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Good evening ..... Well i finally got around to installing Kadees on my two new, steel sided refers by MTH. The coupler change went well, after the first coupler was installed.  While I had the trucks apart, I thought I would see if I could change wheel sets to Weaver Delrin wheels (I like delrin plastic wheels). The problem is the Weaver axle is thicker. But guess what they fit right in the MTH truck.  I wanted to see how much improvement, I made or maybe its not with it. I wanted to see the difference in sound level and rolling resistance. so before I changed the other car I did a rolling test down a 2.2% grade. 

The Milwaukee has MTH trucks with Weaver axles and Delrin wheels Missing the MTH coupler.

The Burlington Route is stock with MTH trucks no changes

I did not lubricate either car

The third video is a 2 rail scale tank car, intermountain I think. I don't know if its needle point axles or flat, but they sure are machined nicer. Metal wheels well machined !!

Joe......I had to close the bridge for this one  

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Last edited by clem k
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To each his or her own.  But I would like to see how that Milwaukee car does after you put one drop of Labelle 107 on the axles where they enter the truck sides.  Delrin is a low-friction plastic, no surprise there.  But any kind of metal-on-metal bearing will work better with lubrication.  Especially so if it's allowed to "run in" first, and THEN carefully lubricated.

I've also seen some MTH cars (especially heavyweight passenger cars) where the truck sides were too tight, and put lateral pressure on the axle ends.  If that's the case with these cars, then you would also need to loosen the truck sides and re-gauge them.  Personally I would want to know what's causing all the drag before I commit to rewheeling my entire fleet.

.......My experience is the Delrin stay cleaner than metal and plastic wheels like on Atlas/ Pola cars get dirty fast !!

Have yet to clean my Delrin wheels and I run a lot of them for quite a few years now. Maybe weight of cars as an effect on this ?   I can't get paint to stick to Delrin !

Clem  

Last edited by clem k

I would imagine the Delrin wheels press onto the axle easier then the metal wheels, which would aid in keeping the axle from bending and creating wheel wobble. If there's one thing I can't stand is wobbling rolling stock and having to straighten their axles. Menards rolling stock has to be the worst I've seen. I believe all manufactures would benefit by using harder steel for axles to keep them from bending when pressing the wheels on.

Its not only the wheels its the axle also. The better axles are thicker and machined to a better finish. In the videos above the better rolling cars had better axles. there are three different axles in that test. and metal wheels are probably the best if they are machined to a closer tolerance. It depends on the $$. The best value for me is the old Weaver 2 rail axles with the High Rail Delrin wheels. Ride height, sound, rolling ability are my concerns in that order. 

Clem  

Last edited by clem k

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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