a source for wheel/axle sets? (Making lego trains for o gauge)

I am going to play with this alot more before it's done. 

I agree that inside bearings would be better.   I will need to get the studs offset by 1/2 pretty quickly since I am looking at a 3 wide inside base.

I am going to further sacrifice the old plastic truck axle sets to see what I can get.   The thicker portion around the metal axle is molded 1/2 and 1/2 to the back of the wheels.  If I can get the wheels off, I can cut that axle covering section off.

I would still rather use metal wheels.   I am a 3 rail guy so a short from one wheel to the other doesn't bother me, and the rolling resistance of metal on metal is much lower than plastic on metal.

O well,  several iterations to go, we will see what happens.

I feel like the 3 wide inside base will be okay - there's not that much tilting motion at play here.

Why don't you modify the lego car bolster and use the unaltered 3-rail truck? I mean it work's for the knuckle couplers - just trying to understand your motivation :-)

I would assume it's because Lego trains generally look best when running on trucks made of Legos - I've seen Lego trains running on O scale trucks before, and they look rather out of place.

@Sarah posted:

Why don't you modify the lego car bolster and use the unaltered 3-rail truck? I mean it work's for the knuckle couplers - just trying to understand your motivation :-)

Well,  I have already done a little bit of that.

The objective is simply to build a fully interchangeable (o gauge) car as much out of Lego as possible.

This hopper will be my next adventure.

Brick Model Railroader has made a huge leap by offering coupler assemblies with Kadee couplers.

They did this to improve on the magnetic couplers used on standard lego trains.

But to me it's an invitation to step things up and make a full brick built car,  including the trucks.  This just combines several things I enjoy.

Now that I have a source for the axles/ wheels worked out, I am studying how to modify the 4 wide truck plans into 3 wide, and ordering parts.  I have plenty of lego bricks,  but the cleanest way to do this involves some relatively newer bricks that I don't have. 

Once I get past the truck assemblies I will probably start a new thread for the rest of the build in the 3 rail sub forum.   When complete though,  this car should be able to run on 2 rail or 3 rail tracks.

If you're interested, I could see what I could come up with in regards to the 3 wide truck.

I would certainly be interested! A lego designer I am not!  But the couplers came with some nice 4 wide plans, so I am certainly not starting from scratch!

Alright, I'll see what I come up with. Shouldn't take too long.

Here you go, I've attached the Studio file for the truck.

I don't have lego drawing software.   Where can I download that?

You can download it here: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/download.page

It's extremely useful for designing things out of Legos. I don't design anything in real life anymore, I do it all digitally, then buy the parts and assemble whatever it is.

@Johnbeere posted:

Here you go, I've attached the Studio file for the truck.

Sent you an email sir.  I couldn't get the file to download from here.  Thank you

EDIT - correction, I got it downloaded and working - That 's basically the  same thing I was thinking.  I need to order some parts!

Glad you figured it out. Was away from my computer so I couldn't help you at the time.

Okay I have been playing with parts on hand until my brick link and Kadee orders show up.

The 3 wide truck is okay but not great.  There is about an 1/8" or more gap when the wheels are all the way to on side.  Fortunately I can leave more of that pipe portion on the donor wheels. 

That will work for now but only until I run out of donors.

The 2x1 offset tiles were just for mockup until my bricklink orders come arrive.  The whole thing is currently too high.  The new parts will allow me to come down 1 plate.  ( For those who don't speak lego, 3 plates =the height of one brick. )

I was able to mock up the lowered arrangement with a 3×4, 4 stud tile that comes with minifigure packages.

Another height check now shows the top of the couplers lined up.

This might be good enough.

I can show the height of the coupler box mounted directly to the minifigure tile, and it looks better.

The Kadee arm can be bent up if needed.  The problem I see is that center of the assembly is now below the top of the wheels.   

I think this is about as far as I can go without the 800 series kadee couplers and the rest of the lego parts. 

I think I will stick with the inside the wheels 3 wide truck assy for now,  but I am not ruling out using outside bearings and more readily available toy train axles for future assemblies.

I would suggest trying to find washers to fill that gap on either side, should remove the slop side to side.

Still waiting for the rest of my bricklink parts to come in.  In the meantime I found enough parts to make a decent one sided mock up.

I still need to add some type of detail parts at an angle to emulate something closer to an arch bar design,  but the basic premise works.  The design above uses inverted studs to hold the cross bar with the journal boxes.

The design below forgoes the snot technique (studs not on top) but allows for round tiles at the same height as the top of the rest of the assembly.  The gray technic pieces would not be sticking out, and of course the crossbar will be black.

I like both options,  and will probably try for something more like the lower picture for the final product.

Also I was able to install the Kadee 806 couplers in the lego coupler boxes.  They roll freely and couple well enough to lobster claws.

My friend has built this Crocodile locomotive.  Pretty cool model.  He has no plans to power it.

Peter

I thought you guys would like to see the final truck assembly.

I think it's pretty sweet. I will post some pictures of the rest of the build in one of the Lego threads going on right now.