Do any of you ever changeout the wheelsets or trucks on your Micro-Trains/Kadee cars? I know I'm running trucks that are at least 25 years old on some of my freight cars. I do clean the wheels periodically but they never return to like new rolling resistance.
A lot of guys are changing em out for the FVM wheelsets. I bought some...evidently the wrong size...GGGGGGGGGGggggrrrrrrrrrr. I have heard they roll smooth as glass. A bit more then I am willing to spend though...plus...all my rolling stock has a mogpodge of trucks under them. Buying gazillions of different sizes of FVM wheelsets...I dont think so...LOL .
On my articulated camera car, I have three, 3-axle MT passenger trucks, that started out with "pizza cutter" wheelsets. I swapped the pizza cutters for MT lo-profile wheelsets so I could operate on Atlas Code 55, but the low-pros kept falling out of the middle positions on the trucks! Eventually I replaced the low-pros with Intermountain metal wheelsets, and have been happy ever since. Except...I had to keep one MT low-pro in the lead position on the lead truck, because when I put an Intermountain wheelset in that position, it kept picking points. Go figure.
I seem to have a lot of spare wheels from MT sets accumulated over the years, partly due to coupler breakage, inability to repair some, truck breakage, and on and on. It seems the oily nature of the impregnated plastic collects microscopic dirt and dust on the wheels and are very hard to remove, so if I have a "clean" wheel I merely exchange it by popping the old guy out and the new guy in. When I am waiting for paint or glue to dry, I scrape off the dust from the old tires and buff them with wet/dry sandpaper piece and put them in a separate box. When I use these to replace more dirty wheels, they are as smooth as new. If MT wheels do not seem to roll or coast freely, think about putting a plastic washer (comes with the MT1000 sets) between the truck and the body where the pin goes in. It will prevent the flanges from rubbing against the underside of the body. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
What I have been doing over the years is when I'm in a "steam mood", I pull all the wheel sets for that oposite era equipment and soak then in alcohol to loosen up the "baked on" grit. Or if I think I've got a bad order car and it won't roll well, I put the car under the magnifying glass and start scraping off the crud with a sharp no 11.
Hi all, I think that UPCLARK is talking about routine maintenance and not just changing from plastic to metal wheels. So let me add to his question. How many miles can go by before the friction between the pointed MT axle and the cup in the MT truck frame causes enough wear that something fails? Is there any need to put some dry lubricate (graphite based) on the friction point? Will the metal FVM axle cause the cup on the MT truck wear faster? Gary
Gary... 1) I have never had and axle cup wear out. 2) I NEVER put lubricant on the axle or trucks...its just asking for a dirt and crud magnet ;-) 3) FVM metal axles arent any different then any other metal axle. I have lots of metal axle wheels sets (not FVM) and havent seen any wear. That all being said...I did get a digital Micrometer and a digital Caliper for my birthday. So I am going thru my box of wheelsets...cleaning them all...checking axle length...and checking for wobbles...or any other deformity...and putting them in a box with dividers that has axle lengths posted on the dividers. A guy has to do SOMETHING when THE Train Trailer is surrounded by a foot of snow...brrrrrrrr ..>LOL:tb-biggrin: .
I have replaced several hundred MT wheel sets with FVM and BLMA, I really like how they roll and sound. You need to check every FVM wheel set because they package the defective ones with the goods one. I have sent 30 wheel sets back to FVM and have yet to receive anything back! Using a dry lube would be fine, it would be up to you, I haven't yet! The weight of the wheels are resting on the rails, so it wouldn't make any difference. Changing the car weight would, I have MT cars from the 1980 with the same trucks and have yet to see any problems.
Hi George, Not trying to argue with you here, but just stating a point of fact. Items 1 and 3, I have some (2 or 3) very old cars (Atlas or Minitrix or something) that the the metal axles wore the a grove and hole in the frame of the truck. The cars rode very low as the axle wore the cup out, and many times the axle would fall out when the car was picked up. I believe that is when I started to replace the complete truck assembly and not just the Rapido coupler. YES I know that that plastic was not the same type that the MT trucks are made of and I should not be comparing the two types. Item 2, A dry lub like powered graphite should not attract dirt. MT sells a coupler kit with it called Grease-em. Gary
To clean the crud collected on MT wheels I get a bunch and plop them into the ultrasonic cleaner [Harbor Freight] and in a couple of minutes they are clean. I used to use a pencil eraser but the ultrasonic cleaner is faster and easier on the wheelsets.
No prob Gary. I fully understand. Some very old cars that have a gazillion miles run on em may do just what you explained. My 'train' of thought is that at my age...any cars I have will outlive me without the axles wearing out the trucks...no matter how many miles I put on em ;-) Dry or wet lubricants I still wouldnt use em. Just a personal preference as to me its a waste of lubricant. From time to time I have had to pop the whole truck assembly off and soak em in alcohol to get em really clean. Using an old toothbrush cleans em out nicely. I never poke around in the axle pocket with a knife blade, needle, drill bit or anything else. The axle points seem to 'set' themselves nicely in the truck with little friction or drag. Now couplers on the other hand...have more surface area rubbing against each other and I can see using a little Grease Em on those if needed. In answer to the question...I dont think using dry lubes on axle points/trucks would hurt anything though .
I think you've got the jist Max. I had forgotten about the graphite lube I've got laying in my Micro Trains parts & maintenance box. That may help getting them a little closer to "new" rolling resistance.
An interesting discussion all around! I'm an old N scaler and consequently have a considerable collection of old N scale cars including many Con-Cors. I bought as many Con=Cor cars as I could afford way back when because they were the best rolling cars on the market. Years ago, I embarked on a mission to convert my old Rapido cars to MT's. (How many years ago, you ask? Let's just say that when I STARTED my conversions, I was buying KADEE N scale coupler conversions! LOL) I used the assemble-yourself coupler kits and body mounted them. The couplers worked great and the cars still rolled smoothly. More recently, I made an inventory of my rolling stock and separated the remaining Rapidos for conversion. Not being as ambitious an industrious as I was years ago, I decided to use MTL truck/coupler conversions. I could do a LOT more cars in a much shorter time by simply switching out the trucks. Although body mounts are more reliable when pushing cars, I'm thinking that I'd rather have the conversions done sooner rather than later and replacing trucks would accomplish that. But the cars didn't seem to roll as smoothly as those old metal wheeled Con-Cor trucked cars. The simple solution, as I saw it, was to replace the MT plastic wheelsets with FVM metal wheelsets. Consequently, I bought a bunch and replaced several plastic wheelsets, using the MT truck frames. I was very happy with the result. And then I got to thinking (always a dangerous proposition for me!). Why am I taking old cars that I paid less than $2.00 for, installing $5.00/pair truck/couplers, then spending an additional $2-3 replacing plastic with metal wheelsets??? The cars already HAD metal wheelsets! That just didn't make any sense to me. So I did some research and decided I could use MT's T-shank coupler conversions for my rolling stock. It took some experimenting before I figured out exactly which conversion kits I needed, I was off and running. Now I have my old cars with metal wheels and MT couplers, all for less than $4.00 per car! The T-shank conversions also work well for passenger cars, most of which I have already completed. I have NO idea why I didn't use the T-shanks in the first place. I was certainly aware of their existance. They are more work than simply swapping trucks, but I'm saving a bunch of money by using them. The body-mount/Talgo truck arguement still lurks in the background, to be dealt with sometime in the future. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the clickety-clack of metal wheels as my trains go rolling by! LOL Darrell, quiet...for now
