Model Railroading > steel wheels vs. plastic (stock)

O.K. now that I have all this rolling stock on standard issue wheels what will the benefit be if I convert them to steel wheels, and how do I determine whether to 33" or 36" them ??, thanks ed

Some benefits of metal wheels:

1)More realistic in looks and sound
2)Less binding on curves with long cars
3)Much freer rolling - as an example, I took a P2K SW9 and pulled the maximum number of cars it would handle up a 2% curved grade, then I switched the wheels on the cars to P2K metal wheels and was able to pull almost 50% more cars up the same grade.

Seems to me that with a few exceptions cars up to 220,000 pound rating use 33" wheels and cars rated higher- 263,000 and 286,000 use 36" wheels. The rating is the sum of the Light weight and load limit printed on the car side.

The only down side that I have found with metal wheels is the additional outlay of greenbacks.

Ed, Try the Proto 2000 wheel sets. Most frieght were 33" while passenger were 36". You can see the difference just by compairing. The 2000's come pre-blacken, and are the best value Ive seen.

I'm not sure what kind of metal the wheels are made of but they (metal wheels) sure do roll nice. It's like putting roller bearings on your models. It also helps lower the center of gravity making top heavy cars (like tankers) a bit more stable on the track. They don't collect the "sticky junk" that plastic wheels do so your track will stay cleaner.
On the down side there is a chance the metal wheels could cause a short. I've never had this problem, nor has anyone I KNOW who uses analog control or DCC. But some friends of mine who use AC systems (like Dynatrol) have had problems with the metal wheels shorting out at switch points.
Metal wheels are now what the KayDee coupler was a dozen or so years ago. Optional but becoming the standard.

-Possum

sounds like it'll be worth the money then, thanks for the help ed

Be sure you relace 33" w/ 33", 36" w/ 36", etc. Using 36s in place of 33s you'll have problems w/ wheels rubbing on uderside of model - not to mention coupler height problems.

The advice about the car weight determing the size of wheel is valid. As a broad rule of thumb, all of the newer grain covered hoppers get 36" and do the newer 50' and 60' box. Also most of the newer unit coal train cars. If you are running autoracks however, they use a 28" wheeelset.

Look at the capy data on the car... anything over 194000 gets 36 inch wheels

Another benefit of metal wheels is that you can shine the wheel treads, making it more prototypical looking.

A number of clubs in the SF Bay area either have banned or are
considering banning plastic wheels. It's been found (or is
speculated) that the
"dirt" on the track is made up largely of the plasticizer from
plastic wheels.
What is empirically known is that banning plastic wheels dramaticly
reduces the need to clean track.

Annie

I've had a problem with autoracks. The older Walthers kits came with
36" wheels and then new RTR series comes with 28" wheels.

It any event I haven't been too pleased with because I think there is far too much friction so the car does not roll freely.

I finally found that Intermountain makes a wonderful 28" metal wheelset.

I also found that Reboxx makes some fine metal wheelsets.

I tried i think it was something like Jaybee, but they werent nearly as nice and neither were the Kaydee's.

One nice thing I did find was a cutting tool that I got form my local
hobby store that essentailly reams out the "journal box" (for lack of a better description). Even without switching to metal wheelsets this
cutting tool did a GREAT job in eliminating much of the friction.

Bill

the cutting tool is called "the tool"

Read and follow directions, it's easy to misuse it.

On some cars (large lank cars included) going by the "CAPY" could be incorrect. Besides, most modern cars no longer even have "CAPY" printed in the car data.

The wheel size is directly related the designed gross total loaded weight of the car which can be determined by adding the load limit ("LD LMT") plus the empty car weight ("LT WT"). If the total gross weight is equal to or greater then 263,000 lbs then 36" are appropriate for the car. That should include nearly all newer hopper cars, covered hoppers, gondolas, tanks, centerbeam and bulkhead flats, and most new boxcars.

Most trilevel auto racks and early spine cars (like the Athearn Impacks) should have 28" wheels. Most bilevel autoracks (like the first Walthers autorack kits) should have 33" wheels instead of 28". The reason that most bilevels have 33" is the higher gross weight rating needed to transport heavier trucks and SUVs...

- BCM

OK, so now I'm thinking of SLOWLY converting the fleet tometal wheels (the cleaner track angle got me!), but most of my fleet are 5-10 year old Athern. Would the trucks need replacing as well? Are the metal wheels less prone to rust on the needle point of the axle? (Please, no comments on running the trains more, I KNOW!)

I use the Proto 2000 metal wheels for my Athearn rolling stock fleet. They come in a package of twelve. They work well with the original Athearn trucks. If you don't like the original Athearn trucks, Atlas makes good wheelsets/trucks. They roll smoothly and have better truck sideframe details(at least I think so anyway).

I CANT HELP YOU WITH THE SIZE. BUT THE PLASTIC WHEELS DE-RAIL MORE THAN WHAT THE STEEL WHEELS DO THAT AND THE STEEL WHEELS LOOK BETTER THAN THE PLASTIC.

True the metal wheels look better and roll better than plastic. My club has been particularly impressed with the Proto 2000 rolling characteristics and one of our members swears by Central Valley, but we have had some problem with cars with metal wheels derailing and causing a short. This is particularly a problem if the cars are metal frame. A dead short is not something that particularly want to see when running DCC. You can fry a decoder chip real quick! Been there and done that! Metal wheels are great, but they need to be insulated from the car frame. Chief Jim

I've got approx. 200 freight cars and all have been retrofitted with
Intermountain Wheelsets. I model contemporary railroading so most of
the wheels are 36 inch. I have had to, on occasion, trim some from the bottom of the frame to get the wheels to roll freely. This is especially true on MDC cars. I use powdered graphite on the journals and use a buffing wheel on my dremel tool to spin the wheelset and "burnish" the journals. Amazingly free rolling after this process.
As mentioned earlier, the track stays much cleaner...