I have 2 questions the first one is; I am going to use micro trains trucks with couplers on my rolling stock, What is a good wheel choice I dont really like MT's wheels and wonder if I should go with metal wheels. Question #2, Is stub staging a pain in N-Scale my design will be hidden under the midpoint city on my layout, there is 7.5" clearence between the two. The staging yard will be 20" deep and 14 feet long I hope to have 6 tracks for east end and 6 for west end with the main for running laps down the middle of the two.
I don't understand why you would want to use MT trucks with couplers and then use JUNK metal wheelsets in the trucks? Put a truck with metal wheelsets in it on the rails. Now flick it with your finger, see how far it rolls doen the track. Do the same thing with a MT truck and it will roll almost twice as far as the metal wheeled truck. I replace any and all of my trucks with MT trucks. I am slowly body mounting all of the MT couplers I use. The Micro Trains trucks roll better than just about any other truck on the market. I am not sure what you are asking on your second question. If you are asking if a stub ended yard is better than a run thru yard, I would have to say no. With a run thru yard you don't have to back up any trains. They can just go in one end of the yard and out of the other end. N-Scale cars don't back up as good as they should. With couplers mounted on the trucks, you are pushing on the trucks, instead of the car body when you back up. This is why I am converting over all my cars to body mounted MT couplers.
I have to agree with Porkypine on his comments. 1. I don't think you would get any better wheel than the MT wheel / trucks. I use these on my rollingstock and find them far superior than any other wheel. I have both body mounted couplers and truck mounted couplers as well. 2. I have both stub ended yards and through yards on my layout and I feel the through yard is far better for operating than stub yards. The advantage of a through yard is it enables continuous running. I do feel stub yards have a place especially for limited space and also for some enhanced operating. A mixture of both can be an advantage but its your layout so what pleases you is more important.
I totally agree on Microtrains trucks/wheels, they cannot be beaten for operation. If you do not like the look of the large flanges, you can get bulk packs of M/T low-profile wheelsets. I also would go with a run through yard for one of that length. Stub end yards are ok though for short sidings or industries.
Stick with the metal wheelsets. They provide excellent tracking ability as well as a lower center of gravity, dont hold as much dirt as plastic wheelsets do, lower friction or drag by 20%, and of course have the clickty-clackety sound on track. North West Shortline makes 28", 33" and 36" wheelsets, in both blackened and unblackened metal. I say metal because they have them both in brass and nickel silver. I dont like the gold look brass gives you, so I personally go with the nickel silver, except they are hard to find. These wheelsets are also protypically correct with pretty small flanges but are very expensive. Intermountain makes some metal wheelsets, except that their wheelsets have this groove made into their faces, and I dont know why, but they are pretty cheap. And finally Atlas makes some metal wheelsets, they are cheap, but with bit larger flanges. And of course, all N scale wheelsets have the huge thread widths, so you cant change that. I would also body mount your couplers, not only are they much better looking, but reduce derailments by backing up and improve switching greatly. Mike
Stick with the Micro Trains Wheels unless you have plenty of money to spend on metal wheels. The only metal wheels worth using are the ones made by Intermountain (IRC 60050), however, at $7.95 for 12 axles, they will eat into your cash supply rather quickly. I use them for my scratchbuilt, kitbashed and custom painted rolling stock only, however, I do not anticipate using them on more than 10% of my Rolling stock. Currently, I have them on 24 peices (out of a total of over 800). I would recommend using body mounted couplers for your switching operations, as problems will arise when you are pushing (Backing up with) long cuts of cars. The problem is that the trucks have to have enough slack in the mounting pins in order to allow them to pivot freely, and when a long cut of cars is pushed into a yard, the weight of the train on the couplers pushes on the trucks and in effect compresses the train like an accordion, forcing the wheels closest to the center of the car to rise above the level of the rails. This often causes derailments on curves and at switchpoints resulting in large amounts of frustration . True, you can add weight to your cars to offset this to a certain degree, however this only results in you pushing a heavier train and the cars closest to the locomotive will still have this problem. By body mounting your couplers, you make your train much more rigid (its hard to bend a car) and you will have fewer problems during switching problems. I have succsesfully pushed a 76 car train around our Ntrak modular layout several times with no problems. As for a stub yard, given that you have 14 feet to play with, I would recommend that you use a through yard instead, considering that it is to be a hidden yard, because it is easier to pull a train into the yard than have to back a long train up and risk a derailment and beleve me, having a derailment in a hidden staging yard full of other trains is no fun. . Happy Modeling. Cheers! Terry
Hey porky (that don't sound good): I'm curious, since you say you're body mounting your couplers; how do you do this on hoppers? I remember seeing a conversion kit in pewter or lead to do this, but the cost factor became a major issue for me (we're talking over 60 coal hoppers so far). Have you done this yet?
In my opinion no one has made a decent metal wheel yet for N scale. If reliability is desired Micro-Trains are the ONLY answer as they can not be out of guage. If prototypical looks is your thing, get the brown low profile wheels from Micro-Trains. The brown ones look very good on cars such as tank cars and hoppers as the wheels are more visible through the frame work. I have hidden staging and if there is ever a derailment problem I know it will be the track, having converted EVERYTHING I have to M-T. Guys in my N-Trak club who have not converted to M-T are the ones who are constantly fiddling with their stuff at set ups, trying to keep it on the track and coupled. Enuff said, trust me.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by HERMANzGERMAN: In my opinion no one has made a decent metal wheel yet for N scale. If reliability is desired Micro-Trains are the ONLY answer as they can not be out of guage. If prototypical looks is your thing, get the brown low profile wheels from Micro-Trains. The brown ones look very good on cars such as tank cars and hoppers as the wheels are more visible through the frame work. I have hidden staging and if there is ever a derailment problem I know it will be the track, having converted EVERYTHING I have to M-T. Guys in my N-Trak club who have not converted to M-T are the ones who are constantly fiddling with their stuff at set ups, trying to keep it on the track and coupled. Enuff said, trust me. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Nobody has made decent wheels in either plastic or metal yet. MT low profiles are good but they are 33" wheels and are inappropriate for tankcars, hoppers, and most other 100 ton cars. MT regular wheels have huge flanges and look toy like. NWSL wheels are good if you can afford them($7 for a pack of 4 which is insane). Intermountain and Atlas metal wheels do not have a dished face and do not look prototypical.
I find that when I get close enough to be able to tell the difference between 100 ton wheels and others I always get grease from my nose on the cars which totally ruins the weathering job. (except on some tank cars)
