These have stationary single axle trucks and I would like to change them to dual axle self centering. Which truck would you use?
If you must do this, Athearn, Intermountain, and Walthers do nice trucks. Unl.ess your going for a specific though, those cars are designed to be single axles, even the European cars they're baed on. So I'm curipous, what's the car gonna be?
Are you talking about Annie and Clarabel? As was said, these are supposed to be single axle cars as that's what the prototype was. now, what I would like is some metal wheels for these guys. A guy at my club does British models and he says, they are probably available as an import.
The problem is with two of the long coaches hooked end to end they jump the track on 18" radius. One is fine or if I put a shorter car between them, but I hate remembering to keep them separate. Yes I am talking about Annie and Clarabel. I have a 4-6-6-2 engine that clears all turns too. Single axle would be fine as long as they was not fixed.
Ah ha. Save yourself some trouble, and take out th ecenter axle. I don't know why they are binding in your 18s, since they ran for me when I had track at Dads (though those may have been 22s, I don't recall) Or what you could do is blind the center wheel. IE, leave it there, but sand the flange down flat with the tread, so it isn't binding in the curves.
I've been playing with the Club's Thomas Annie and Clarabel on our 15" radius curves on the Logging area. I didn't have any problems with the cars clearing the the curves. They ran fine. I did have some problems clearing switches though. the OO wheels are cast a bit under gauge and are not adjustable. They're also pizza cutters. I'm currently looking at OO metal wheelsets to upgrade them. But I'm at a loss as to which size to buy and which would be the best profile. I'd like it to work on Code 70. Thomas himself by the way was right in gauge and ran fine on Code 70 to boot.
I do not know the diameter of the wheels but you might take a look at NWSL. They have quite a variety of wheel sets. http://www.nwsl.com/ Bitter Creek has a nice variety of metal trucks. Some are five foot wheel base. BITTER CREEK MODELS No idea what era trucks you would like. You will have to re-design the bolster for the truck mounting. Rich
NWSL may indeed have them, but finding a source for metal wheels isn't really the problem. There are many manufacturers of European prototypes that are even more likely to have correct OO wheel sets. NWSL doesn't appear to do OO. My problem is, I have no idea what the correct wheelset would be for these cars. I'm sure someone that does European prototype would have a good idea. I did a google search for "upgrading Thomas" and I couldn't find any hits that looked promising.
Interesting that you're discussing the BACHMANN (HO) THOMAS set. So far as I was aware, the only THOMAS set in OO/HO was/is a Hornby product. Annie and Claribel are four-wheelers (i.e. two axles per vehicle) but the coaches (passenger cars in US) for GORDON and the other big engines are bog vehicles (four axles per vehicle). Is the Bachmann version in HO specially for the US market or is it not actually a Bachmann at all? Regards, Pete Davies
And of course Lionel makes an O27 Thomas. I guess I just assumed that the Bachmann was OO, but now I'm really confused as to what wheelset to get. I guess I will have to break out the calipers.
I would go to the Bachmann forum and ask. There is a Bachmann rep there and even a Thomas forum. Bachmann Trains Online - Ask Bachman Rich
Thanks, I even found a thread on the subject which recommended picking them up from Bachmann UK. Unfortunately, the wheels pictured still look like pizza cutters and it doesn't give a wheel size.
Just an off topic comment... I think that the Thomas series is a thoroughly charming way to introduce young children to the world of model trains.
