due to the free rolling nature of the new wheels. Now h's looking for something to create a drag to prevent the bunching up effect going downhill.

I talked with a Kadee rep about the 'gunk' problem. They seem to want to ignore it, probably don t have a good approach to replace the wheels.

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I won't purchase any Kadee wheels, but I do use them if they come with one of their cars. The problem in my opinion is that the wheels are painted black (or coated, whatever you want to call it), and that does indeed wear off during use. Leaving the track dirty. My solution is exactly what you mention, I remove the paint from the thread. It's a PIA but not sure what else could be done.

I believe that Kadee wheels are made from Zinc and they start to deteriorate with age.  They become pock marked (pitted).  A friend came back to the club after a 16-18 year hiatus from Model Railroading.  His cars used to run fine but upon his return after all of those years, he had a real problem trying to pull his train.  We tried with other people's locomotives and they had the same problem.  Along came a large Intermountain purchase of wheels and the rolling quality was improved, it was like night and day.

I won't use Kadee wheels.  Love their couplers though.

Rick

> I talked with a Kadee rep about the 'gunk'
> problem. They seem to want to ignore it, probably
> don t have a good approach to replace the wheels.

Nature of the beast. Sintered metal like what Kadee uses is porous, so it holds gunk.

Good info, not changing what I have but will change my choice from now on,

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

For a while, I bought Proto 2000 ribbed back wheelsets. Frankly I don't run enough to report yay or nay on them.

There is no plating on Kadee wheel sets, just a layer of what looks like chemical blackening. They are sintered (powdered metal compressed into a form under heat and pressure), not machined.

We have a few remaining Kadee wheelsets on the club layout, which runs eight hours of op sessions a month. Most of them are aging out -- there's enough wear on the treads that they have become kind of porous and retain track gunk more easily than machined metal wheels, and after many many miles, the axle points can break down when they are fitted in tracks that are too wide or too narrow. The blackening is easy to buff away with a wire wheel in a Dremel.

They seem to work best in their own Kadee trucks, and also in Athearn trucks. If you look at the axle points, there is a bit of a curve to the coned end, which I suspect causes more drag than other brands which have a straight taper.  Kadee wheels do respond well to graphiting the wear surfaces.  For the company to change their wheel manufacture, they would have to abandon the sintering machinery for a machining process that would require new, expensive machines and would take more time per wheelset. Ask Exactrail about that.

On the other hand, we have had to carefully level a couple of sidings because cars with Atlas wheels and trucks won't stay put and will roll out onto main tracks. We have derails installed at a couple of points. Cars I built years ago with Lindberg's free-rolling trucks couldn't be coupled without holding the car in place.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/15 12:35 by grahamline.

Just curious have you tried reaming the truck side frames out to provide a better contact area. Some one makes a tool for that purpose.

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