quote:Thus, I always assumed they were invented mostly to reduce the very evident slow down on O-27 curves you sometimes get with toy trains.
As two people have already posted, the model railroading "press" of the day reported that the fast angle wheels were driven by a happy accident of needing to taper the wheel treads to get them to eject from the mold properly.
Which proves nothing. One of those people thought they had read that, and several other people said it was for other reasons. What I know is that:
a) its pretty easy to pull vertical edges out of molds - you don't have to taper things: I've seen machinery do with vertical faces several times a minute, and I've also seen machined fast-angle wheels (i.e., they aren't molded).
b) fast-angle wheels definitely slow down less on curves, as I said. I did the test, it was clear
c) they aren't called 'tapered wheels' but marketed with the name "fast" in them, so I think they have a purpose associated with speed or slowing.
